It speaks about the period where you leave the track that's been laid out for you by your parents and wonder what the heck you are supposed to do. I remember him floating in the swimming pool a lot.

Fight Club has a similar theme to it, but instead of just getting a girl he has to confront himself first.

Probably that when you are young and foolish, you are young and foolish.

"The problem with youth is that it is wasted on the young."

Coming-of-age novels are about the struggle to liberate oneself and to become "authentic." To youth, with their boundless energy and passion, this struggle is terribly important, and rightly so, too. Each protagonist demonstrates both common and individual stories of these attempts, some of which end in tragedy and some of which end in individual victory.

I really don't see that. What should Benjamin have done instead of what he did? Where is the waste? It doesn't seem to me that the older characters did any better. In fact, they did a lot worse than Benjamin.

I guess I'm just not exactly sure what he did do. He did well in college, and then took a break from education while he had sexual relations. Then he met someone he actually came to love. The girl's father did not like Ben marrying his daughter, and rightly so. Ben had sex with his wife, and now he wants to marry his daughter? Ben's father grows tired of Ben laying around the house lazily, and rightly so. He can't live off his parent's money, no matter how well he did in college.

I feel that Ben didn't do anything rebel like, he just got into a situation where a lot of people grow angry or tired of him.

Yes, if you sleep with someones wife, and then want to marry their daughter, you will get resentment.

Yes, if you spend weeks living on your parents money as a 20 something, your father will grow tired of you.

Driving around Berkly in a convertable trying to win a girl's heart isn't exactly trail blazing. Although its not mundane either.