Customer Reviews

Flowers for Algernon

5 star:		(305)
4 star:		(123)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I read this book for school when I was in 7th grade, and just finished re-reading it ten years and a degree in biology later. I loved it when I was a teen, and (after forcing myself to ignore my instinctive scientific skepticism) still love it today.

It's a very thought-provoking story, all the more so when you consider that it was written about 40 years ago when society was a bit less tolerant of the mentally retarded than it is now. Charlie is a man in his 30s with an IQ of 68 when the book starts; through a controversial experimental operation, his IQ gets higher and higher until it soars at one point to 185. The story is told through the journal entries that he is told to keep for the researchers in charge of the study. Through Charlie's words, you can see how sharply his intellect grows and how difficult it is for him because as smart as he becomes, his *emotional* intelligence is still that of a child.

Charlie's emergence from ignorance is painful for him; imagine learning all of life's hard truth's in a matter of weeks rather than the normal development from innocent child to worldly adult. And the ending of the book is heartwrenching. Everyone should read "Flowers for Algernon" at some point in their life. It's a classic.

I was so surprised by this book. Flowers For Algernon was one of the best books I've read this year and I really wasn't expecting it.

It is the story of Charlie Gordon, a man in his thirties with mental retardation. Charlie is the subject of a psychological research project at a university that is examining the effects of a new surgical procedure on mental retardation. Charlie's estranged sister gives the university permission to perform the procedure on Charlie. The procedure proves to be at least a temporary success and Charlie goes from having mental retardation to having an IQ of 185 in a manner of weeks.

The experiment is initially tried on a white mouse named Algernon. Algernon is tested through a complex maze where he is rewarded by food after reaching the end. Charlie races Algernon with a maze of his own and receives a shock if he goes the wrong way. At the beginning of the book, Algernon beats Charlie to the finish line every time. But Charlie soon soars past Algernon and through the process grows close to the mouse.

The book is written in the form of journal entries kept by Charlie for the experiment. At the beginning of the book, words are misspelled, ideas are vague, and relationships are simple. As the book progresses, so does Charlie's thought process and so do his relationships. Charlie learns what true love is as he falls in love with his teacher, Alice. He learns what physical love is as he comes into contact with his artistic and eccentric neighbor, Fay. And he learns the pains of relational love as he relives memories of his family and friends.

What was most touching to me about this book were these flashbacks and moments of recognition. When Charlie was still mentally retarded, he didn't realize when people were laughing at him or making fun of him. He didn't realize that when his mother was crying it was because she was ashamed to have him as a son. But now that he has had this operation he is able to look back on these situations and realize what was going on. You can imagine the pain of this.

Charlie is initially excited about "becoming smart". He's been teased throughout his life for "being a moron" and has been the subject of people's amusement. What Charlie soon finds is that acceptance is a hard thing to come by. Charlie goes straight from mentally retarded to genius. As a genius, he is seen as arrogant and absurd and is once again estranged by his peers.

Charlie Gordon's "progris riports" make up the majority of the text in Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon. In his early thirties, mentally challenged Charlie works at a bakery, cleaning up and running errands. The only thing that Charlie has ever wanted in life is for people to like him. He thinks that if he were smart, people would want to be his friend. Charlie tries hard to learn how to read and write, but it is a long, ongoing process. Charlie decides to take part in a study conducted by some professors at the school he attends. The experiment involves Charlie's having an extraordinary brain operation that will help him to become extremely intelligent. After the operation, Charlie's new IQ helps him to understand how common it is for people to be cruel to others. Charlie soon realizes that all his life, people have been laughing at him, not with him. As Charlie becomes smarter, vivid memories of his childhood begin to disturb him. Unfortunately, after a few months Charlie's intelligence begins to fade and he regresses to a worse mental state than before the experiment.

This book truthfully portrays how people treat others different from themselves and how unkind we can be to each other. We are able to get a glimpse of what it feels like to be made fun of and looked down upon by others.

Unfortunately, this book is on the Banned Book List. Censors claim that "explicit love scenes were distasteful." It also contains limited profanity and references to drinking. I believe that these scenes are essential to understanding how Charlie is progressing mentally as well as emotionally. They also are necessary to help us understand the characters' personalities. I feel certain that eight graders and above would be able to handle this book. I would certainly recommend it to adults as well as young people.

