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Flowers for Algernon

by Daniel Keyes

3.86 · rating details · 74,558 ratings · 3,081 reviews

Alternate cover version of ISBN 0151315108.

Flowers for Algernon is a scifi story & subsequent novel written by Daniel Keyes. 1st published in the April '59 Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, it won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in '60. The novel was published in '66 & was winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel.
The titular Algernon is a labo...moreAlternate cover version of ISBN 0151315108.

Flowers for Algernon is a scifi story & subsequent novel written by Daniel Keyes. 1st published in the April '59 Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, it won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in '60. The novel was published in '66 & was winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel.
The titular Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to increase intelligence. The story is told as a series of "progress reports" written by Charlie, the first human subject for the surgery, & touches upon different ethical themes such as the treatment of the mentally disabled.
The story has been adapted for other media including tv, dramatic & musical theatre, radio & as an Academy Award-winning film, Charly.
Ideas for Flowers for Algernon developed over 14 years & were inspired by events starting in '45 with conflict between his parents pushing him thru pre-med & his desire to write. His education was driving a wedge between him & his parents. This led him to wonder what would happen if it were possible to increase intelligence. Another occurred in '57, while Keyes was teaching English to special needs students. One asked if it would be possible to be put into regular class if he worked hard & became smart.
Book elements are based on events & people in Keyes' life. The character of Algernon was inspired by a dissection class, while the name came from the poet Algernon Swinburne. Nemur & Strauss, the scientists behind the intelligence enhancing surgery, were based on professors Keyes met while studying psychoanalysis.
In '58, Galaxy Science Fiction asked Keyes to write a story & the elements of Flowers for Algernon fell into place. On submitting the story to Galaxy, however, an editor suggested changing the ending so that Charlie retained his intelligence & married Alice. Keyes refused & sold it to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Keyes worked on the expansion from '62 to '65 & first tried to sell it to Doubleday. They also wanted a happy ending. Again, Keyes refused & returned the advance. Five publishers rejected the story over a year until it was published by Harcourt in '66.
The story & novel share plot points but the novel expands on Charlie's developing emotional state as well as intelligence, childhood memories & relations with Alice Kinnian. A number of minor details were also changed for the novel, including Charlie's age, his job & his employer's name.
In the novel, Charlie Gordon is a 32 year old with an IQ of 68 who works as a cleaner & makes deliveries at Donner's Bakery. His uncle got him a job there 17 years previous so that he would not have to live in the Warren State Home. Wanting to improve himself, Charlie attends reading & writing classes at the Beekman College Center for Retarded Adults taught by Alice Kinnian, a young, attractive woman.
Prof. Nemur & Dr Strauss of Beekman Univ. are looking for a human subject to test out an experimental procedure for increasing intelligence. The procedure has already been successfully carried out on Algernon, a lab mouse. Nemur & Strauss believe Algernon's increased intelligence is permanent. Alice recommends Charlie for the procedure & his motivation to learn makes him a prime candidate.
The procedure is a success Charlie's education & understanding increase rapidly until he's more knowledgeable than anyone around him, with an IQ of 185. Conversely, his relationships with people become difficult & he is fired from his job because his colleagues there are scared by him. Charlie also has a troubled romance with Alice. Even tho they develop strong feelings for each other, he is prevented from having a physical relationship by the spectre of a younger Charlie whom the older Charlie feels is always watching. Unable to get close to Alice, Charlie starts a purely sexual relationship with Fay Lillman, a vivacious & promiscuous artist.
Charlie notices flaws in the theories that led Nemur & Strauss to develop their intelligence-enhancing procedure. Algernon starts behaving erratically. His intelligence fades. He dies. Charlie starts working on the project himself & discovers his own increased intelligence is also only temporary.
As Charlie regresses intellectually, Fay becomes scared by the change & stops talking to him. Charlie finally attains sufficient emotional maturity to have a brief but fulfilling relationship with Alice. Despite regressing back to his former self, he still remembers he was once a genius & cannot bear everyone feeling sorry for him. Consequently, he decides to go to live at the Warren State Home where nobody knows about the operation. In a final letter to his friends he asks them to put flowers on Algernon's grave.(less)

Hardcover, 274 pages

Published March 1966 by Harcourt, Brace and World (NY) (first published 1959)

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May 16, 2007

Amy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: read-multiple-times, own

I first read this book in 8th grade, in my english class. I remembered enjoying it, being fascinated in how the author painted the picture that I really was reading Charlie's journal by use of spelling, grammar and punctuation related to the level Charlie was at when writing the entries. What I didn't know at the time was the people who created the text book I used felt it was okay to chop whole chapters out of the middle of the book. They felt pulling out whole sections was okay in the name of ...more

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Feb 21, 2012

Kristen rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: own, sci-fi, fiction

I liked this book because I too have a filthy rat for a friend.

