Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #482439 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-14
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

a touching, intelligent story
This award-winning novel by Daniel Keyes is nearly perfect in its execution, with perhaps the minor quibble of some dated slang that's a slight detraction. But that alone is not enough to prevent the book from receiving a well-deserved five stars. Keyes doesn't hit a false note in his story of the rise and fall of Charlie, a mentally retarded custodian at a bakery who briefly becomes a towering genius thanks to an experimental brain operation, only to loose it all as the effects turn out to be temporary. Worse, Charlie's deterioration is beyond even his advanced abilities to stop or reverse it; he has to bear the slow terror of sliding back down to his previous diminished mental capacity, with the hint that he- like Algernon, the lab mouse of the book title that was first to benefit from the operation- might die too. Although considered by some to be a "just" a sentimental story with a tearjerk ending, Charlie is a fully realized character from start to finish, one whose plight keeps you turning the pages, which is why this novel rates so highly. If you're a new fan of science fiction, or just want to sample what the genre has to offer, Flowers for Algernon should be high on your "must read" list. A newer novel with a similar theme is An Audience for Einstein, another book with an emotionally charged, touching ending.

A well-written story.
I thought this was a very well written book, and the subject was so original. The story is about a man named Charlie who is mentally challenged and longs to be smart. Scientists decide to use him for an experiment which will raise his I.Q to a level of genius. The experiment has only been performed on animals before and worked exceptionally well on a mouse named Algernon, who Charlie later adopts.

The book is written though Charlie's eyes, we read his Progress Reports, which the scientists use to asses his intelligence. We follow Charlie through his growth in intelligence and see how he learns about himself, the world around him and his disturbing past. The no longer innocent Charlie discovers his intelligent isn't permanent and just as we watched his climb, he watch his downfall.

It was defiantly a moving story, as well as thought provoking. It explores delicate topics such as mental illnesses and the rights of science very well and shows it to us from a different view.

MOVING AND THOUGHT PROVOKING...
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 which would to raise 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.