Detail
Title: Flowers for Algernon ISBN:Published (first published April 1959) · Paperback 216 pages
Genre: Fiction, Classics, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Psychology, Literature, Academic, School, Novels, Adult, Read For School
Must be read
User Reviews
Emily May
I am finding it hard to put into words the vast range of emotions I experienced while reading this tale of hope, perseverance, truth and humanity. When it comes to science fiction in general, I would hesitate before declaring myself a fan. The books I have enjoyed most from this genre tend to be the softer, more humanity-focused stories. Like this one. I'm a huge fan of science fiction that doesn't seem too far away; something that I could imagine being just around the corner - and that's how I felt about Flowers for Algernon.
This story is about Charlie Gordon who - with an IQ of 68 - can only hope to sweep the floors at the bakery. Well, that is until he is invited to participate in an experiment previously only tested on animals. The experiment is an operation that will gradually make him a genius and allow him to become the person he's always longed to be.
But intelligence comes with a price. Charlie learns that the people he's known for years are not what he'd always thought. Where he once associated laughter with friendship, he soon learns that it is mockery. It has been said that intelligence is mostly about having a good memory - and Charlie Gordon finds that out the hard way. Memories that had been forgotten come flooding back, bringing pain with them.
Flowers for Algernon looks at so many different things: mental disabilities, human nature, intelligence and love. It made me feel sad, angry, frustrated and hopeful. It made me shake my head at people's abhorrent behaviour, and it made me incredibly thankful for so many things-- I know how cliche that sounds but it's true.
Even though Charlie's intelligence grows to beyond that of a normal human, he is emotionally still very much a child and has to learn the things other people learned long ago. He doesn't understand what is happening when his body becomes sexually responsive to a woman and he often doesn't understand why people say one thing but mean something completely different. It's a very sad story and it made me think about so many things. The ending just about broke my heart.
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Emily (Books with Emily Fox)
All I knew about this classic when I went into was that it was about a mouse.
Clearly I knew nothing.
You're watching Charlie, the main character, go through an experimental procedure that increases his IQ. The whole book, written in diary entries, let us see how it affects his life and how he struggles through it.
I rarely cry while reading a book but I couldn't help myself here.
It's a classic for a reason. Read it. You won't be able to put it down.
Wil Wheaton
Heartbreaking and beautiful. Required reading, as far as I am concerned.
Sean Barrs
progriss riport 1
I reed this book and I liked it and I should rite down what I think. Its a story about how a boy got smart. I dont remembir I should reed it again.
progriss riport 2
So the boy got smart and then went stupid and its important cause it was about how we shouldn’t mess with nature and test on people because it effects other things we don’t get yet. It also had a mouse in it. I dont remembir much more I should reed it again.
Progress Report 3
Its easier to understand each time. I learnt how to spell better because the book has lots of big words that sound all sciency though the book doesnt quite read like other sciency books I tried to read. Its more like a case study that questions what it is to be human in a world that demands we be smart when not all of us are but we are still people no matter how we think. I dont remembir much more I should reed it again.
Progress Report 4
I remember much more this time. This book is very clever and I like it more and more each time I read it. I remember all the characters that affect the boy’s life and a mouse called Algernon that mirrors his own journey through the narrative. It’s almost like the writer is trying to tell us something but I can’t quite say what it is just yet. I should read it again and pay closer attention to the themes and how the boy failed to develop emotionally despite his intellectual growth.
Progress Report 5
It’s all starting to fall into place, the sexual themes, the deep rooted psychological trauma, the questions about how we treat other people with disabilities: it is all making perfect sense. This book is brilliant and it has made me feel so smart. I even wrote a full paper about it that I am going to submit to a university journal. I showed it to my mother and she was amazed that I had written it. From here, I am going to read so many books so I can analyse them properly and make full use of my transformation.
Progress Report 6
I rested today then I got drunk because the book left me feeling sad and I feel sorry for Alergonon and the boy. The alcohol stops me from feeling anything and it makes my mind go slow again for a short while. I had sex with a stranger I met because she made me feel relaxed and I could forget about the book for a little while.
