by Daniel Keyes

isbn: 0151001634
subject: Fiction and Literature
finished: 11/26/1999

Flowers for Algernon is the journal of Charlie Gordon, a retarded man who is chosen to be the subject of an experimental method for increasing intelligence. Although the experiment is wildly successful, it causes lots of problems for Charlie; he's not emotionally equipped to deal with his newfound intelligence, he comes to a number of painful realizations about his friends and family, and finally, he becomes too intelligent to relate to most of the people around him. And then, of course, he finds out that his increased intelligence is only temporary.

Writing the thoughts of a narrator of varying intelligence must be a difficult task for an author. For the most part Keyes succeeds, although I think that both the transition from low to high intelligence and the reverse were too quick. This is a fascinating and thought-provoking book, full of irony and tragedy. Recommended.