I saw this book at the store and picked it up so I mite be smart in reeding it. It looked nice. I reed it when I was littel but didnt remember. So I picked it agin.

The storie unfoles like a flower. Witch mite be how it got the titel. I'm still not sure on that. I know that Charlie Gordon isn't to smart in the begining but later he starts to get smarter. I liked that part. It was after some sort of operashun to his brane.

And then Charlie's knowledge base begins to expand and things start to become clearer. But with this improved clarity comes a realization that previously held friends may not have been so friendly. And growing up as a moron wasn't necessarily such a bad thing. Does he have friends now that he's getting smarter?

Charlie begins his ascent into genius level as his IQ passes 150. But the accumulated knowledge that he soon possesses can't prepare him for the retarded emotional state that he still finds himself in. The barriers he must break down are monumental and seemingly insurmountable. Can he do it? Does he want to do it now that he knows more about the world around him?

Is the operation a success? Or a failure? Will Charlie remain at genius level or slide back into idiocy?

Reed the book to find out more. Its a good book to. I like it a lot. I think Ill reed it agin sumtime. Now I just have to remember were I put it...

Flowers For Algernon is a very powerful book about a retarded man named Charly, who has an experimental operation done on him to make him a genius. I enjoyed this book for many reasons, one was the craft. The book is written in the form of Charly's journal, and as Charly gets smarter his spelling, grammar, vocabulary, etc. become more advanced. This allows the reader to see how he gets smarter through other means than what the book tells one. I also liked the characters, Charly in particular. I found it very interesting how Charly described being able to remember complicated things when before the operation he struggled to learn simple things. I also thought that all of the characters were very interesting and essential to the story. Flowers For Algernon is also one of the most original books I have ever read. Its craft, characters, and plot were all very original and unlike any other book I've ever read. Overall a must read; I strongly advise you read Flowers For Algernon.

This is a wonderful and highly original novel about a mentally challenged man named Charlie who wanted to be smart. One day, his wish was granted. A group of scientists selected him for an experimental operation that raised his intelligence to genius level. Suddenly, Charlie found himself transformed, and life, as he knew it, changed.

His story is told entirely through Charlie's eyes and perceptions in the form of progress reports. The reader actually sees the change in Charlie take place, as his progress reports become more complex, well written, and filled with the angst of personal discovery and growth, as well as with his gradual awareness of his amazing and accelerated intellectual development.

The progress reports are a wonderful contrivance for facilitating the story, and the reader is one with Charlie on his voyage of self-discovery. What happens to Charlie in the long run is profoundly moving and thought provoking. It is no wonder that this author was the recipient of the Nebula Award which is given by the Science Fiction Writers of America for having written the Best Novel of the Year. This is definitely a book well worth reading.

I read this story in its original form as a short story. I really liked it then. It was different and original. How many stories have you read where the first few chapters are grossly misspelled and carry the tone of innocent child? Almost 10 years later, I decided to revisit this story in its lengthened book form. I love it even more.

Flowers for Algernon is a collection of progress reports, similar to diary entries, by Charlie Gordon. Charlie [has an IQ of 60 and] works at a bakery when the story starts. He is motivated to do what he can to learn how to read and write so that he can be smart like the people around him. Through an evening adult learn-to-read class, Charlie is introduced by his teacher Alice Kinnian to Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss, a psychiatrist and a neurosurgeon, respectively. Nemur and Strauss are searching for a subject to perform an intelligence enhancing operation on, which up to that point has only been tried on a mouse named Algernon. They pick Charlie because of his friendly nature and tenacity to learn. The operation is a success and slowly Charlie's intelligence begins to increase. He slowly comes to undertand the world around him. Before when people laughed at him, he laughed with them and considered them his friends. Now he realizes they were just making fun of him. He's also slowly unlocking the repressed memories deep in his mind of his childhood and trying to understand them. Why did his parents send him away when he was younger? Why does Norma (Matt and Rose Gordon's second child of normal intelligence) hate her so much? As Charlie's IQ increases he realizes that people around him aren't as smart as he thought they were before the operation. Slowly he surpasses them in intellect until he begins to alienate himself from the people around him. He is alone again. There's so much more left to tell about this story, but I could never do it justice with this summary. I would urge the reader to read for themselves and be moved.