Progress Report 7
Becoming absent minded. I haven’t read for a while and I forget what it is I am supposed to do with my life. I wander the streets thinking about Algernon’s story and I know I should keep reading to try and keep my mind sharp. But is becoming harder again and I can't remember the book much or all that it taught me.
Progress Report 8
I read through my earlier reports today and my paper but I couldn’t quite understand everything I said about the book. I want to read the book again but I cant keep focused on it.
progriss report 9
I tried to rite about the book today but I havent red it in a while and words are hard again and make my head hurt and I feel angry when I cant remembir the book.
progriss riport 10
I should post my riports on goodreeds so I don’t forget about a mouse called Algernon and a boy who got smart.
Jim Fonseca
For many years I had been aware of this book title but never knew what it was about. I’m glad I decided to read it. SPOILERS FOLLOW
The story is of a 32-year-old man with an intellectual disability. He lives in an apartment with a landlord who keeps an eye out for him and he works in a bakery owned by his uncle where he enjoys his “friends.” Unfortunately some of his “friends” are guys who kick his legs out from under him and get him drunk to dance with a lampshade on his head.
He’s selected to be the first person to undergo a brain operation to improve his mental capacity. The procedure worked wonders on a laboratory mouse named Algernon.
REMAINDER OF REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
It works on Charlie Gordon (that’s his name) and he becomes a genius. He’s so brilliant he learns foreign languages and alphabets in a week and starts to compete with his doctors in knowledge about his condition and prognosis. Charlie comes to believe: “The depressing thing is that so many of the ideas on which our psychologists base their beliefs about human intelligence, memory, and learning are all wishful thinking.”
At times in his life he had been institutionalized and he feels that, for folks like him who attempt to live outside an institution: “The world doesn’t want them and they soon know it.”
Another unfortunate occurrence: Algernon’s brilliance starts to decline and he reverts to his former level of mouse intelligence. Will the same happen to Charlie?
As Charlie’s intelligence improves, he also recovers memories he had forgotten for years. So we learn of many terrible traumas of his boyhood with a mother who beat him and refused to believe he couldn’t learn like other kids. She was embarrassed by him. One of the saddest parts of the story is his memories, framed by a window, of watching other kids play because she did not allow him to leave the house.
Most of the story is told through a journal that Charlie has to keep. We watch his intelligence and written language abilities develop. We see him struggle with IQ tests, mazes and Rorschach inkblots. We watch Charlie struggle with romance and sex. We share his feelings when his doctors and psychologists exhibit him at a medical conference like a “freak show.”
An excellent story that we can consider science fiction – until it is not. I note that it has a very high rating on GR (4.15) with almost half-a-million people rating it. The book has been made into plays, TV dramas and a 1968 film, Charly, starring Cliff Robertson, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. The book has been a frequent target of those who want to censor library acquisitions.
Daniel Keyes (1927-2014) was an English professor at Ohio University where I worked for much of my career. He retired in 2000, two years after I arrived, but I never got to meet him and I wasn’t aware of his work at the time.
Always Pouting
Wow I'm so glad I finally read it. I had only read passages of it before but it was totally with sitting and reading the whole thing through. I don't even know what to say I can't stop crying because of how things are for Charlie and I guess I just wish that they way he was treated wasnt so close to reality. Also it's kind of painful to have to question things like intimacy vs intelligence and self actualization which are brought up so poignantly in the book. I don't even know if anything I'm saying is making any sense but the book really got to me and now I need to be alone to cry and consolidate myself with it and the new ideas it has made me consider.
Adina
I read this 2 years ago, before I started writing more detailed reviews. I am not planning to modify my thoughts from back then but I want to add my father's thoughts. I gifted this book to him last Christmas and he finally got to read it. He was as deeply moved by this magnificent heart wrenching novel as I was and he felt the need to send me a message when he finished to tell how impressed he was. It was the first time he sent me an emotional message about a book so with his permission, I will paste here most of his words:
"Intelligence, a gift or a course? Yes, I finished the book and I am overwhelmed by many thoughts. Flowers for Algernon is one of those books that after you read you realize how much you would have lost if you hadn't read it. We can think of Charlie or of each of us who, as he does, we accumulate and then we loose what we got through hard work. However, as he, we need to know that it wasn't for nothing. Knowledge, accumulation, though, happiness, sadness, they all come from learning, books, from the ones around us. Intelligence might be a gift but it still has a price which we have to pay." There is more but that is a private daddy-daughter talk. I love sharing my love of books with my dad and I am emotional each time he loves one of the books i recommend.