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Mar 22, 2008

Hui Lin rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: people who wants to know MORE about people with disabilities

Shelves: 09th

Flowers for Algernon 2004, 311 pp.,$7.99
Daniel Keyes ISBN 9780156030083
“My name is Charlie Gordon…I am 32 years old…I don’t no why Im dumb…or what I did rong. Maybe its because I dint try hard enuf. ” Charlie Gordon isn’t like any adults that you see on the street. In this novel, Flowers for Algernon Charlie is a man who is naturally born with low IQ. But he does one thing that almost none of the men you see on the street could do. He changes the history of science with his h...more

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Feb 02, 2012

Rita rated it

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Recommends it for: Everyone, especially those who like to experience emotional journeys.

Shelves: sci-fi, own, all-time-favorite, 2010, my-reviews, fiction, 2011

This is a first person narrative that has been written as a series of progress reports from a deeply retarded man, who can barely be considered literate. His writing is fully of bad grammar and spelling mistakes. At first, if you are not prepared for it, this makes this book a little hard to read, and some passages even have to be re-read a couple of times before you understand them.

Our protagonist goes through experimental brain surgery, that has the effect of gradually increasing ...more

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Mar 18, 2008

Madame Charlotte rated it

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Shelves: science-fiction

Si dans votre entourage vous avez des personnes qui n’ont un mauvais a priori sur le SF, offrez-leur ce livre, cela leur montrera l’étendue des thèmes d’une genre aussi vaste que profond. Avec ce roman on touche au sublime. Une histoire poignante, celle d’un jeune homme attardé mental, qui souhaite plus que tout devenir intelligent. Une fois son rêve réalisé, il prend conscience du monde qui l’entoure, des individus, et aussi de lui-même en tant qu’être humain, avec son passé, et ses souvenirs j...more

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Nov 15, 2010

Simon rated it

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Shelves: sf-masterworks, sf

This has got to be one of my favourite sub-genres; psycological science fiction. This is up there with the likes of A Scanner Darkly and More Than Human. These are the sort of SF books that I would recommend to those who look down on the genre.

This book explores such themes as the nature of intelligence, the effects of intelligence on the way you see others and the world around you, as well as social attitudes towards people with mental problems.

The narrative structure i...more

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Jun 15, 2008

Ariella rated it

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An absolutely wonderful page-turner...

A simply incredible portraying of the emotions of humans. A mentally handicapped young man with a heart of gold plunges into the world of adulthood as he agrees to become an experiment to increase his intelligence.

This is officially the sweetest book ever. You will absolutely fall in love with the main character, Charlie, as you read this book. I know I did. This book is an INCREDIBLE example of human nature, and it touched me so much...more

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May 10, 2007

Jessica rated it

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I really enjoyed reading this book. It wasn't difficult and I got throught it in about a week.

I had read a very much shorter version of this story in about 8th grade, but I didn't remember much of it, so I was excited when I found this copy at a used book sale.

The story is of Charlie Gordon a mentally challenged man, who is able to recieve an operation to make him a genious.

The things I found most interesting was the relationship between his mental growth a...more

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Oct 30, 2008

Jim rated it

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Shelves: science-fiction

If you haven't read it, you should. I never re-read this book, although I get it out & look at it occasionally. It's too heart breaking.

Charlie, the title of the movie made from this book & the name of the hero, is retarded. Science gives him intelligence, along with Algernon, a lab rat. The story is told through Charlie's diary & feels very personal. Very well done.

