The novel, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick is a fictional story, with a hint from the historical side having it take place in a post World War II society. The theme seen is the impact that one act of kindness or hatred can affect one's mental health. Leonard Peacock, a troubled, depressed and suicidal seventeen year old, has plans to attempt a murder-suicide killing his old best friend, and himself shortly after. The reason for this was that he was mentally troubled, suffering many severe tragedies during his lifetime, including being abused and turned on by his previous best friend Asher Beal, being abandoned from his father, and always considered a joke to his heartless, negligent mother. One adult, well respected by Leonard, was his history teacher Herr Silverman, he was someone he always connected with, and later on ended up being the reason he is still alive. Leonard always noticed that he never had his sleeves rolled up, and when his teacher discover he was suicidal, he contacted him, allowing the two to chat. Leonard finally conquered his great question by asking him why his sleeves were never rolled up, and the answer surprised him, as it hid a tattoo resembling his homosexuality. This related the two, displaying an inspiring adult figure in the same boat as him. Leonard, who still decided to go through with the murder-suicide, went to Asher’s window, ultimately deciding to just kill himself. As he pulled the trigger, nothing fired, leading him to call his teacher seeking help, and advice. Herr Silverman helped Leonard overcome his wish to die, displaying something to live for, ultimately resulting in him still being alive, conquering his problems no longer alone. Based on the eventful, exciting read of this book, it provides an interesting, suspenseful, and hard to put down experience determining it to be one of my best reads in my adolescent life. This novel relates to larger issues in our community as it addresses the life of an insecure, abandoned, and homosexual young adult, still searching for his way in life. In our society, many people identify as homosexual, and do to this they are bullied, made fun of, and outcast from society, similar to Leonard. This is very incorrect of society as everyone should feel they fit in, no matter their gender, sex, or how they choose to be, and this is deliberately addressed on the problems caused from it. Overall I rate this book a four out of five because it is entertaining, eventful, and addresses many problems in modern society which need to be addressed.
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