Read Flowers for Algernon! It is amazing, words cannot describe it.
My original review:
This book is extraordinary, one of my favorites. It is a fast read but is is very powerful and heartbreaking. I read it in the plane and I felt a little embarrassed when I started to weep at the end of the book. Even though I was expecting the ending the way it is written still broke my heart.
I loved the way the book is written, as journal entries of an adult retard which is the subject of an experiment that makes him smart (a lot smarter). The writing at first is very childish but as the narrator changes so does the writing. Very clever.
One of the things that I found to be most powerful was the way the narrator changed his view of others after becoming more intelligent and the way others changed their attitude towards him.
I believe this should be read by everybody. Highly recommended.
Maggie Stiefvater
Well, that was depressing.
(ETA:Across social media, people are asking me how I got out of high school without reading this book — I didn't go to high school. I left after a partial year.)
(look, don't do as I do, do as I say: STAY IN SCHOOL)
Ahmad Sharabiani
Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes
Flowers for Algernon is a science fiction short story and subsequent novel written by Daniel Keyes. The short story, written in 1958 and first published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1960.
Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence by artificial means. The story is told by a series of progress reports written by Charlie Gordon, the first human test subject for the surgery, and it touches upon many different ethical and moral themes such as the treatment of the mentally disabled.
عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «چند شاخه گل برای الجرنون»؛ «چارلی: گل برای الجرنون»؛ «دسته گلی برای الجرنون»؛ «گلهایی برای الجرنون»؛ «گلهایی به یاد الجرنون»؛ نویسنده: دانیل کیز (کایز)؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز پنجم ماه آگوست سال 1994میلادی
عنوان: چند شاخه گل برای الجرنون؛ نویسنده: دانیل کیز (کایز)؛ مترجم: پرویز شهریاری؛ تهران، همراه، 1373، در 80ص؛ شابک 9646982174؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م
عنوان: دسته گلی برای الجرنون؛ نویسنده: دانیل کیز (کایز)؛ مترجم: محمدعلی حمیدرفیعی، تهران، تجربه، 1378، در 48ص، شابک9646481612؛
عنوان: گلهایی برای الجرنون؛ نویسنده: دانیل کیز (کایز)؛ مترجم: زهره جواهری، تهران، امیرکبیر، شکوفه، 1387، در 68ص، شابک9789643004385؛
عنوان: گلهایی به یاد الجرنون؛ نویسنده: دانیل کیز (کایز)؛ مترحم؛ مهرداد بازیاری؛ تهران، معین، 1389، 368ص؛ شابک9789641650058؛
عنوان: چارلی: گل برای الجرنون؛ نویسنده: دانیل کیز (کایز)؛ مترحم؛ مهدی قراچه داغی؛ تهران، آسیم، 1390، 240ص؛ شابک9789644185205؛
داستانی علمی خیال انگیز از: «دانیل کیز»، نویسنده ی «آمریکایی»، که با گزارشهای روزانه «چارلی گوردون» بازگو میشوند؛ «چارلی» بهره هوشی پائینی دارد، و دچار فراموشی است، او توسط دو روانپزشک، زیر عمل جراحی ارتقاء هوش قرار میگیرد، و به بهره هوشی بسیار بالایی دست مییابد؛ کتاب به بیش از پنجاه زبان رایج دنیا برگردان شده، و به صورت نمایشنامه، فیلم سینمایی، و سریال، بارها به نمایش درآمده است؛ بخش نخست از برگردان جناب آقای «بازیاری» از این کتاب به سالهای جوانی نویسنده اشاره دارد؛ دورانی که با فشار والدین، و بر خلاف علاقه ی خود، در رشته پزشکی درس میخوانده، دورانی که همزمان، نویسنده نیز بوده است؛ همین دوران موجب آفرینش داستانی شده، که بیشتر صحنه های آنرا از زندگی واقعی، و مشاهدات خود برگزیده، و ماهرانه، و طبیعی کنار هم چیده، و کتابی عرضه داشته، که بیگمان، یکی از داستانهای همه جانبه، و فراموش نشدنی، برای هر خوانشگری خواهد بود