*** Spoiler Alert *****

Charlie gains intelligence, love & yet no mastery o...more

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Oct 31, 2011

Michael rated it

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Shelves: books-i-have-reviewed

When I was in junior high school the movie Charly was big. Everyone saw it, and one girl, I can’t remember her name, had a Charly protective book cover and was so obsessed with the movie that she’d write the name, with the backwards “R” on everything, including adding it as a middle name to her own name on tests and papers she would hand in. She was in all the school plays and sang beautifully so my guess is her connection was with the play and the movie as opposed to the subject of the story. O...moreWhen I was in junior high school the movie Charly was big. Everyone saw it, and one girl, I can’t remember her name, had a Charly protective book cover and was so obsessed with the movie that she’d write the name, with the backwards “R” on everything, including adding it as a middle name to her own name on tests and papers she would hand in. She was in all the school plays and sang beautifully so my guess is her connection was with the play and the movie as opposed to the subject of the story. Or maybe she just had a thing for Cliff Robertson.

Flowers for Algernon is expanded from an original short story and is the tale of Charlie Gordon, a retarded man with an IQ of 68. Chosen to take part in a groundbreaking experiment, Charlie soon finds himself gaining knowledge at record speed until, in a short period of time, his IQ nearly triples.

Written in epistolary style, the plot is moved along through Charlie’s regular 'Progress Reports' which he begins writing just before his operation and detail his day-to-day life and thoughts. Even if you haven’t seen the movie or read the short story, Charlie’s journey is easy to predict, but that doesn’t ruin the story, it makes it all the sadder.

There were some passages that made me think the book was maybe a little too long and that maybe some of those slower passages took away from the overall story, but once I was past them I realized that wasn’t the case. Those passages were just different pieces to the puzzle and only added to the richness of the story and to the depth of Charlie.

There’s a scene about halfway through the book where Charlie goes to a diner after taking a walk. Charlie is watching the restaurant’s busboy working, and he recognizes something of himself in the 16-year-old worker. As Charlie watches, the busboy drops some dishes and the restaurant manager comes over and begins verbally abusing the boy who cowers in terror of being hit. Eventually the restaurant customers begin teasing the boy and Charlie watches, seeing himself in the boy, until he can’t watch any longer. Charlie stands and shouts for everyone to leave the boy alone because he can’t help who he is. He’s just human. Charlie leaves the restaurant in shame and thinks to himself, “How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibility, who would not take advantage of a man born without arms or legs or eyes – how such people think nothing of abusing a man born with low intelligence.” I share that passage because the message I took from Flowers for Algernon was that there are bits of Charlie - both pre and post-operation Charlie - in everyone. If we forget that, or lose that, then we start to lose our humanity and our connection to the world and at that point it doesn't matter if our IQ is 68 or 185. In the end, our lives aren’t measured by how smart we are, but by how we treat others and interact with others. Our humanity isn't a measure of our intelligence, but rather whether or not we can remember flowers for Algernon.

Flowers for Algernon is a beautiful story.(less)

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May 31, 2008

Leslie rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 06, 2008

Jackie rated it

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Shelves: youth-school-reading, pleasure-reading, formative, 5-star

This is one of my favorite books, and movies, of all time. Gotta love a good tear jerker told in a profound way.

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Oct 29, 2008

Jean Holloway rated it

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Oh, my, I'd forgotten about this one. An ALL-TIME fav! I laughed, cried, U name it. WONDERFUL!!

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Oct 10, 2010

Lowed rated it

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Algernon-Gordon Syndrome

The power indicator lit up and a humming sound from the amplifier was audible to the sensory perceptions. I pressed the number five button on the remote to get to the music I intend to listen to, and Gilman started to be heard from the speakers:

"My time on Earth
Long as it seems
Is just a moment
In the grande scheme of things

A short refrain
Of life's endless song
Sung only once
And then we're gone"

...more

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Aug 14, 2010

Ranee rated it

· review of another edition

Before anything else, I thank Emir for this book.

The story is simple, the approach is complexed. But over all, it was a good read. To summarize it, the book is all about acceptance.
The main character of the book is Charlie, a simpleminded individual given a chance to fulfill his wish, to fit in. As a child, he disappointed his mother for just being himself. He was a moron, an idiot, his intelligence is below par. He did not comprehend this but his heart did, all these repr...moreBefore anything else, I thank Emir for this book.

