Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

Flowers for Algernon is a heartfelt tale reflecting on the twists and turns of a retard come genius, via a scientific experiment to increase his intelligence. Charlie Gordon works in a bakery as a menial servant, he becomes the butt of mocking jokes from his colleagues, much to his enjoyment as he perceives these people as his friends, he’s happy, and attends a school for retarded adults, where he has managed to learn to read and write. As he is a friendly and amiable human being, his selection as a test subject is made, and he undergoes the same procedure enacted upon a mouse called Algernon.

This is a brilliantly engaging novel that is related to us by Charlie and his progress reports on his life, beginning with his life just before his operation. Charlie is instantly likable as a person, not only though the sympathy generated from his present life which is full of scorn and ridicule, but when he relates his past, informing us of a mother convinced he can be made ‘normal’ and be like the other children.

A winner of the Hugo award in short story format in 1959, and the Nebula in novel form in 1966, Daniel Keyes created a classic moral story, as Charlie searches deep within himself for what really makes him happy, whether its his new found intelligence or a life where he isn’t aware and happy because of that.

It’s easy to get in the story, told as it is, through the viewpoint of Charlie writing his ‘progress reports’. An excellent ‘window’ into the mindset and mechanics of a changing life, this is a flawless novel that really gets the reader involved on a personnel level, the writing is addictive once started, and the many emotional impacts throughout are engrossing, a masterwork in every sense of the word.

Flowers for Algernon - 9.5 / 10