نقل از متن همین کتاب: (گذارش پیشرفط 1 – 5 مارس 1965میلادی؛ «دکتر «استراوس» میگه از امروز به بعد، من باید هر چی فکر میکنم و هر چی برام اطفاق میافته رو بنویسم؛ من نمیدونم چرا ولی اون میگه که این برای اینکه اونها بفهمند که میتونند من رو استفاده کنند یا نه مهمه؛ من امیدوارم که اونها من رو استفاده کنند؛ خانم «کینیان» میگه که شاید اونها بتونند من رو باهوش کنند؛ من دوست دارم باهوش بشم؛ اسم من «چارلی گوردنه»؛ سی و هفت سالمه، و دو هفته ی پیش تولدم بود؛ من الان هیچ چیز دیگه ای ندارم که بنویسم پس همینجا نوشتنم رو تموم میکنم
گذارش پیشرفط 2 – 6 مارس: من امروز یه تست داشتم؛ فکر میکنم توش افتادم؛ و برای همین هم فکر کنم اونها دیگه من رو استفاده نکنند؛ چیزی که اطفاق افتاد این بود که یه مرد جوون دوست داشتنی توی اتاق بود، و یه سری کارتهای سفید، که لکه های جوهر روش ریخته بود داشت؛ اون گفت «چارلی» روی این کارت چی میبینی؛ من با وجود اینکه پای خرگوشم توی جیبم بود، خیلی ترسیده بودم، چون وقتی بچه بودم همیشه توی تستهای مدرسه میافتادم، و جوهر روی کتابهام پخش میکردم
من گفتم که لکه ی جوهر دیدم؛ اون گفت بله، و این باعس شد، اهساس خوبی بکنم؛ فکر کردم که همش همین بوده، ولی همینکه پا شدم بیام بیرون، اون جلوم رو گرفت؛ اون گفت بشین «چارلی» کار ما هنوز تموم نشده؛ بعدش رو من خیلی خوب یادم نمیآد، ولی اون از من میخاست بگم توی جوهرها چی هست؛ من هیچی توی جوهرها نمیدیدم، ولی اون گفت که توی اونها تسویر هستش، و آدمهای دیگه یه سری تسویر دیدند؛ من نتونستم هیچ تسویری ببینم؛ من خیلی تلاش کردم که ببینم؛ من کارت رو جلوی چشمم گرفتم بعد اَقب گرفتم؛ بعدش گفتم اگه اِینکم رو داشتم بهتر میتونستم ببینم؛ من معمولن اِینکم رو توی سینما، یا برای دیدن تلویزون میزنم، با این هال گفتم که اِینکم توی کمد توی هاله؛ اِینکم رو زدم و بعد گفتم بزار اون کارت رو دوباره ببینم، شرت میبندم این دفعه پیداش میکنم.؛
من خیلی تلاش کردم، ولی بازهم نتونستم، اَکسها رو پیدا کنم، فقط لکه های جوهر رو دیدم؛ من بهش گفتم شاید اِینک جدید نیاز دارم؛ اون یه چیزی روی کاقز نوشت، و من ترسیدم که دوباره یه تست رو افتاده باشم؛ بهش گفتم که اون یه لکه ی جوهر خیلی خوشگل بود، با یه سری نقته ی ریز دور و برش؛ ولی اون به نزر ناراهت میرسید، پس باید جوابم غلت بوده باشه؛ بهش گفتم بزار دوباره امتهان کنم؛ من خیلی زود پیداش میکنم، چون بعزی وقتها خیلی سریع نیستم.؛ من توی کلاس خانم «کینیان» برای بزرگسالان کندزهن هم، یه کندخان هستم ولی من خیلی تلاش میکنم.؛
اون با یه کارت دیگه که دوتا لکه ی جوهر، یکی قرمز و یکی آبی، روش بود، یه شانس دیگه بهم داد.؛
اون خیلی مرد خوبی بود، و مسل خانم «کینیان» آروم حرف میزد، و به من توزیح داد، که این یه تجسم اهساسیه؛ اون گفت آدمها توی جوهرها چیز میبینند؛ من گفتم نشونم بده کجا؛ گفت تسور کن؛ گفتم من یه لکه ی جوهر تسور میکنم، ولی این هم جواب درست نبود؛ اون گفت این تو رو یاد چی میاندازه – یه چیزی تخیل کن؛ من چشمهام رو برای یه مدت تولانی بستم، تا تخیل کنم؛ گفتم یه خودکار فنری رو که جوهرش به رومیزی پس داده تخیل میکنم؛ بعد پا شدم و بیرون اومدم؛ فکر نمیکنم که تست تجسم اهساسی رو پاس کرده باشم.؛
