Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Although it wasn’t perfect, i liked this book a lot. The use of the written word to express the growth and decline of Charlie’s intelligence is clever. Within the book, each character has a different opinion as to what makes a person a person, whether that is intelligence, happiness, or sympathy.

In some ways, parts of the plot were quite predictable: as Charlie became more intelligent, he realised that the people he had previously thought were his friends were actually treating him as a toy that they could use to get laughs. His eventual decline in intelligence was also foreshadowed right from the very start. In general the book is short enough not to ever be a slog, but even so, it sometimes feels like we are being force-fed information, which is a shame when other areas like the use of spelling and sentence length provide a more interesting and subtle way to explain Charlie to us.

There are echoes of the fall of humanity from the garden of eden in the story; after his operation, Charlie loses his naïvety and over time becomes increasingly cynical. At the same time, his sexual troubles are a consistent struggle as he is unable to separate his mother’s traditional christian view of sexuality from the view of those around him that sex is a way to express love and an intimate connection with another. Several characters explicitly tell Charlie that their religious beliefs mean that they disapprove of his operation, and yet no one except for Alice truly regards him as a person.

In the end, who does Charlie relate to the most? Algernon, a mouse who underwent the same procedure as him. It’s never clear exactly how intelligent Algernon is as, being a mouse, he can’t talk. But Charlie and Algernon have something in common, whereas no-one else can understand Charlie’s situation.

Charlie is, i think, one of the most relatable characters i’ve ever read. The eagerness to please, then to assert himself, the slight hostility to everyone else who doesn’t understand him, these are all aspects of the human condition that tend not to be touched upon in such a likeable protagonist. These complex feelings often end up resulting in someone being unlikeable, so i’m impressed that the author has managed to develop Charlie in this area while not souring my emotions towards him.

It’s a short book. Worth a read.