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Summary: Flowers For Algernon, A Book for the Dreamers
Review: Flowers for Algernon was a very unique book, and I have never read anything of the like. It was an amazing story, one which I greatly enjoyed. Although not one of the best books I have ever read, it can easily be compared to many of my favorites. It's a book that makes you think, that creates many feelings inside of you. A book that leaves you without a sense of fulfillment, that there should be something more, that you want more. Many of the most brilliant stories I have ever read end like this, one of the reasons that makes it so magical. The ending leaves you begging for more, except that there is none. You have to create any more from your own imagination. If you have no imagination, then this kind of story would be near pointless for you to read. But, if you are one of those with a very avid imagination, then Flowers for Algernon would be a perfect book for you. It is not a diffucult book, and would probably take you only a few days to read or less, but is has a story that you will think over and remember for years to come.
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Summary: Flowers For Algernon
Review: Flowers For Algernon
By: Daniel Keyes
Reviewed by K. Wong
P.6This book is about a 32 year old man named Charlie. He worked at a bakery. He wasn't like other people. Charlie wanted to learn how to read, write, and go to college. He would write in a journal everyday about what he's thinking. One day Charlie took a test to see if he can be operated on to be smarter. He did the operation and he tried doing some mazes with a mouse that had the same operation done to him. It took a long time to see if he was getting smarter. He still had to write in the journal everyday. Before the operation was done, his writing was weird but a few weeks after the operation was finished, his writing got better.
I like this book because it's about a person who really wants to learn something. He wanted to get smart and go to college. There was an operation done to him so he would get smarter. Everyday that he writes in his journal you can see he is getting smart because his spelling and grammar is improving. That was the first time that experiment has been done to a person.
"He sed sit down Charlie and make yourself cunfortible and relax." This is what Charlie wrote in his second entry before he was operated on. "As far as I can tell, in the daysbefore the operation, I never really understood what planes were." That was a quote after the operation was done.
My favorite part in the book is when they start doing the operation on him. A few days after he has to listen to a TV that helps you learn. It teaches you in your sleep too. I also like the part where his co-workers try to get Charlie in trouble with the boss. They try getting him in trouble by telling him to make dough when he isn't suppose to touch that machine to make dough. Charlie starts making the dough then Charlie's boss walks in and Charlie did a good job in making dough.
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Summary: This should be back in print
Review: I cant tell you how useful this book is. It really is awesome. I probably open it more times than any other book. I have found it to be an invaluable resource. It is a shame it isn't in print. I came on to buy 2 more copies for gifts.
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Summary: An Intelligent Tale
Review: I finally got around to reading this book after hearing about it(and seeing some of the movie). Overall,it's a great story. The author convincingly shows how Charlie goes from being mentally disabled to brillant within a few short months of being operated for an experiment about increasing IQ's that first was tried out on a mouse. People are a bit more complicated than lab mice,however,and therein lies the story. Charlie experiences a whole range of emotions and thoughts that make his life much more complex and confusing and at times makes you wish that he was never used as a "guinea pig". In the end, however,you end up rooting for him and hope he stays where he is mentally. How he gets money for an apartment,etc is glossed over but that's a minor flaw in an otherwise,fascinating,involving story.
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Summary: Fascinating and very original
Review: I'm not a big fan of science fiction. Although this is classified as science fiction, it isn't the type of book that could easily fit into one specific genre. It raises philosophical questions about the nature of knowledge,genetic engineering, and the human spirit.
The plot is fairly straightforward. Charlie is a mentally challenged man who works in a bakery and remembers little about his real family. He attends classes at a special education center for adults. Through this center he meets Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss. They preform an operation that alters his cpacity to abosrb and understand information, giving him a "super genius" I.Q.
The book is written from Charlie's perspective and follows his mental state from an eager, well-meaning, mentally challenged man, to a cynical, super-intelligent observer of human folly. The transformation in Charlie's emotinal state as well as his overall capacity to understand the world is what makes Flowers for Algernon so fascinating. I also found Charlie's recollections about his family very revealing. Through his memories, the reader is able to witness how a strugging family deals with having a mentally challenged child. His mother was an especially interesting character. I thought one of the best scenes in the book is when he goes back to confront her after "becoming smart". I had one image in my mind of what his mother would be like, but then when he met her in person I was amazed at just how frail and utterly human she actually was. The role reversal between Charlie and his mother and sister after his transformation is astounding. The ending of the book brought me to tears. I was really moved by the author's ability to capture the delicacy of the human mind as well as the stregnth of the spirit.
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Summary: RU smart?
Review: It is a human quest to search for what we are, what makes us what we are. In Daniel Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon", Charly, the main character, is in search of these things -- with that, the writer pose a simples question: what makes us what we are? Charly is a mental disabled thirty something who accepts to go through a surgery that is expected to improve his intelligence and make him a `normal person'.
The very same procedure has been successfully done to a white mouse, named Algernon. After Charly meets the hamster he is impressed of how smart the animal is, and believe that he can be even smarted than it. And he (and his doctors) is right. After the intervention, the man's IQ is skyrocketed. He starts to learn contemporary and dead languages, understand economy, geopolitics, and science... anything. Charly is a sponge that absorbs as much information as he comes across.