The story is simple, the approach is complexed. But over all, it was a good read. To summarize it, the book is all about acceptance.
The main character of the book is Charlie, a simpleminded individual given a chance to fulfill his wish, to fit in. As a child, he disappointed his mother for just being himself. He was a moron, an idiot, his intelligence is below par. He did not comprehend this but his heart did, all these repression placed in a time capsule.
When some apparent genius offered him additional intelligence, he was more than happy to do so. It was a chance to see his mother's smile for once, to know that her Charlie is like any other kid not the one that wets on his pants, not the one that can's spell his name right. But this perceived acceptance is temporary, as he reaches the zenith of his mental capacity, his satiety for knowledge overwhelms his environment. After all, things that are left unexplained causes a stir to everyone else. With his newfound knowledge comes greater responsibilities, more moral and ethical issues. And yes, more emotional dilemma. All he had was knowledge, he lacked the experience that comes along with age. And when experience tries to catch up with his IQ, it burns him, like a CPU's hard drive rigged to go faster than it was originally built.
Things in his past haunted him, repressed memories were given meaning, things he thought he knew were given new understanding. Even the good became bad, and the bad, were highlighted. And in the end, when he thought he now belongs to the crowd, he finds himself alone with his mouse named Algernon.
Was it a bad idea to yearn for more knowledge? Was it bad to actually have comprehension?
My heart went to Charlie, it was waking up with a bad joke written in his forehead. He wanted to fit in. But he was in the wrong crowd. People liked him because everyone felt superior around him and they were supposedly his friends and when he was smart and them, inferior, they hated and feared him. Those are not friends at all. But I felt it was important for him to undergo all of this. This was a way of him saying that he has lived his life. He has built memories that he may not remember in the end but others will, and this will never be negated. Charlie existed, he has loved, he has cried and actually laughed without being the butt of the joke.
Knowledge is not bad. Happiness is not reciprocal to the amount of knowledge. I strongly believe they are directly proportional. Acceptance however is a different story, like I've said, he simply was in the wrong crowd.

(less)

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Aug 14, 2009

Robert rated it

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Shelves: fiction

From a severely retarded bakery worker to a genius at the highest echelons of the scientific world, the journey of Charlie Gordon is a humorous and often heart breaking one of self discovery and a testament to the riddle of what it means to be truly "intelligent." When Charlie is approached by scientists at a local university to be part of a breakthrough experiment to enhance his I.Q, he seizes the opportunity. Finally, a chance to be smart like everyone else! As Charlie's I.Q grows, h...more

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Oct 17, 2008

Lucy rated it

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Another familiar title perched atop the "most commonly banned books in America." With that kind of attention, I just can't help myself.

I loved it. I really loved it. I even cried at the end, which is so, so rare these days (unless I read Nicholas Sparks who always seems to get me at the end with his overtly emotional drama. Blast him.).

Charlie Gordon is a thirty-two mentally retarded man with an IQ of 70. He works as a janitor and errand boy in a bakery and c...moreAnother familiar title perched atop the "most commonly banned books in America." With that kind of attention, I just can't help myself.

I loved it. I really loved it. I even cried at the end, which is so, so rare these days (unless I read Nicholas Sparks who always seems to get me at the end with his overtly emotional drama. Blast him.).

Charlie Gordon is a thirty-two mentally retarded man with an IQ of 70. He works as a janitor and errand boy in a bakery and considers his life good and happy because he has lots and lots of friends. He is aware, however, of not being very smart. He thinks if he can learn to read and write properly, he'll be smart and able to understand and participate in what everyone else is talking about.

When an opportunity to undergo an experimental surgery as part of a neuro-psychological study to artificially increase intelligence arises, he happily signs on. He can't wait to become smart.

Algernon is the name of a mouse who has reached unprecedented levels of intelligence following the same surgical procedure. Charlie, the first human subject, mirrors Algernon's success and reaches levels of intelligence far beyond what the doctors behind the study are capable of understanding. Alongside his increased intelligence are emerging emotional capabilities, such as romantic feelings towards women, and troubling memories he was previously unable to remember or understand with his lower IQ, about his childhood and friends.

The entire story is important and poignant. The author, Daniel Keyes, includes part of Plato's, The Republic, to begin the story. Plato writes:

Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderment of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den.

I don't know if he read Plato's words and then wrote this story, or if he serendipitously found it afterward, but it is the perfect prologue. As Charlie adjusts his sight from living in the den of his limited mind to the brighter light of understanding, the growing pains the rest of us have had years to adjust and become accustomed to, are uncomfortable and awkward.