گذارش پیشرفط 3 – 7 مارس: دکتر «استراوس» و دکتر «نمور» گفتند که نگران لکه های جوهر نباشم؛ من بهشون گفتم که من جوهرها رو روی کارتها نریختم، و این که من نتونستم چیزی توی جوهرها ببینم. اونها گفتند که شاید هنوز من رو استفاده کنند؛ من گفتم که خانم «کینیان» هیچ وقت تست اون توری به من نداده، فقت املا و روخانی از من تست گرفته؛ اونها گفتند که خانم «کینیان» گفته که من بهترین دانشآموز اون توی مدرسه ی شبانه ی بزرگسالان هستم، چون من از همه بیشتر تلاش میکنم، و واقعن دوست دارم که یاد بگیرم؛ اونها پرسیدند «چارلی» چی شد که تو خودت به تنهایی به مدرسه ی شبانه ی بزرگسالان رفتی؛ چهتوری اون رو پیدا کردی؛ گفتم از مردم پرسیدم و یه نفر بهم گفت کجا باید برم، تا یاد بگیرم خوب بخونم و بنویسم؛ اونها پرسیدند چرا میخای خوب بخونی و بنویسی. گفتم چون تموم زندگیم دلم میخاست باهوش باشم و اهمق نباشم؛ ولی این خیلی سخته که باهوش باشی؛ اونها بهم گفتند میدونی که ممکنه موقتی باشه؛ گفتم آره؛ خانم «کینیان» بهم گفت من اهمیت نمیدم که سدمه ببینم
بعدش امروز بازهم یه تست اجیب قریب داشتم؛ خانم خوبی که اون تست رو از من گرفت، اسمش رو به من گفت و من ازش خاستم که املاش رو بهم بگه تا بتونم اون رو توی گذارش پیشرفطم بنویسم؛ تست درک احساس موضوعی؛ من نمیدونم سه تا کلمه ی آخر چه معنی میده ولی میدونم تست یعنی چی؛ آدم باید پاسش کنه وگرنه نمره ی بد میگیره؛ این تست به نزر آسون میاومد، چون من میتونستم اکسها رو ببینم؛ ولی این دفعه اون از من نمیخاست که اکسها رو براش بگم؛ این من رو گیج کرد؛ من بهش گفتم اون آقای دیروزی گفت من باید بهش بگم توی جوهرها چی میبینم؛ اون گفت این هیچ تفاوتی ایجاد نمیکنه؛ اون از من خاست تا در مورد آدمهای توی اکسها داستان سرهم کنم
من ازش پرسیدم آخه آدم چهتور میتونه در مورد آدمهایی که تا حالا ندیده داستان تریف کنه؛ چرا من باید دروق بسازم؛ من دیگه هیچ وقت دروق نمیگم چون همیشه دستم رو میشه
اون به من گفت که این تست و اون تست دیگه –تجسم اهساسی– برای خسوسی شدنه؛ من به شدت خندیدم؛ گفتم آدم چهتور میتونه با لکه ی جوهر و اکس خسوسی بشه؛ اون عسبانی شد و اکسهاش رو کنار گزاشت؛ به من چه؛ این کار اهمقانه ای بود؛ فکر کنم اون تست رو هم افتادم
چند وقت بعد یه سری مرد، با روپوشهای سفید من رو به یه قسمت دیگه ی بیمارستان بردند، و بهم یه بازی دادند، تا بازی کنم؛ مسل یه مسابقه با یه موش سفید بود؛ اونها موش رو «الجرنون» سدا میکردند؛ «الجرنون» توی یه جعبه، با یه آلمه دیوارهای پرپیچ و تاب بود، و اونها به من یه مداد و یه کاقز پر از مستطیل و خط دادند؛ یه ترفش نوشته بود آغاز، و ترف دیگه اش نوشته بود پایان؛ اونها گفتند که این هزارتاست و من و «الجرنون» هزارتای مشابهی رو باید انجام بدیم؛ من نفهمیدم چهتور ممکنه ما هزارتای مشابهی داشته باشیم، در هالیکه «الجرنون» یه جعبه داشت ومن یه کاقز ولی چیزی نگفتم؛ به هرهال وقتی هم نبود که چیزی بگم چون مسابقه شروع شد
یکی از مردها یه ساعت داشت که سعی میکرد قایمش کنه تا من نبینمش پس من سعی کردم بهش نگاه نکنم و این من رو عسبی کرد
به هرهال اون تست باعس شد که من از همیشه اهساس بدتری بکنم، چون اونها بیشتر از ده بار، با هزارتاهای متفاوت، تکرارش کردند، و «الجرنون» همه ی دفعات رو برد؛ من نمیدونستم که موشها اینقدر باهوشند؛ شاید این به این خاتره که «الجرنون» یه موش سفیده؛ شاید موشهای سفید از بقیه ی موشها باهوشترند، و...)؛ پایان نقل
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 28/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 23/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
Anne
There is nothing specific in this book that dates it -- it could have been written 4 years ago instead of 40 -- except for it's obsession with a certain brand of psychology and sex with near strangers. In this way, it just screams "I WAS WRITTEN IN THE 60s!"
