Name: Flowers for Algernon
Rating: 4.181065088757396 (845 reviews)

David Rogers

Daniel Keyes

The compelling story of Charlie Gordon, willing victim of a strange experiment - a moron, a genius, a man in search of himself. Poignant, funny, tragic, but with a hope for the indomitable spirit of man, this unusual play tells a story you will long remember. It also offers a magnificent role.

A Full-length Play

Flowers for Algernon

The classic novel about a daring experiment in human intelligence Charlie Gordon, IQ 68, is a floor sweeper and the gentle butt of everyone's jokes - until an experiment in the enhancement of human intelligence turns him into a genius. But then Algernon, the mouse whose triumphal experimental tranformation preceded his, fades and dies, and Charlie has to face the possibility that his salvation was only temporary.

kattisonfire

Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence--a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.

As the treatment takes effect, Charlies intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?

--back cover

Phil

This is such an emotional and tragic book. It caused me to reflect about what is important in life and whether Charlie's journey was ultimately a good thing for him. On the one hand, he had the opportunity to experience much more of life than he would have without the operation. On the other hand, he was aware of, and had to witness, his own decline back to retardation and could do nothing to stop it. Was it worth the price? I think it was. Sort of reminds me of "better to have love and lost than to never have loved at all." In Charlie's case, "better to have lived fully and lost then never to have lived fully at all". Then again, if he has no recollection of his temporary transcendence, was his suffering worth it? I can't remember all of the happy moments of my childhood, but I still think they were worth having (although they came without the associated suffering Charlie endured). If consciousness can disappear, is temporary awakening a gift or a cruelty? Maybe a short period of profound awareness outweigh sa lifetime of protected limitation. I gave this only 4 stars because I'm not sure how often I want to read books as tragic as this one. I tend to gravitate toward humane and philosophically rich books, but often with some combination of tenderness, moral warmth, subtle hope, wonder, or emotional replenishment. Flowers for Algernon offers insight and humanity, but very little emotional refuge.

such a beautiful story , it proves that you can make a masterpiece out of such a seamingly simple consept. 

asmareads b

It was such a fascinating yet befuddling read. Charlie's progression as an intellectual, especially emotionally, was what kept me going, but it wasn't the most ensnaring, page-turning book ever 

tchan

ikkychan

Have you ever read a book where your entire view of life gets shaken up and brings you to the point of your life where you question everything you know, your sense of right and wrong, and eventually further interrogate your own intelligence? Yeah, me neither. Just kidding. ACOTAR series, surprisingly, has most certainly shaken my view of feminism to the core and obliterated my entire foundation of reading books for fun, demolishing it to the ground. The last surviving two brain cells, holding into the synapses for dear life, thankfully picked this book as their last attempt to revive the remaining of my deteriorating cells and built it anew, just like what happened to Charlie Gordon. At a first glance, Charlie Gordon could pass as your Average Joe with no physical impairment whatsoever. He could dress himself and tie his own shoe; he is passionate about his career at Donner's Bakery in New York City where he works as a janitor and delivery boy; he leads his life in an utmost pleasure surrounded by dear friends with whom he shares fun games and heartfelt laughter everyday. Despite all that, he harbors certain frustration over simple things, like reading, writing and understanding everyday conversation he overheard from his friends. Though they normally talk about the weather or common news, Charlie ended up just standing around with a confused expression, trying to comprehend what these people are saying. It’s not because he never went to school; this comes as a result of the mental retardation that he had from having only 68 IQ. This also motivates him to agree on an ‘experamint’ that Dr Strauss and Prof Nemur, both scientists from Beekman University, engage him to. They would use him in surgery and medical procedures to triple his IQ and essentially cure his intellectual disability. Charlie, who all his life “wantid to be smart and not dumb” is excited for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where he could fulfill his mother’s lifelong wish and expecting an increase in his popularity, diligently write a daily ‘progris riport’ where the professor, and us reader, could monitor the subtle change over his compositions to keep track on the effect of the procedure on Charlie’s cognitive ability, and eventually, his psychological state. The gradual advancement is presented in a way that is so delicate or precise as to be difficult to analyze or describe. Like Dr Strauss said, “Charlie you dont know it yet but your getting smarter all the time. You wont notice it for a while like you dont notice how the hour hand on a clock moves. That’s the way it is with the changes in you. They are happining so slow you cant tell.” His progress report, which was initially riddled with grammatical and punctuation errors, slowly improved, not only in its spelling but also his choice of words, reflecting the heightened sense of literary skill that he was accomplishing overtime. He also began to recall long past memories of when he was a kid, particularly shameful and negative experiences he harbors in the dark corner of his impaired mind, which something he could never do before as remembering requires adequate neuron synapses to work. These recalling also served two intertwined purposes: it glimpses us reader the kind of life Charlie Gordon has and at the same time reveals them to Charlie Gordon himself as he learns and re-learns the layered realities surrounding him as opposed to the one-dimensional, happy portrait he pertained before. He has to bear the full-frontal realization – the burden of eating the Fruit of Knowledge – of how he has been living in a very ignorant state of bliss. As complicated as the connection between intelligence and happiness is, the relation of intelligence and wisdom also share similar complexity. Charlie might have conceived an outstanding amount of knowledge and achieved great intellectual feats; he composed marvelous musical compositions, he mastered 20 different–dead and alive –languages, he published intricate scientific journals and read ancient lores in their mother tongue, all in the span of a few months. In spite of that, he lacks the ability to deal with real-world problems, especially when he has to confront moral challenges. His extensive knowledge of history and philosophy makes him successful and famous to the point that experts come to him for advice, but it doesn’t teach him right from wrong—and it also doesn’t help him take action to actually do the right thing. When he finds out that Gimpy, one of his co-worker in the bakery, has been stealing money from work, he has a hard time deciding what to do with it, despite all that vast knowledge and piles of books he has. Not only that, he also finds it difficult to develop a sense of empathy towards the people around him. He oftentimes treats them with disrespect and smug condescension as he notices their inadequateness in talking or preaching about anything as he knows more of it than their surface-level understanding. When Alice voices her disappointment towards the change in Charlie’s attitude and pointed out that he looks at her impatiently as if there’s nothing she can say that is satisfactory enough for him in terms of intellectual discussion, Charlie actually blames it on her part as he perceives that this animosity people held against him is sprouted from their own insecurity and the fact that they don’t like feeling like a fool or be challenged by someone who is clearly more superior to them–even more humiliating, this challenging comes from someone who they know was just an ignorant moron in the past. Where there’s some truth to that statement, all these hostilities would turn a supposedly meaningful interaction into mere banter of arguments. No message could come across without kindness and compassion. This newfound identity might have turned him into an insufferable asshole, but nothing like a series of painful realizations could set one straight and push them to do better. When he discovers that Algernon has been experiencing symptoms of drawbacks from the experiment and realizes the internal countdown of his time-limited genius, he snaps back to reality and starts to actually do something worthwhile. The encounter in the diner where he witnessed a mentally disabled waiter get sneered at and jeered at by ignorant patrons reveals to him that that is the source of his bitter attitude toward people; that they refuse his humanity nor see him as he is beyond his intellectual capability. He begins to confront his inner demons by seeing his estranged family who abandoned him and go back to the lab to finish what he started with Algernon. When he makes peace with the past and prepares for the hazy future, he gradually acquires wisdom on his own through experience and grows in a way that he never could through books and scientific journals alone. Like he said to Prof. Nemur, “....But I’ve learned that intelligence alone doesn’t mean a damned thing. Here in your university, intelligence, education, knowledge, have all become great idols. But I know now there’s one thing you’ve all overlooked: intelligence and education that hasn’t been tempered by human affection isn’t worth a damn.” In spite of my stellar impression of the book, you must remember that liking something doesn’t mean you can’t criticize it, and this book is not an exception to that for there are some ideas in there, namely portrayal of women as the tools in triggering Charlie’s sense of sexuality, that I find – and for lack of better word – icky. There’s nothing more to Fay than a casual flapper whose purpose is to serve as Charlie’s sexual pasttime, even Charlie himself admitted to it. With Alice, he took more time as she is ‘not like other girls’, as if it’s perfectly alright to treat this girl like a glass mannequin and the other like a disposable toy just because she is more promiscuous than the other. I don’t know about you guys, but that screams internalized misogyny to me. I have to admit, this is by far the most touching sci-fi book I have read this year. Its poignant, truthful portrayal of the complex nuance of the life of a disabled person in an ableist society is sadly still relevant to this day and time—precisely why this book has stood the test of time. It evokes a keen sense of sadness and regret that it drives you to reflect on your own life and gives you a new perspective of your reality in hindsight.

Cara Stegemann

** need to add quotes to Notebook. ** (Please note that my reviews are intended to be notes to myself - my memory is failing, and I need reminders about books I want to reread and books I didn’t finish. My reviews are not intended to be particularly useful for other readers.)

With more than five million copies sold, Flowers for Algernon is the beloved, classic story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse. In poignant diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation increases his IQ and changes his life. As the experimental procedure takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment seems to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance--until Algernon begins his sudden, unexpected deterioration. Will the same happen to Charlie? An American classic that inspired the award-winning movie Charly.

Beautifully written and heartbreaking, I wept like a baby. 

Irina

Oscar-winning film Charly starring Cliff Robertson and Claire Bloom-a mentally challenged man receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache.

Dammit, Charlie. You made me cry, you beautiful man.

Frederik De Bosschere

Jeez this was a brutal read. A really great concept, a considered and clean execution and a just heart breaking end. 

Will Dawson

Charlie Gordon, IQ 68, is a floor sweeper and the gentle butt of everyone’s jokes – until an experiment in the enhancement of human intelligence turns him into a genius.

But then Algernon, the mouse whose triumphal experimental transformation preceded his, fades and dies, and Charlie has to face the possibility that his salvation was only temporary.

Winner of the 1960 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, and subsequently expanded into a Hugo-nominated novel, Flowers for Algernon earned Daniel Keyes the honour of SFWA Author Emeritus in 2000 for his contribution to Science Fiction and Fantasy.

What a deeply moving story that sounds impressively contemporary, in spite of being conceived nearly 70 years ago. I did not expect it to impact me as much as it did but it is incredibly effective in its examination of its themes, such as the treatment of people with mental illnesses and disabilities, personhood and authonomy; how an arbitrary perception of intelligence can affect the relationships of an individual with the world around them - friends, colleagues, lovers; even the battle between IQ and EQ (the term for which would be coined around the time of the publishing of the novel but not popularised until much later).

And in that, the heartbreak is unrelentness as the reader first sees how the people around Charlie treat him, and then sees him realise how he is being treated, and then sees him eventually regress in his mental ability.

On a more personal level, I found that the book spoke to me through one of my biggest fears. When I was a child, one of our neighbours had a son who had been exceptionally intelligent. But he had had an unfortunate accident - I was too little to remember the precise details - that had damaged his brain, regressing him severely. And while he still retained a not insignificant level of independence, this greatly limited his ability to navigate the world on his own. We moved away nearly 20 years ago but I often wonder what happened to him and his mother - I remember hearing from my grandma that she had not been well.

Somewhere between this and the fact that I have, as a child, often been complimented on my intelligence, I gained this deep-seated fear of a diminishing mental capability - be it through injury or just the natural aging process or anything else. And frankly, sometimes I fear that this may have already been set off by the recent pandemic. But I have also been thinking about what this fear says about myself and about the society we live in.

