This book must be pretty good. I've nearly finished it only two days after picking it up thanks to an extended session (until about 2:30AM) on Monday night. This is a book that should have been made into a film instead of the wishywashyness of Phenomenon, since it deals with the same topic - the massive increase of intelligence in someone who wasn't very bright to start with (in Charlie's case it's an IQ of 68) - only Flowers for Algernon does it in a far superior way. Although Phenomenon showed the alienation that its hero George felt when his friends couldn't relate to him any longer, Flowers for Algernon also shows the alienation that Charlie feels because he can't relate to his friends. The book is written as a series of progress reports that Charlie writes and they reveal his gradually improving spelling, grammar and thought processes. This is a great book and you should all go and buy it immediately.

I finished Flowers for Algernon last night, and to continue the comparison with Phenomenon, I actually had a lump in my throat at the symmetry of the ending. You know what will happen at the end of the book by about halfway through (if not sooner), but it is still so full of pathos that you can't help but be affected by it. This is a great piece of fiction.

Ben gives it:

Price: £5.99
Published by: Indigo (ISBN 0-575-40020-X)

last updated: 12th September 1996