Flowers for Algernon - Softcover

Keyes, Daniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553274503 ISBN 13: 9780553274509

Publisher: Skylark, 1994

Synopsis

When brain surgery makes a mouse into a genius, dull-witted Charlie Gordon wonders if it might also work for him

About this title

Review:

Daniel Keyes wrote little SF but is highly regarded for one classic, Flowers for Algernon. As a 1959 novella it won a Hugo award; the 1966 novel-length expansion won a Nebula. The Oscar-winning movie adaptation Charly (1968) also spawned a 1980 Broadway musical.

Following his doctor's instructions, engaging simpleton Charlie Gordon tells his own story in a semi-literate "progris riports". He dimly wants to better himself but with an IQ of 68 can't even beat the laboratory mouse Algernon at maze-solving:

I dint feel bad because I watched Algernon and I lernd how to finish the amaze even if it takes me along time.
I dint know mice were so smart.

Algernon is extra-clever thanks to an experimental brain operation so far tried only on animals. Charlie eagerly volunteers as the first human subject. After frustrating delays and agonies of concentration, the effects begin to show and the reports steadily improve: "Punctuation, is fun!" But getting smarter brings cruel shocks, as Charlie realises that his merry "friends" at the bakery where he sweeps the floor have all along been laughing at him, never with him. The IQ rise continues, taking him steadily past the human average to genius level and beyond, until he's as intellectually alone as the old, foolish Charlie ever was--and now painfully aware of it. Then, ominously, the smart mouse Algernon begins to deteriorate ...

A timeless tear-jerker with a terrific emotional impact, Flowers for Algernon is the 25th choice in the millennium SF Masterworks series. --David Langford

Review:

PRAISE FOR FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON
"A tale that is convincing, suspenseful and touching."--"The New York Times "
"An ingeniously touching story . . . Moving . . . Intensely real."--"The Baltimore Sun"
PRAISE FOR FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON
"A tale that is convincing, suspenseful and touching."--The New York Times
"An ingeniously touching story . . . Moving . . . Intensely real."--The Baltimore Sun

About this edition

• Publisher: Skylark
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0553274503
• ISBN 13: 9780553274509
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback