Name: Flowers for Algernon
ISBN: 9780547539638

Daniel Keyes

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.

Flowers for Algernon

Aske Dørge

Amalie Elisabeth

Alec Karlen

“I’m going to goose her if she wiggles her fanny at me again.”

Michelle Yang

“I can’t decide for you, Charlie. The answer can’t be found in books—or be solved by bringing it to other people. Not unless you want to remain a child all your life. You’ve got to find the answer inside you—feel the right thing to do. Charlie, you’ve got to learn to trust yourself.”

Although we know the end of the maze holds death…I see now that the path I choose through that maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being—one of many ways—and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.

“There are a lot of people who will give money or materials, but very few who will give time and affection. That’s what I mean.”

“I passed your floor on the way up, and now I’m passing it on the way down, and I don’t think I’ll be taking this elevator again.”

Jillian Roberts

I wanted to get up and show everyone what a fool he was, to shout at him: 

I’m a human being, a person—with parents and memories and a history—and I was before you ever wheeled me into that operating  room! 

Naïa

The more intelligent you become the more problems you’ll have

really good solution to the woeful burnout limerence. however i do think i will cry

lily

i didnt love how the women were written in this book, and i think it rlly affected my over-all enjoyment of it. he also did not project onto that rat enough tbh

A sci-fi novel that made me emotional and got me sobbing especially towards the ending. 

The premise is simple enough; a mentally disabled person went through an experimental operation to rapidly increase his IQ. 

The central theme is on how society treats mentally disabled persons. We can also see how rapid acceleration of mental intelligence does not automatically reflect the emotional & sexual maturity in a person. Eventually the main character wanted the people around him to know that whether he is mentally disabled or a genius he wanted them to recognize him as an individual, a human being with feelings and aspirations. 

Fasiha🌺🐧

A sci-fi novel that made me emotional and got me sobbing especially towards the ending. 

The premise is simple enough; a mentally disabled person went through an experimental operation to rapidly increase his IQ. 

The central theme is on how society treats mentally disabled persons. We can also see how rapid acceleration of mental intelligence does not automatically reflect the emotional & sexual maturity in a person. Eventually the main character wanted the people around him to know that whether he is mentally disabled or a genius he wanted them to recognize him as an individual, a human being with feelings and aspirations. 

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

"Please, if you get a chance, put some flowers on Algernon's grave in the backyard."

Charlie Gordon, I hope you are contented with your life now. This is such a great book! So satisfying that I get to see and understand when he is having a transition. 

No more words. It's just one of the best books for me!

Kath

"Please, if you get a chance, put some flowers on Algernon's grave in the backyard."

The last PS got me. What the...

Charlie Gordon, I hope you are contented with your life now. This is such a great book! So satisfying that I get to see and understand when he is having a transition. 

No more words. It's just one of the best books for me!

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

This was genius, because i hated it, but i loved how i hated it. 

TommyBoi

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.

Matheus Villa

★★★★★

Conforme a história avançava para o final meu emocional avançava para a depressão, foi quase assim... É um livro inicialmente muito interessante e que se desenvolve bem, senti muitas coisas em relação ao Charlie e me peguei me colocando no lugar dele várias vezes. Motivo de não ter dado favorito? Nem eu sei.

riss

tori 👻

This was absolutely heartbreaking and beautiful.

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!!

Lovro Oreskovic

I am really wondering how I did not come across this book earlier. It has a really interesting concept. 
The main protagonist is Charlie who is not really that intelligent. There is a new experimental operation which aims at increasing a persons IQ. 
Charlie is the first human being on whom the operation is tried on. To save you from the spoilers I will not continue telling the story, but the book is a really interesting look into what makes us who we are and the part of society we take. 
What is really interesting are the way the book is written. It is Charlies diary, where he writes what he sees and understands about the world. Daniel Keyes uses some non standard ways to convey the transformation Charlie is going through. During the course of the book we can see Charlies grammar, spelling and vocabulary change and it is fascinating how much can that metadata convey about a person. 

