Different is good

If you know me, chances are you've heard me saying indisputably that Silver Linings Playbook was one of the few stories which movie version is way better than the original book. Something about Matthew Quick's way of telling the story of a mentally disturbed adult in Silver Linings Playbook just doesn't fit my liking, though I did feel like the narrator of the story was not a normal person. I mean, Pat does sound like a lunatic at times, but Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is a whole different matter. Quick's voice as Leonard and the first-person narrator of the story is as troubled and insane as a suicidal teenager could be. I found myself cringed and winced a lot of the time, and my heart pounded like crazy when Leonard was about to do his mission. Long story short, I really like this book better than Silver Linings Playbook.

So, Leonard Peacock is suicidal. He's mature beyond his years, and is probably a genius. He likes to think that he's different--and he is. He's obsessed with Humphrey Bogart to the point that he conversed to his old neighbour, Walt, in Bogie's quotes from his B&W movies. He's obsessed with Shakespeare's Hamlet, as most suicidal people do. He questions God and religions in general, finding it hard to believe why God is so vain and all that questions you sure would encounter once or twice in your life (believe me, I have). He looks up to his holocaust teacher, Herr Silverman, who's easily predicted is the hero of the story, and he loathes his mother for being so oblivious and absent from his life.

It can be very depressing reading this book, truthfully speaking. But it can also give you a peek of the benevolence that even someone who carries a gun with him to blow someone's head off shares with all of us. There are moments when they still dare to hope that someone is going to make them change their mind, no matter how firm they are on the plan. So the next time you see the news about school shooting, mass murder or suicidal people/celebrities, you'd know; that they have tried their best to stay and not check out on us, but our world was not welcoming enough; not tolerating enough, and certainly not accommodating enough, for them to see their hope grow.