Likewise, at the peak of Charlie's intelligence, when he viewed the world around him in the brightest light possible, Charlie understands the flaws of the experiment that those who developed it were unable to see. With that understanding, the tragedy of watching him lose his grip on so much knowledge feels overwhelming.

As far as being commonly banned, I have no idea, at all, how this could be. The only thing even mildly questionable, to me, is Charlie's struggle to come to terms with the negative sexual conditioning he received from his mother as a boy. As he begins to express the feelings he has for women in general, and specifically towards Alice, a woman he loves, he struggles to understand, beyond theoretically, the complexities of the male-female relationship. While these situations are included, I actually think it's a critical part of the discussion of light and dark. Perhaps not for middle schoolers, but definitely for those of us who live with our own conditioning and judgment.

I highly recommend reading this. Even if you know you've read it long ago for school, read it again as an adult. And then test your own eyes. (less)

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May 31, 2008

Julie rated it

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This book is about a human being who is born with undescribable low IQ. In this book, it is all written in a way that words are spelled incorrectly, which then improves as time passes. Since the protagonist is born with such low IQ, many people treat him low and takes advantage of him. As he gets treatments for this sickness or disorder, he starts to get better each day. He starts to understand life better, and his IQ increases uncontrollably. It might seem as thought the treatments are doing hi...more

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Oct 03, 2007

Joseph rated it

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Recommends it for: Teens

Shelves: booksiloved

I really liked this book because it gave me a harder understanding of what a person who is mentally challenged goes through. what i really liked about this book was that everything changed once Charlie got smarter. it is really exciting and cool. it is also really cool to actually get a look-at at what happens to people when others around them change.
what basically happens is that Charlie is a mentally challenged adult. he works in a cafe only because the owner knows him. he goes t...more

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Apr 29, 2008

Sri rated it

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A touching story about a man, named Charlie Gordon. He had low IQ and he realized that he was dumb :(. People made fun of him and he was happy for that. He laughed with them and he even considered them as nice friends :(. He was chosen as a research object in neurology field. After an operashun--operation, that's how Charlie spelled it-- he became smarter and smarter, even smarter than the neurologists who did the research. And, of course, smarter than Algernon, another research object, only it...more

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Oct 20, 2010

10-11Sarah rated it

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my teacher was reading this book to us, get the picture? YA it was Miss Maples but sadly my schedule was alterd so i was unable to listen to the rest of the book. But i want to read this sooooooo bad just because Miss Maples was reading it to me! Hows that for the power of reading?

I it read but it was the kid version!!! so it didn't have all the info but the ending is so sad, but you'll have to read it and find out!!

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Feb 13, 2007

Kitty-Wu rated it

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Un experimento neuropsicologico y sus consecuencias: unos cientificos someten a una operacion a un retrasado mental quien, rapidamente, experimenta una mejoría espectacular. Entonces se da cuenta de ciertas cosas...

Al principio me pareció que la transformación era muy rápida, que le faltaba algo, supongo que debido a que el personaje del Charlie "original" es entrañable, pero luego se aprecia que la gracia está en las cosas que puede "ver" y "descubrir" ...more

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Dec 31, 2008

Cassandra added it · review of another edition

This book taught me that sometimes we can take life for granted. Some people have life bad; if they're disabled in some way life is everything to them and they don't take it for granted. They cherish every moment and go on living each day happily while we can mope and be sad because we don't have this or that.

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Aug 06, 2007

Bryce rated it

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I was wandering through Barnes and Nobel when I picked up this book just to flip through. I had fond memories of it from middle school and decided I should revisit it.

Charley is a mentally handicapped man who is offered the chance to be the subject in a medical experiment; to have an operation that will make him smarter. The operation is a success and Charley becomes an unsurpassed genius.

My teacher must have assigned the abridged version, because I certainly don't remem...more

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Nov 12, 2008

Lavinia rated it

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Shelves: 2008, fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 15, 2008

Tal rated it

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I really enjoyed reading this book! I think it was great the contrast with mental age and emotional age. It was really strange the budding relationship between Charlie and the teacher - being a teacher. It well-written and easy to read. I like that it was mostly story and not a lot of background information - my best type of read! I was a little put off by the thought process that genius Charlie realized that retarded Charlie went through. That was not believable for me. Other than that - a real...more

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Mar 23, 2009

Kimberly rated it

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Recommends it for: someone in love.

