I’ve heard about this book a lot, but somehow it’s never really made it to my reading list. I suppose that’s because I never really knew what it was about. But recently I was seeing it on a lot of top sci-fi book lists and I thought, hmm, I didn’t know that was sci-fi. I read the back cover blurb and realized this had the potential to be pretty sad. Then my wife told me it was the worst book ever (due to how sad it was). Other people almost came to tears at the mere mention of the title. But was it really so sad? Is it worth the hype? Or am I just a cold-hearted robot? Read on and find out.
Flowers for Algernon
Author: Daniel Keyes
Pages: 311
Format: Paperback
Originally Published: April 1, 1966
Publisher: Mariner Classics
View on Goodreads
Date Completed: January 16, 2024
My rating: 
Synopsis
This book probably requires no synopsis for anyone who ever had to read this for school or saw a cute mouse on the cover and thought it might be something akin to The Mouse on the Motorcycle or Stuart Little. For those, like me, who didn’t really know what this was about before reading it, let me enlighten you.
We’re reading the journals of Charlie Gordon, a man with a very low IQ. In many ways, he’s very much a child. He’s not quite illiterate and does his best writing in his journal. He’s also able to hold a job, if not only due to the generosity of a friend of Charlie’s father. But something extraordinary happens for Charlie. He participates in a scientific study to make him smart. And it works! His IQ skyrockets. He becomes more literate than most people, outsmarting the very scientists who invented this experiment in the first place. He also falls in love.
Oh and where does Algernon fit into all this? Algernon is the mouse that the experiment was done on before Charlie got involved. He’s probably the smartest mouse on the planet. But something starts happening to Algernon. Eventually, he starts regressing. When Charlie sees this, he knows his own intelligence won’t last much longer. So he does what he can to help Algernon and the scientists before he regresses back to what he once was – an adult with an extremely low IQ.
Thoughts
Where do I even start? Let’s just start with acknowledging that some of the language and terminology used in this book are now pretty outdated. Okay? Okay.
This is truly a touching story. I love that it was written from Charlie’s point of view and in a way that’s by his own hand. Reading his journals feels like you’re getting inside the mind of someone who doesn’t fully understand the world around. As an adult with an IQ that’s well above Charlie’s, I was able to understand what was really happening, even if Charlie couldn’t. It broke my heart when people made fun of him, but he felt as if he was just part of the gang. And he may well have been part of the gang, but they were still making him the butt of their jokes.
But even more, seeing his progression, through the writing of his journals, was a fascinating way to get into the story and see how his thoughts and feelings evolved over time. We got a few third-person narratives, which was necessary in some instances to set the stage for later parts of the story.
There was so much humanity in Charlie. Both good and bad. And the bad really came out as he got more intelligent. The idea that we can get so in our own heads and in our own worlds that we forget how to love… That’s really threatening. And so real.
This is not your average science fiction. In fact, I would almost more categorize this as speculative fiction. And it’s a story that really makes you think. Like, even though I don’t have a low IQ, is this advancement in intelligence something that I’d like to experience? I don’t know. Not if I lose my humanity. But how cool would it be to get ultra smart for a while?!
The ending of the story does get super sad. I must be a robot or something because I didn’t cry. Maybe I was prepared for it or something. But even the back cover blurb of the book talks about Algernon’s decline. So it wasn’t hard to see that the same was going to happen to Charlie.
Conclusion
This was an easy 5 stars. The rise and fall of Charlie’s intelligence was so well written that it was easy to feel what he was feeling. I was happy with him. I was sad with him. I was angry with him. I was happy with him. I understand that it’s got some really sad themes and scenes in it, but I feel this is a must-read book for everyone.