But, like everything in life, there is an on-the-other-hand. Charly past memories -- that seemed to be lost somewhere in his mind -- start to arise and they are not pleasant. Most of them are related to how their parents dealt with his inabilities when he was a child. Both of them weren't able to deal with a special kid. And, while the father tried to seek for some help and loved his son, the mother pretended he was normal, at first. After another daughter is born, his mother starts to avoid Charly until she forces the father to commit him to mental facility.
As these facts are remembered, Charly's mind starts to play tricks on him. What was real? What was a dream? What has he made up? There aren't simple answers for that. But he wants to clarify these points. At the same time, Algernon, the mouse, starts to show the first sings of deterioration. He is not as bright as he used to be. Moreover, Charly becomes a sort of celebrity in the medical world. His doctors want to show him in a convention as the living proof of how their methods can increase intelligence and help everybody -- not only disabled people.
Everything is told by Charly, who writes compulsively reports about his evolution. One of the most interesting things about "Flowers for Algernon" is its language. At first it is like an illiterate child, with many grammar and spelling mistakes. As Charly's mind starts to evolve, so does his language and ability to express himself.
But, little did Charly know that mankind is more complex and difficult than he could imagine. He starts to realize that the people he thought to be his friends are not really friends, and when love comes up, the man realizes that it is a complex feeling and no matter how bright you are, it is always difficult to deal with this feeling.
Keyes has created a magnificent cast of characters. From the believable Charlie to his teacher and lover Alice, everyone is very human. His parents are beautifully developed. And however much you may hate the mother for how she treats her son, you can't blame her. The doctors, mostly Nemur --who is believed to have done something important for the mankind-- are part humanist, and part mad scientists, like Dr. Frankenstein -- and at one point, the creation surpasses the creator.
"Flowers for Algernon" is considered science fiction. But this is one those books that makes you think and consider a many ethical and moral issues, when you try to bring the plot to real life. This is kind of science fantasia that we should encourage to be largely explored in movies and books, so that in the real world we would never take such a dangerous step.
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Summary: Moving, wonderful, sad, and life-affirming
Review: Oh, my God! This book is just incredible. There are only a handful of books that I've read over the years that really "stuck" with me. Books that I refuse to lend to people for fear they won't give them back. FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON is one such book. McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD was another. ALGERNON reminded me somewhat of the movie AWAKENINGS with Robbin Williams (an excellent film by the way). But if you get past they "story" of the book, you'll see that ALGERONON is also a commentary on human nature, or the lack thereof. I literally wanted to strangle some of the characters, especially the ones who were laughing at Charlie behind his back. And how painful this book becomes when the main character comes to realize this! Is it better to be in the dark? This book is just wonderful and I can't recommend it enough.
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Summary: One of The Worst Books Ever Written
Review: Okay, I bought this book yesterday after reading the million positive reviews on amazon saying that this book was heartbreaking, moving, profound, etc. And at the bookstore the clerk even said "Great Book," as I bought it. So I came home to read it and had high hopes and for the first pages, I was actually fooled into thinking it was a good book because it kept my attention and was not boring. But... if you think about it, this book is written from the point of view of a retarded man and so it is almost impossible not to be interesting at first. This is because the voice is so new and weird, and you get interested for novelty value. See also, catcher in the rye, the bell jar, and the curious incident of the dog at nighttime. these books all have basically insane or retarded main characters and are okay for the first few pages. But then you keep reading and it gets annoying. As soon as Charlie starts speaking smartly the book turns to sentimental dreck, like Nick hornby or Nick Sparks. And you can probably see that the writing goes down in quality too. I think Mr. Keyes should have stuck with writing like a retard because when he doesn't, he just sounds even more retarded. Here is a line: "Each step forward was caution. At what point would the ground give way and plunge me into anxiety?" that is supposed to be smart. So I guess when someone turns smart he starts using obtuse metaphors and overgeneralized words like "anxiety" to describe emotions?
I guess it's kind of sad, for the rat, but I have shed no tears over the fate of Charlie. He was unlikeable as a retard and even more hateable as a smart person. Who needs him? He should have been the one to die and the mouse should have got the job at the bakery.
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Summary: One of the few truly moving novels I've read
Review: So a good friend of mine told me about this book called Flowers For Algernon. I had never heard of it, but he said it was really good and recommended it to me. I asked a few other friends, and naturally, they had already read it in like seventh grade. I'm thinking, what the [heck], why haven't I read this book. So I picked it up from my college library, and good God, this book is amazing. The story is narrated by the main character, Charlie, a mentally retarded adult who is part of an experiment that involves surgery on the brain that makes him extremely intelligent. The book is written in the form of Charlie's "progress reports," and is a very original and emotional story. The story starts out with Charlie as he is before the operation, and he explains the procedure by telling the effects it has on a lab mouse that he likes, named Algernon. As the reader gets further into the novel, Charlie's narration gets much more intelligent, and rather than looking and reading like something written by a little kid, it reads and looks like a novel. From then on, the story takes the reader through an emotional journey with Charlie as he learns about his life, his family, love, and who he really is. Author Daniel Keyes creates the most original story and the most wonderful character in literature with Flowers For Algernon, and I highly recommend that you get this book.
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Summary: Read this book!!!!!!!!
Review: So far I've only read a short version in my English class, buy I plan to get the complete book soon. This is one of the best books I've ever read!! It's a great about the human quest for knowlage and partly about human cruelty (as it shows how Charlie's "friends" make fun of him). Over all I highly recommend this book.
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