"Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes

“Flowers for Algernon” is the story of Charlie and a mouse named Algernon. Algernon is one of the first test subjects of a surgery that makes you smarter. Charlie is a student at Beekman University Center for Retarded Adults. Charlie accepts to be a test subject for a procedure that increases your smartness which is the same surgery Algernon had. After the procedure Charlie spent several weeks with a bandage around his head he begins to be tested by people at the institute. The events happening at the beginning of the book are read as an entry in a journal that he is asked to keep. As the book progresses you notice small but significant changes in the entries such as him getting things that he didn’t get before as well as overall understanding. Also another interesting thing is the fact that at the beginning of the book Charlie tends to misspell some words and you see over time after the surgery he begins to spell the words correctly and use more complicated words. A example of this is misspelling a word like “science” by switching one of the 3 vowels. As the story continues Charlie becomes more of a science project for some of the doctors instead of a human being. But Charlie continues to live his life to the fullest until the doctors interfere, and cause him to run away. Algernon becomes more of a family member than a friend when Charlie picks him up and has him escape in his pocket. When life seems to be going peaceful for Charlie he finds a fatal flaw in the results of the procedure. Can Charlie save himself from being destroyed by the same procedure he thought would make things better or can he find a way out of this problem?

I thought the book was interesting. It has become one of my favorite books and I have read it countless times. I enjoy the fact that you can see the increase in Charlie’s I.Q. as the story continues because it brings an interesting element to the story. Some of the story’s characters are well rounded with maybe a slight problem with not showing enough emotion but others are interesting to have in the story, such as the artist who he lives next to who enjoys dancing and lots of vodka. The procedure could be called futuristic since we have nothing like in modern day and it would be years before we might even imagine we can increase somebody’s I.Q. levels. The medical tests used are simple and would probably used in order to help people who are recovering from head injuries or other problems involving the brain or eyes. The book is overall enjoyable even though at sometimes confusing because of the wording or because of the way the entry is written.

This is a book review of the novel version of “Flowers for Algernon,” but there’s also a story version. Beside the length, there are several interesting differences between the short story and the novel. For instance, the short story has Charlie as a 37-year-old where Charlie in the novel is only 32. Another difference is the fact that Charlie has a different job in each version which cause some plot changes.

This is a book you can read over and over again and never get tired of.

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