I dunno. Books from this era just bug me in general. They are so smugly sure of their analysis of the whys and wherefores of human nature, yet they still cling to the archetypes. Charlie knows The Puffed-up Scientist and The Down-to-earth Scientist. The women in his life are The Cruel Mother, The Whore, and The Angel. (One of the reasons this book screams the 60s is because The Angel is ok with his relationship with The Whore. In fact, she encourages it. Brilliant. Can we tell the author was a man and the book was written in the era of "free love"?) All of this in a book that is supposed to be about a man coming to grips with new found intelligence without turning into an intellectual jerk and divining the REAL NATURE of the women in his life. Am I the only one who sees the irony of this?
People were, and are, ga-ga about this book. And while I think that the premise is interesting, all the futz surrounding the premise was formulaic.
Snore.
Nilufer Ozmekik
I chose one of my favorite heart wrenching, powerful, unconventional, unique story for Flashback Saturday! 10 years later I’m rereading to see how Charlie’s self discovery story will affect me!
Charlie Gordon in 32, developmentally disabled man becomes volunteered for surgical procedure which will result in the increasing of his mental capabilities. The procedure was already tested on the mice. But the scientists are not sure the probable increase of intelligence will be permanent.
Thankfully the procedure turns into a success. The cognitive skills of Charlie starts improving which helps him have more insight about his situation. His perception about world dramatically changes. Because Charlie cannot remember his past relationship dynamics in his life and sudden jump at his intelligence level makes harder to build new relationships when he suffers lack of social intelligence. But he still tries harder.
He finds the courage to ask to the evening class teacher for a date he has long time crush on. But as his intelligence level increases, he loses his interest in her and falls for a talented artist.
He also writes notes about his scientific discoveries and he finds fatal flaw at his procedure which only means his super power will be gone in a short time and he will die eventually.
He leaves instructions to the people follow the procedures before his death and as his decline starts, he falls back to his same rabbit hole, attending to the evening classes, seeing the teacher without knowing they had short time intimate relationship. After he’s gone, only his notes were left behind from his scientific discoveries from his short time genius level intelligence.
This is one of the saddest story I’ve read. A man is only wanting to have enough intelligence to explore the world from different window! It was heart wrenching, definitely thought provoking and also stunning short story!
Here are my most favorite and extremely powerful quotes of the book:
“I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.”
“Thank God for books and music and things I can think about.”
“I am afraid. Not of life, or death, or nothingness, but of wasting it as if I had never been.”
“How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibilty, who would not take advantage of a man born without arms or legs or eyes—how such people think nothing of abusing a man with low intelligence.”
