FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON (SF MASTERWORKS REISSUE)

The book was everything I thought it was and more. It was a touching story because somehow even if not retarded, we are all once or forever part of the rat race and get smarter so it gives some kind of relatable feelings. To know someone achieve it all and then loose it all and can't help it was a touching emotion. Author did a good job there. He was able to instill a feeling of definite helplessness. It's a good read and I will recommend to everyone I can.

Thought provoking, poignant and you realise how little science has been able to decipher on how the human brain works. This book is going to stay with me for a long time!

One of the most heart wrenching books that I have ever read! Although primarily sci-fi, it leans more towards literary fiction. Written in the form of progress reports, this story is a record of the journey of mentally challenged man who becomes super intelligent for a short period of time. This book impacted me deeply with its multilayered protagonist and emotionally deep and complex narrative. This story also highlighted the challenges faced by mentally deficient people in the world

I read it in one go cause it's so amazing and intresting that'll bound you to the story

This book made me reflect a lot about life. I wish I could have been Charlie's friend since the start. My own brother has classic autism and we live in a charitable society for the intellectually disabled people and their families. One boy here is exactly like Charlie. I read this book while keeping him in my visualism. Maybe the author had a relative who was intellectually disabled, because he had spoken about the emotions with such clarity, that it's impossible to feel apathetic. I'd recommend this book to every person who breathes air.

Probably the most important story you will read in your life. Definitely should be.

make me emotional, it touches essense of human existence! It describes whole life of most of persons not all but little bit important part of everyone!

One of the best books I have ever read.

Me encantó la portada y la pasta dura. Vale la pena la espera.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is one of those books which every literate person in America should be familiar with, at least to the extent of knowing the basic plot. It has been taught in schools, and has been challenged for being inappropriate. Flowers for Algernon has won awards and been adapted for the television, radio, and film. There aren't many science fiction novels which have had the kind of influence that Flowers for Algernon has had. The plot is straightforward enough. Charlie Gordon is a thirty-two year old retarded man who works in a bakery. All his life, he has desperately wanted to be smart. He gets his chance when he is selected to be the first human subject for an experimental technique for raising intelligence. This new procedure has already proved to be effective on a mouse named Algernon and the scientists have good reason to believe that it will be just as effective on a human being. The procedure is successful and soon Charlie is as far above average in IQ as he was below. Charlie discovers, however, that high intelligence is not without its own problems. He becomes bitter and anti-social when he learns that his "friends" at the bakery only liked him because they laughed at him and took advantage at him. The scientists he believed were geniuses turn out to be knowledgeable only in narrow fields. Charlie is as much as outsider with a genius level IQ as he was when he was retarded and this time he knows it. Worst of all, Charlie's own research reveals that the success of the procedure is only temporary. He will lose his intelligence as quickly as he gained it. In the end, Charlie is back to the level he was at the start of the book, except perhaps a little wiser than he was even at his height. He can no longer understand the contribution he made to science but he at least regained the humanity he came near to losing, and he understands what it is to be smart a little better. Daniel Keyes did a wonderful job conveying Charlie Gordon's growth and decline through the medium of Charlie's journals or progress reports that he is required to write as part of the experiment. The earliest entries show a naïve and simple Charlie with misspellings and grammatical mistakes. Charlie really doesn't understand what is going on around him, yet he wants to be liked. People do like him, even his friends who laugh at him, because of his determination to learn as much as he can despite his limited intelligence. As Charlie gains in intelligence, his spelling and punctuation become more correct and he begins to use a more advanced vocabulary. He also begins to be less likable and more arrogant. As Charlie begins to revert to his earlier state, the language he uses in writing the progress reports also deteriorates. This last section of the book is heartbreaking and more than a little terrifying. There are few things that most people dread more than losing their minds. Even death is seen as preferable and fear of death is often really fear of oblivion or mindlessness. Keyes is very good at expressing Charlie's dread and fear as he sinks back into subnormal intelligence. Flowers for Algernon, then, is a book well worth rereading, or reading for the first time if you have somehow managed to avoid it all these years. The novel was published in 1966 and was an expansion of a short story Keyes wrote in 1958 so it may be somewhat dated. One hopes that people like Charlie Gordon are somewhat better treated today, though substitution intellectually challenged for retarded is not really an improvement if the people saying intellectually challenged still regard them as subhuman. These dated parts do not detract in the enjoyment of the book and are scarcely noticeable in a book that has become a classic

Lovely hardcover edition of a truly magnificent book…

This is an extraordinarily well written masterpiece. Charlie is intellectually disabled. Algeron is a mouse. Firstly Algeron then Charlie has an operation to improve intelligence. Charlie can see the effects on Algeron and gradually he similarly becomes more intelligent. Indeed a genius. This change does not necessarily result in happiness. The writing is very clever. The story is related as diary entries by Charlie. The entries reflect his intellectual capacity. Very clever. This Is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Highly recommended.