I finished Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, which I picked up a few months back on some nostalgic childhood whim. I remember reading it when I was probably 10 or 11, I'm thinking it was 5th grade, and have been left all these years with the distinct impression that it was one of the best things I'd ever read. Not quite remembering the intricacies of the plot, I was curious to see why that was and if it is still true. It is.

I have said this before, although perhaps not comprehen...more

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Feb 12, 2009

Karen is currently reading it · review of another edition

This book is very interesting. I started to read it when I was in the 7th grade, but my teacher told me to stop reading it because it was "inappropriate". But even after I put the book back I knew it wouldn't be for long. The book stayed in my head. So I'll share a little bit about this fasinating book. It is about a man named Charlie Gordon. He is 34 years old and he is mentally retarded. Even though he is mentally retarded he tries extremely to "be smarter" as he says. That...more

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Feb 07, 2012

Adam Silvera rated it

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Shelves: 70-reads-for-2012

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. An entertaining and thoughtful read. I enjoyed watching Charlie's I.Q rise just as much as I cringed as it began to collapse. His mind's metamorphosis was absolutely interesting to follow, catching the subtle touches here and there of improvement and deterioration, but Charlie's story when he was just a "regular man" fell flat to me. I felt my attention drift, even during the somewhat thrilling scene where Charlie flee with Algernon in his pocket.

The parallels between Charli...moreAn entertaining and thoughtful read. I enjoyed watching Charlie's I.Q rise just as much as I cringed as it began to collapse. His mind's metamorphosis was absolutely interesting to follow, catching the subtle touches here and there of improvement and deterioration, but Charlie's story when he was just a "regular man" fell flat to me. I felt my attention drift, even during the somewhat thrilling scene where Charlie flee with Algernon in his pocket.

The parallels between Charlie/Algernon and Fay/Minnie was a highlight. Small but notable.

I'm not trying to pick at the book, I really did enjoy it, but I'm actually hoping someone can enlighten me on this. As a young dude who has failed science more times than he cares to admit, I couldn't help but wonder why these scientists didn't devote more times to the trials of Algernon and the other mice before jumping forward and testing this experiment on a human being. I mean, certainly there are a couple rungs on the ladder that we skipped, right? Not to throw the monkeys over the bridge, but come on! Did I miss something...? Obviously, it was a key point for the story when they see Algernon is losing it, and therefore, Charlie is likely bound for the same fate, but I was hoping for some... I don't know, acknowledgment from the author through Charlie or someone as to why this was. Charlie freaking out over this could've been impacting, maybe. I don't know. I'm not rewriting the story, it's just a hole I wanted filled. Maybe I missed something.

I had a quote that stuck out to me that I feel truly sums up this story:

"October 3 - Downhill. Thoughts of suicide to stop it all while I am still in control and aware of the world around me. But then I think of Charlie waiting at the window. His life is not mine to throw away. I've just borrowed it for a while, and now I'm being asked to return it."

That I loved!

The last journal entry was touching. Especially the last line. I give this book a High 3 and wouldn't ever dissuade someone from reading it. Hell, I think it's definitely worth discussing over dinner. (less)

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Jan 20, 2012

Jen Fabico rated it

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Shelves: adventure, romance, spirituality

At first, I was a little hesitant to pick up this book. I had no clue what it was about and the book clerk just told me it was a story about a disability. So I bought it. That's a good reason to buy a book, right?

It actually wasn't too bad of a book and made me think twice about our society today and the norms which we have created for ourselves. Not to say that the book was great, because it wasn't, but it definitely teaches the reader to question their own beliefs on human abilities ...more

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Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Flowers For Algernon Discussion	9	61	Feb 15, 2012 10:15am
Cliff Robertson died	8	87	Feb 15, 2012 09:50am
is it better to have learned and lost...?	15	58	Jan 01, 2012 06:26pm
MBC Book Club: The Movie	3	4	Nov 11, 2011 12:25pm
MBC Book Club: Discussion Questions	1	5	Nov 02, 2011 08:07am
Questions	11	137	Sep 28, 2011 06:59pm
Pronunciation	3	43	Sep 16, 2011 07:46am

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Quotes from Flowers for Algernon

“Its easy to make frends if you let pepul laff at you.” — 90 people liked it

“Thank God for books and music and things I can think about."

--Charlie Gordan” — 68 people liked it

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