Flowers for Algernon

This book was written in 1966 and I read it the first time in the 1970’s when I was a teenager. It had a profound affect on me and I still remembered that feeling after all of these years. I wanted to reread it to find out why it affected me. It remains very moving but not as much as when I was younger. Luckily these days we have more understanding of the mentally challenged and we do treat them better!

This is a book I've read 3 times over the years, and it is just as powerful and moving every time I read it. Charlie's life and growth is fascinating. I couldn't help crying several times during the book. This is one of those life changing books, that after you read it, you never see the world the same way again. Please read this if you haven't already, you won't regret it!

The story helps us understand the suffering endured by individuals with cognitive impairments. Charlie’s attempts to belong to family and friends leads him punishing situations both with a low IQ and a high IQ This book is a valuable read for educators, medical and social service practitioners.

I loved this book. It was recommended to me, and I thought to myself, this is not my type of book. Boy, was I wrong! Highly recommend it!

I remember seeing the movie “ Charly” many years ago it was based on this book. After reading the book, I want to watch it again.

Being smart isn’t everything. Having feelings and caring is more important. Charlie got a glimpse of another world. Unfortunately, it was only a glimpse.

A mentally handicapped man is used in an experiment to make him smarter. IThe same experiment Awww done on a mouse called Algernon. The experiment works… or does it? An excellent story about the human mind and heart.

This was by the far one of the saddest books I ever read; and yet, it was also incredibly impactful. This is definitely a book that is going to stay with me for a long time. I liked that it has a unique writing style. I highly recommend that everyone read this.

This book is incredible, and truly deserves all the accolades it has received.What i love about this book is that while the writing itself is simple and easy going, allowing the reader to just fall into the story without distraction, the story itself is incredible in its depth and scope.I would definitely throw this book in with ‘Black Swan Green’ into the teenage education syllabus.Essentially a man with an IQ of 70 is given an operation and turned into a genius after the incredible success of performing the same procedure on a white mouse named Algernon. But where an isolated laboratory mouse appears a total success, a human being with a very challenging past that the new found intelligence has to come to terms with while navigating his way into a new life that he is completely unprepared for in every way, is a totally different story altogether.For the first 15 years of my life i lived with a very damaged heart and was extremely ill and disabled, only to have my heart fixed at 15 and then left to come to terms with all that had happened to me. Needless to say, it didn’t go very well. And reading this book about a child who was extremely mentally disabled who suddenly gets fixed brought a lot of those old feelings from my own experiences back. At one point i almost gave up reading it, it became so upsetting. But the book is so well written and i just had to keep going to find out what happens to Charlie. I’m glad i did.There is so much truth in this book about the way people are and how they treat those they perceive as lesser than, and also those they perceive as more than. Add to all that, there are also many parallels between Charlie’s story and the changes between drug addiction and sobriety. Which, again, i know from experience. There is, quite simply, a great deal for everyone to learn from this book.And there’s also so much in this book that leaves me looking forward to reading it again in the future — after its percolated through my conciousness for a while — as i really don’t think one reading can ever do it the justice it deserves.And that ending…

I didn't plan on reading this book, but I wasn't in the mood for the one I picked as my next read and so I started browsing my ever so expanding Kindle library and stumbled upon the Flowers for Algernon and decided to read a chapter. That chapter turned into more than half of the book as I couldn't stop reading the heartbreaking journey of Charlie Gordon. It was a delight to get to know Charlie who is such a sweet lovable character."I just want to be smart like other pepul so I can have lots of frends."Despite his low IQ of 68, he is trying really hard to learn and become smart. Charlie agrees to have an experimental brain surgery previously tested only on a mouse - Algernon. Throughout the experiment, Charlie writes daily reports to document his progress and shift to the other side of the intelligence spectrum. It was both fascinating and also emotional to read how Charlie's perception of people close to him started changing with his increasing IQ and growing self-awareness."I never knew before that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around just to make fun of me."Charlie also notices that people start to behave differently around him once they realise he is no longer the dummy who sweeps the floors. They distance themselves as they don't recognise the new Charlie who lost his innocence and the friendly smiling face."I don't know what's worse, to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you've always wanted to be, and feel alone."I can't quite believe this book was written in 1958. The story remains timeless and it's guaranteed it will break your heart and provoke many questions about humanity and our behaviour. Recommended to everyone.

Goodness me, this has to be one of the most beautifully written and emotional books I've ever read. Science Fiction is as far from my comfort zone as you can get, but this... well, it's just fantastic. Charlie Gorden has an extremely low IQ. He is the butt of everyone's jokes, but thinks people are laughing with him, and not at him. My heart went out to Charlie. Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone an operation to make him so clever, he's a genius of a mouse. When Charlie is chosen to have the same operation to 'make him smart' he gradually changes to the point where he too is considered a genius. But then, Algernon starts to deteriorate and it becomes clear to Charlie that the same will happen to him. He just doesn't know how long he has. The book broke my heart as Charly battles first of all with his low intelligence, the awful treatment doled out to him by his own family and co-workers, to intelligent Charlie and his battle with how to handle relationships and how to be recognised not as a laboratory experiment, but a human being. Absolutely wonderful.

This novel is an expanded version of what was originally a short science fiction story. Lots of reviewers have responded emotionally to it but I don’t think that was the author’s original intention. I think the story is intended to be a dramatised examination of the ethical and moral aspects of a particular area of scientific possibility. In modern times, those possibilities (in the form of genetic engineering, for example) are much closer to becoming a reality than they were at the time the story was written. Charlie, in his various versions, is as much a creation of the author as the ‘genius’ version was a creation of the scientists in the story. I think the questions which this book addresses are concerned with attempting to find a definition of the concept of ‘self’ and whether it is right to try to change people into what might or might not be something better. Which version of Charlie is his real ‘self’? Did the scientists actually change him into someone else, or was he the same person all along? When the experiment failed, did Charlie go back to being his old self or did he, once again, become somebody completely new?

This book is a classic, but I'd never read it. So when it came up on my Kindle, I bought it. I'm so glad I did.This is the kind of Sci Fi I like.Charlie has a low IQ, but he's not aggressive (in fact, he's very nice and kind) and has the urge to better himself. He undergoes an experimental treatment to increase his IQ. The mouse that the treatment was tested on before Charlie is Algernon. At the start of the book, Algernon is able to navigate a maze faster than Charlie.The story is told through Charlie's notes/ diary that he has to keep for the experiment. You see him go from being well meaning and confused, to increasingly intelligent until he's passed everyone he knows. The scenes where he realises that the colleagues who he thought were his friends and were laughing with him, were actually laughing at him, is heart breaking. Actually, quite a lot of the book is heartbreaking. You feel anguish for Charlie as he was and for Charlie as he has become. It's an incredibly moving book, quite sad, but thought provoking. I will be thinking about this one for days. I'll probably re-read it.