All in all, it is a interesting book, go and read it!

my heart is demolished and i will never be the same

Maya

my heart is demolished and i will never be the same



Charlie Gordon, un chico con discapacidad mental, cuenta en su diario, con palabras similares a las de un niño que empieza a escribir, las dificultades con las que se encuentra en el día a día. De pronto, unos científicos ven la posibilidad de operarle para lograr que sea un persona como las demás. También lo hicieron con Algernon, un ratoncillo de laboratorio, y la cosa funcionó. Pero, tiempo después, el ratoncillo empieza a experimentar cambios de conducta, hasta caer en un claro retroceso y morir. Charlie, que lo observa cada día, sabe lo que eso significa.

Flores para Algernon

Ana Luiza

** spoiler alert **
           Meu coração está quebrado. Essa leitura me deu uma dor que não sentia há muito tempo. Acompanhar a jornada de Charlie machuca, não só pela tristeza que é vê-lo decaindo depois do experimento, mas ver como as pessoas ao redor dele o tratam, tanto antes como depois. Saber que esse é o cotidiano de milhões de pessoas no mundo é dolorido. Ainda não se fala muito de como o capacitismo é perigoso e doloso. Muitos acreditam que estão no direito de tratar deficientes dessa maneira por achar que eles não entenderão. Sei que algum dia devo ter feito algo semelhante também. O que mostra o quanto essa leitura é importante e deve ser obrigatória, deve ser usada como um caminho para a desconstrução. Muitas são as causas e as bandeiras que se levantam hoje em dia para as mais diversas minorias, mas devemos nos lembrar de lutar por aqueles que não conseguem também.

"Ripensandoci, ora, posso capire perchè mi è stato insegnato a tenermi lontano dalle donne. Ho fatto male ad esprimere i miei sentimenti per Alice. Non ho alcun diritto di pensare ad una donna in questo modo... non ancora.

Ma nel momento stesso in cui scrivo queste parole, qualcosa dentro di me grida che c'è di più. Sono una creatura umana. Ero una creatura umana prima di essere sottoposto al bisturi del chirurgo. E devo amare qualcuno."

gabriele

"Ripensandoci, ora, posso capire perchè mi è stato insegnato a tenermi lontano dalle donne. Ho fatto male ad esprimere i miei sentimenti per Alice. Non ho alcun diritto di pensare ad una donna in questo modo... non ancora.

Ma nel momento stesso in cui scrivo queste parole, qualcosa dentro di me grida che c'è di più. Sono una creatura umana. Ero una creatura umana prima di essere sottoposto al bisturi del chirurgo. E devo amare qualcuno."

sophie

Gracie Marsden

This is a beautiful book about the journey of learning. There are a lot of parallels with Plato's Allegory of the cave. I would highly recommend reading the Allegory prior to starting this book.

Sophie Wang

it’s reputation superseded itself so fell the book short to me. this was in part bc of design as the most emotionally compelling parts of the novel (where we knew things charlie didn’t yet understand) were transitory, but also because of inconsistencies and other parts that required suspension of disbelief (the bakery men defending charlie when he came back, the one dimensional researchers, lots of details about fay, other charlie watching, etc) which detracted from the overall message of love being what makes someone human. 

this might also because I read song of Achilles right after and had the two as direct comparisons for their similar heroes cycles and the romance v self dilemma, but it was overall still a very enjoyable read

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, Charlie's 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)

diya

I kept putting this off for years, merely because the general consensus was - its about a mouse and a dude, meh it can wait.

I couldn't have been more wrong. Often a time human beings put an irrational but sometimes justifiable weight on this thing called intellectuality. How smart is your kid, do they fit inside the box. A child gowing up, is expected to be smart, studious, enough so as to fit into the society. If not, it is out of "normality", you arent normal. Only when we grow up do we realise the true things that maketh a person, kindess, gratitude, affection, empathy - far superior than a grade. It was like seeing through, not lens, but multiple reflections. Who decides even the kind of person we become, do we even have a say in who we become; do we even know to question what makes us whole?

Picked this up at a local secondhand bookstore at random. A literary masterpiece full of emotional and philosophical depth. Will undoubtedly tug at your heart, but oddly enough, I didn’t cry while reading this, as many before me had. Maybe it’s because I have been facing somewhat of a similar situation in my own life, and I just wanted to find solace in the fact that I’m not alone in this treacherous journey. 