EPTI don't remember exactly when I first read the book but I think it was around when I was in middle school. It quickly became one of my favorite books and one I reread a few times when I felt unsure about my own life. I always felt better after reading it too. While in college I heard that they made a movie of it but I didn't get a chance to watch it until today. To prepare for watching the movie I reread the book a few days ago. I haven't read the book I think since I left for college and the book was as great as I remember. While watching the movie I had some minor issues but that was just either nitpicking parts that were different from the book or were just different from how I imagined them. Then it got to the ending and they mentioned that Aunt Helen sexually abused Charlie when he was young and I just had to pause the movie.
I read the book several times and even read it recently a few days and never did I notice this fact. I thought that they added this in the movie but it couldn't be possible because the director of the movie was the author of the novel himself. Then after some googling and looking it up to confirm myself, I figured out that I missed this part of the book all this time. It was just such a shock and I just couldn't believe it. What I realized was that I was just a bit too young for the book when I first read it and thought I understood what the book was about and all the times after that I would just skim through everything when rereading it. After finding this out all the weird parts in the book that hinted at this that I just ignored made sense. Wow... Surprisingly though I realized from looking around, seems I'm not the only one though who missed this part of the book.
But yea, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry Charlie. Here I thought for all these years that I understood you but I actually didn't. In the end, I'm really glad I watched the movie because I probably would have never realized the truth. So here's to you Charlie.
Love always,
ils
too oblivious
