Read this when
Flowers for Algernon
He got the genius he always wanted, and all it showed him was who'd been laughing. Flowers for Algernon still hurts in the best way.
Who it's for
Because the whole novel is Charlie's own progress reports, the reader lives inside his mind as his spelling, grammar and insight rise and then fall, which is an unusually direct form of perspective-taking.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Told entirely through his own 'progress reports,' Daniel Keyes's novel follows Charlie Gordon, a 32-year-old bakery worker with an intellectual disability who attends literacy classes taught by Alice Kinnian. Researchers Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss choose him for an experimental surgery to boost intelligence, a procedure first tested on a laboratory mouse named Algernon.
Where to find it
In print (Mariner/Harcourt paperback); widely available from libraries (Libby/Hoopla) and as an audiobook. Not public domain. The short story is widely anthologized.
Before you start
Heads up: Child abuse and cruelty to a disabled man.
Age: Ages 14+
I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.William Ernest Henley, “Invictus”