What a deeply moving story that sounds impressively contemporary, in spite of being conceived nearly 70 years ago. I did not expect it to impact me as much as it did but it is incredibly effective in its examination of its themes, such as the treatment of people with mental illnesses and disabilities, personhood and authonomy; how an arbitrary perception of intelligence can affect the relationships of an individual with the world around them - friends, colleagues, lovers; even the battle between IQ and EQ (the term for which would be coined around the time of the publishing of the novel but not popularised until much later).

 

And in that, the heartbreak is unrelentness as the reader first sees how the people around Charlie treat him, and then sees him realise how he is being treated, and then sees him eventually regress in his mental ability.

On a more personal level, I found that the book spoke to me through one of my biggest fears. When I was a child, one of our neighbours had a son who had been exceptionally intelligent. But he had had an unfortunate accident - I was too little to remember the precise details - that had damaged his brain, regressing him severely. And while he still retained a not insignificant level of independence, this greatly limited his ability to navigate the world on his own. We moved away nearly 20 years ago but I often wonder what happened to him and his mother - I remember hearing from my grandma that she had not been well.

Somewhere between this and the fact that I have, as a child, often been complimented on my intelligence, I gained this deep-seated fear of a diminishing mental capability - be it through injury or just the natural aging process or anything else. And frankly, sometimes I fear that this may have already been set off by the recent pandemic. But I have also been thinking about what this fear says about myself and about the society we live in.

Such a sad and heartbreaking story. I had so many insights and thoughts while reading this masterpiece that somehow when I finished, I found myself without words to describe the experience and clinching to the narrative, missing him throughout the day when I didn't had his company anymore. Charlie was one of the most complex and interesting characters I have ever known.

Larissa Campos

I remember disliking this book in high school, and feeling very upset by it in a way that made me afraid to read it again for a very long time.

I'm glad I re-read it, but this book still breaks my heart, and it is once again the kind of book I probably couldn't read again for a long time.

Emma Lechner

I remember disliking this book in high school, and feeling very upset by it in a way that made me afraid to read it again for a very long time.

I'm glad I re-read it, but this book still breaks my heart, and it is once again the kind of book I probably couldn't read again for a long time.

My husband recommended this book to me ages ago and I hate that it took so long for me to get around to reading. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. 

Charlie Gordon was born with some mental disability. Doesn’t specify what but he was abandoned by his family and left with his Uncle Herman. His Uncle gets him a job at a bakery and all Charlie wants is to be able to have in depth conversation with his friends at the bakery. To feel like a normal human being. 

He becomes a test subject on an experiment that promises to make him smart. While this works in the beginning his knowledge expands so much that everyone he knew becomes scared or feels inferior around him and he still doesn’t have friends. Charlie is destined to be lonely forever. 

There’s no review I could write that would do justice so I’m just going to encourage anyone who stumbles upon this to make time to read Flowers For Algernon.

Christa Bell

My husband recommended this book to me ages ago and I hate that it took so long for me to get around to reading. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. 

Charlie Gordon was born with some mental disability. Doesn’t specify what but he was abandoned by his family and left with his Uncle Herman. His Uncle gets him a job at a bakery and all Charlie wants is to be able to have in depth conversation with his friends at the bakery. To feel like a normal human being. 

He becomes a test subject on an experiment that promises to make him smart. While this works in the beginning his knowledge expands so much that everyone he knew becomes scared or feels inferior around him and he still doesn’t have friends. Charlie is destined to be lonely forever. 

There’s no review I could write that would do justice so I’m just going to encourage anyone who stumbles upon this to make time to read Flowers For Algernon.

tori 👻

This was absolutely heartbreaking and beautiful.

Fantastic. Probably unforgettable (we ´ll see!) .

Barbara

Ankit Panchal

It's such a beautifully written book. Keyes' choice of first person narrative through progress reports allows the reader to see his progression/regression in the most personal and touching way. It's so difficult not to get choked up reading that book.

Recommended to everyone!!

Flowers for Algernon A Full-length Play

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