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Flowers for Algernon

Average rating: 5/5

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Flowers for Algernon

by Daniel Keyes

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | April 3, 2005 | Trade Paperback

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.

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Reviews

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      helpful to you?

    Rating: 3/5

    Unusual Book

    Willa

    5 weeks ago

    This book is definitely one of a kind - I've never read a story like this. It's somewhat sad, so it's not a light book to read, but it is worth a read.

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 5/5

    Where is my mind?

    Ink Wires

    2 months ago

    This novel challenges many issues and ideas in the world in extremely engaging ways, and emphasized all the more because this is a fictional novel and not a journal article. Charlie's difficult journey is not set on a plane of understanding that we can not ever achieve despite its science fictional parameters; it is so human, it aches.

    Do not be thrown by its diary-like entries in the beginning - it only reflects Charlie's progress all the more as he ventures deeper into what it means not only to be human, but what it takes to become a person, and in whose eyes and the illogical reasons why. My mind was blown away.

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 4/5

    Flowers for Algernon

    Pauline

    9 months ago

    I remember watching the movie based on this book when I was a child and I was fascinated by the movie and have often thought about it. My daughter read the book and told me I should read it and of course I remembered the movie and so I definitely wanted to read the book.

    The book is intriguing; to think of the possibility to give a mentally challenged person a genius' IQ...wow the implications and the effects on the psyche are unfathomable. This book explores these ideas and it does a good job.

    Charlie Gordon is born mentally challenged and his mother does not accept the fact and is constantly trying to fix his problem and is cruel to him and eventually sends him off to a home, so she can "protect" his little sister from him.

    Charlie works in a bakery and goes to a school to learn how to read and write and is picked for the scientific study of increasing IQ through an operation. The operation succeeds and Charlie is propelled into a world of intelligence, but there is a flaw in the science and Charlie and his intellect figure it out.

    It is a thought provoking book and it makes us look at how we treat people based on their intelligence. I found it hard to like Charlie when he was mentally challenged and when he was a genius, that is the one weakness in the book is the lack of connection with the main character or any character...there just seems to be a distance from the reader. With a bit more emotion this book would have been outstanding.

    • Was this review
      helpful to you?

    Rating: 5/5

    Love it

    Ariel

    • Top Book Reviewer

    4 years ago

    "Flowers for Algernon" is an all-time classic that I love.

    Charlie, a mentally disabled man, was given a chance to have his intelligence experimentally enhanced as Algernon, a lab mouse which had gone through the same procedure. The super-IQ Charlie experienced major changes in the way he lives his life. All went reasonably well until Algernon started to deteriorate unexpectedly. Charlie knew then that the same thing would happen to him and invest all his energy in the quest to preserve his IQ. One of the last scene of Charlie praying for his language ability touches me deeply. I then realize how lucky we are even to have the simple blessing of being able to read and write.

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Details

From the Publisher

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.

About the Author

Daniel Keyes was born in Brooklyn, New York, and received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Brooklyn College. He has worked as a merchant seaman, fiction editor, high school teacher, and university professor. The author of eight books, he lives in Boca Raton, FL.

Trade Paperback

324 Pages, 5.3 x 7.8 x 1 in

April 3, 2005

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

English


0156030306
9780156030304

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