Book Review: "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes

I don't know why I have never read this book, it's on practically every single list of the greatest books ever written and so, I have no idea why it got skipped over. Here we are though - after finding people talking about it on Reddit some time ago, I recently remembered it existed. I had a Saturday and so, I curled up and began to read it. It was absolutely fascinating if I'm going to say it now - a heartbreaking and often really, really sad. I was absolutely captivated from start to finish and honestly, if you haven't read it then you need to. Put whatever you are doing down, get yourself a copy and read this book.

The story begins with Charlie Gordon, a 32-year-old man with an intellectual disability, who lives in New York City. He works as a janitor and delivery boy in a bakery, where he believes his co-workers are his friends, not realising they mock him for entertainment. Charlie is motivated and genuinely wants to "get smarter," which leads him to attend night school to improve his literacy skills with the guidance of his teacher, Miss Alice Kinnian. Her empathy for Charlie’s determination and innocence is evident, and she eventually recommends him for a scientific experiment aimed at increasing intelligence.

Charlie is selected for a groundbreaking surgery by Dr. Strauss and Professor Nemur, who have developed a method of artificially enhancing intelligence. The experimental success with Algernon, a laboratory mouse, offers hope that it will work in humans too. Charlie undergoes the surgery, trusting that it will make him smarter, respected, and capable of engaging with others on a more equal footing. The experiment, initially seeming successful, is carefully documented by Charlie in progress reports, capturing his evolving thoughts, language, and perceptions.

Following the surgery, Charlie's intelligence grows slowly but steadily. He is frustrated at first by the lack of immediate, noticeable results, but then begins to exhibit signs of improvement. He is able to beat Algernon in a maze test, marking the first visible sign of his enhanced intelligence. This early growth is marred by a confusing mix of emotions; as he becomes smarter, he struggles with feelings of isolation and frustration, realising that he is caught between his old self and the new intellect emerging within him.

Charlie’s intelligence soon accelerates beyond anyone’s expectations. He absorbs knowledge voraciously, learning languages, complex mathematics, and sciences. He begins reading voraciously and critically engaging with philosophical and existential ideas, including questioning the ethical boundaries of the experiment itself. His linguistic skills transform, and his progress reports become sophisticated, reflecting his advanced intellect. Charlie starts seeing the world in ways he never could before, but this growth isolates him from others, as he no longer fits into the simple, predictable role he once had.

Charlie’s enhanced intelligence unlocks repressed memories from his childhood, revealing painful experiences with his family. He recalls the abuse he endured from his mother, who was ashamed of his disability and desperately tried to “cure” him. His mother’s rejection and violence contrast with his father’s more compassionate but ultimately ineffective attempts to protect him. These memories cause Charlie emotional anguish as he confronts the trauma that shaped his self-perception and the internalised shame of his past. This is where the novel takes a turn involving the idea that maybe intelligence is not exactly everything.

The writing in this book is poetic and beautiful whilst the first person narrative revolves around the idea of development, slowly but surely building from a man who can barely read through to a man who finishes Robinson Crusoe and all the way to a man who works in dough production in a bakery and thus, he fixes a labour and money problem the bakery was having. It then goes to the very people he once worked with at the bottom of the ladder now resent him for becoming better than them.

It's a horrific story of alienation and as the memories from his former times come back, they are told to us in third person. When I say that this book is heartbreaking, I mean that as the themes begin to progress and flower, we find ourselves as readers trapped in the mind of Charlie Gordon, who was once a happy-go-lucky man with an ignorance-is-bliss attitude to a alienated, frightened man who feels anxiety and panic at every angle.

All in all, this is a book I wish I had read sooner. It is so beautiful and aching and there are several themes and symbols to get lost in. One of them is the flowers and the other is money. One of the key symbols I enjoyed getting lost in was nightmares which only began to happen once he became smarter and started to remember too much. I wish for you to all read this book because it is one of the greatest books of its kind.