Ultimately Flowers for Algernon is a very sad story. And as the subject of my review states, I was reduced to tears. In fact, the last two pages of this book unlocked a torrent of emotions I never knew a book could. To me, this book is singular in that sense. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

This is absolutely the most important book I ever read in my life. "Travels" by Michael Crichton comes close in some ways, but basically this story is one of the most gripping I've ever encountered. It has been a short story, a novel, a movie, a Broadway play, and (I think) forms the basis for the 70s song "What's it all about... Char-liiieeeeeee..." Daniel Keyes drew upon Plato's cave allegory for a lot of the basic structure of the tale. ..

Keep a box of kleenex beside you as you read this. Charlie Gordon is a retarded man in his 30s, who is selected to be the subject of a new, highly experimental technique which will triple his "intelligence". What he does with the intelligence, and how he deals with it, are up to him, and he certainly runs into a lot of problems. I think in some ways, Keyes is not only writing about the relationship of the individual to capital-K "knowledge", but also about how we can get along with each other when we are all at different levels. Charlie's newfound, firey compassion for others in his old position, e.g. a retarded boy working in a restaurant who gets mocked, is compelling. You will want to meet Charlie Gordon, you can't help but respect hm as he grapples with major human issues... I first read this as a child, I would guess I was 9 or 10, and at that age I was most impressed with the "coolness" of the idea -- you can watch Charlie's intelligence climb steadily as he improves his spelling with each successive "progris riport" he writes. As an adult, I appreciate the different models of Mind that Keyes was playing with here, and how Charlie comes face to face with one human problem after another. The story also has a lot to say about the basic human drive to understand the universe and his place in it. I think this book could be quite inspiring to people with learning disabilities -- the image of Charlie totally flunking out of school, but then years later sitting still in a library, flipping pages of books at one page/second as he reads about the etymology of ancient languages, Hindu history, calculus, etc... It's just so inspiring. Good things happen to him because of his will to keep pushing himself, but also because he is naturally thoughtful, even when retarded, and likes to be reflective.... The ending will make you cry, I guarantee it. I was sort of reminded of the servant that Caesar used to take through the streets with him, when on parade, whose job it was to keep whispering in Caesar's ear "remember that you are mortal". Charlie is mortal too, and as his newfound brilliance wanes, and breaks down in the end, the reader is left feeling bewildered at the magnitude of the loss, and confused as to what to do with all the energy this book stirs up. I'm not sure what Keyes wanted us to do with that energy -- maybe turn it inwards, maybe use it to reach out to others... probably a little of each. Please read this story, and just mull it over a little. You won't regret it.

With Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes has created a story that has touched the hearts of millions. In this classic novel he tells the story of Charlie, a retarded man who undergoes an experimental proceedure to make him more intelligent. Surprisingly the process works amazingly well. Charlie gradually gets smarter. Eventually he would qualify as one of the most intelligent human beings in history. There is only one problem, the process is flawed. This flaw is emphasized when Algernon, a mouse test subject that has received the same treatment begins to regress. The mouse eventually dies as Charlie peaks and begins to regress himself. Unfortunately the only person smart enough to find out what is wrong is Charlie himself. The race is on for Charlie to find a cure before his regression leaves him once more retarded, or dead. This book is a tender, sad, and brilliant mirror on the light and darkness of the human spirit. There is also the underlying message of 'becareful what you wish for...you may get it.' I cannot recommend this book more highly. You will enjoy watching Charlie realize that being intelligent doesn't mean you don't have problems.

"Ignorance is bliss." In Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, a man named Charlie Gordon, who is living in New York in 1965, undergoes a medical operation aimed to triple his I.Q. of 68. The procedure is a success, and as a result, Charlie becomes extremely clever. He experiences true love for the first time with a woman named Alice, who used to teach Charlie to read and write before the operation. Along with his new smarts, however, Charlie begins to recall some upsetting memories about his troublesome childhood and he begins to see a darker side of life. Then, the book takes a dramatic turn, and his life changes completely...

I enjoyed reading this book very much because it is well written and so interesting. The story follows a journal-like format, and it is written in Charlie's point of view. This is a great quality of the book because you can observe Charlie's writing skills change as you read. At times this book is a bit slow, because his transformation takes time. There is some mature content in this book and I would recommend it to anyone over the age of 12 who wants to read a true classic.