A review by rlgreen91
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

emotional reflective sad fast-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? Yes

4.0

There were a lot of gems about human nature and ability in this book - almost enough to distract me from the sadness pervading it and my question of why a book club would choose to read this during the holidays.  But alas, there's no escaping it - this is a sad book.  Hopefully, it's something that also makes you think about the nature of human ability and how we treat people based on where they fall in the spectrum of human ability.  As much as we may wish some of the depictions are dated artifacts of 1960s New York, the fact is that many of them are still present today, just in a slightly different way.

Overall, this was a good, although not necessarily enjoyable, read.  I could have done without the whole Alice/Fay plotline though. 4 stars.
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