“A child may not know how to feed itself, or what to eat, yet it knows hunger. “
“There are so many doors to open. I am impatient to begin. “
J.L. Sutton
“I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.”
I first read Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon in junior high school. At the time, I had no idea it was such a groundbreaking novel. Reading it again many years later, I'm not surprised that it is powerful, but I am surprised at just how complete the story is. There were parts of the story that stuck with me all these years: Charlie's belief that his life would be better if he were somehow more intelligent and the heartache of his return to his former condition.
It's difficult to verbalize why this regression should be so heartbreaking. Wasn't Charlie able to experience a life which somehow existed beyond his abilities (sort of like Lt. Barclay in Star Trek the Next Generation's "Nth Degree" episode)? Even if his newfound intelligence didn't last long, how long do any of us get to live at our full potential? Charlie's reclaiming of memories and relationships he forms after gaining intelligence make Charlie feel like a real character who, in spite of the odds, we are rooting for. Flowers for Algernon stays with you long after you finish it!
Lyn
Captivating and heartbreaking.
Daniel Keyes 1958 novel about an intellectually disabled man who, through an experimental medical procedure, gains genius level IQ is a classic of science fiction.
Charlie Gordon began attending classes at night for “retarded adults” so that he could learn to read and to “be like other people”. With the assistance of his night school teacher, he is interviewed by scientists and is accepted into the experimental program.
At the laboratory he meets Algernon, a mouse who has undergone a similar treatment and who can traverse a series of mazes faster than Charlie. Once through the procedure, Charlie first becomes able to out pace Algernon in the maze game and then advances far beyond what the researchers thought possible.
But intellectual advancement is not the same as emotional and social development and Charlie runs into problems as his life is turned upside down by the changes. His family and social interactions undergo significant transformations. Charlie is not the same person as he was before.
Keyes’ conflict develops when Algernon begins to show signs of reversals and the question becomes: will Charlie also lose that which he has gained?
Presented as a series of “progress reports” written by Charlie to document and chronicle his perceptions during the months long experiment, the reader is taken on a journey through Charlie’s unfortunate past, the amazingly rapid intellectual improvements and the sad terrors of what may come. Told with empathy and compassion, Keyes explores what it means to be human and what is most important.
A book that everyone should read.
Andy Marr
i new after the frist few chapturs that this wood end bad but i kept on reeding cos i thot I mite be rong and it wood end gud but it did end bad and now i ain't happy and now i don't like it no more
notty buk made me not happy so I don't give it no more than sum stars ☹️
Amy
I first read this book in 8th grade, in my english class. I remembered enjoying it, being fascinated in how the author painted the picture that I really was reading Charlie's journal by use of spelling, grammar and punctuation related to the level Charlie was at when writing the entries. What I didn't know at the time was the people who created the text book I used felt it was okay to chop whole chapters out of the middle of the book. They felt pulling out whole sections was okay in the name of protecting children from "bad" concepts like sex, alcohol, and violence. They didn't consider that perhaps leaving the story intact and waiting for the children to mature before handing them this story was a better route.
I discovered this injustice when I was in a used bookstore, and remembered this story I read in class I enjoyed, so I dug up a copy and bought it. When I got home, I jumped right in and started to reread it, only to get a shock in the middle of the book where suddenly there were whole chapters about this neighbor Charlie gets involved with that I didn't remember. When I reread the book more recently, there were more things that I realized would have been chopped out of a version intended for 8th grade students to read, and I just hadn't noticed as much the first time reading the complete copy because they were tucked in with the more mundane things towards the beginning of Charlies developments.
All ranting aside, I find this book to be a fascinating look at human nature, personality and development. It's well written, and does a good job placing you into Charlie's head as he goes up and down through this experiment. If you read it in school like I first did, do yourself a favor and buy or borrow a complete copy of the book to read. The lessons learned by all characters in the book certainly give you lots of think about your own behavior and that of others.
EDIT: There have been a few comments pointing out that the story was a short story first, likely the version I read in my school textbook, that was later expanded into the novel. I only wanted to add this note to my review, as it seems some people comment without reading the other comments left, so I'm seeing both comments informing me of this fact and comments of outrage that the book was censored.
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