A review by nolawords
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book: a comet – a brief, bright, delightful arc.

 

Flowers for Algernon tells the story of Charlie, an intellectually disabled adult who is selected as the first human to undergo the interventions of a clinical trial aimed at increasing a species’ IQ. What transpires is an overwhelming journey for Charlie who, in a flash, confronts and must wrestle with the human experience. The novel is told from the point of view of Charlie’s own writings (called “progress notes”) that he dictates throughout the course of his contact with the experiment.

 

This book provides a rollercoaster of emotions - from sympathy, grief and anger to love, tenderness, and acceptance. Feeling the full range of human emotion, through the lens of Charlie’s experiences, was sharp, poignant, and insightful. I thought that Keyes provided great depth into larger questions of life and existence, impressively achieving this through a very narrow perspective and time frame.

 

I believe reflective of the times this book was published, some of the language and terminology around persons with disabilities seemed antiquated. I craved more drawn out development of Charlie’s transformations, but I understand the style choice to create a short timeline which made this book a punchy read.

 

I enjoyed this very much. 4 / 5 stars.