Rating: Summary: Entertaining, touching, and suprisingly believable Review: I read this book over the summer and really liked it because it made me feel sorry for Charlie Gordon and anyone who's retarded. The book fits the science fiction genre, since the experiment described is made up, but it seemed so real that I think the novel should be considered realistic fiction. Read it - it's great!
Rating: Summary: Everyone should read this book! Review: We read the short story version in my high school english class, needless to say everyone was touched. What's more my english teacher asked us after we had finished discussing the story, if we would have the courage to stand up for someone like Charlie. Like he did in the book for the boy who broke the dishes. My teacher said in that in class you'll say "I would stand up for them, that's wrong to treat someone like that!" but in a real situation with real people would you take a stand for what is right. My class was silent. I thought about what my teacher said all day, I believe that everyone thought about it. I hope he changed some attitudes. He certainly changed mine.
Rating: Summary: Intelligent, heartwrenching tale...full of love and imagery! Review: I was assigned this book to read over the summer...and to be totally truthful---I wasn't looking forward to it. After completing this book that would change my life I understand how wrong my thoughts were. This book is an intelligent, heartwrenching tale full of love and imagery (a I stated above). I felt that I could "see" the characters develop before my eyes, especially the "young" Charlie who haunted the "older" Charlie while he was in his genius state. Daniel Keys was able to make the people (pepul) come alive by painting their portraits with Charlie Gordon's words. I don't remember when I have read a book that incorporated so many interesting ideas and concepts into the actions of one person. Also, it seems to me that Charle was right when he wrote, "Ironic that my intelligence doesn't help me solve a problem like this." He was referring to a moral decision he had to make about one of his co-workers at the bakery. Charlie's intelligence put him into just as much of a disadvantage as did his retardation. It still brings tears to my eyes to think that Charlie, fictional character or not, never got what he wanted out of his life--he was never like everyone else. He never could fully relate to or understand Alice Hannigan, though he did know that he loved her. Unfortunately, she loved the retarded, yet compassioinate, sensative, and good-natured Charlie. She just couldn't have the best of both worlds...his intelligence and his simplistic yet beautiful outlook on life. Charlie felt a strong connection to Algernon because he had undergone the exact same operation (opershun) as he had. He felt sorry for him as he was constantly taunted with food as a reward for solving a puzzle. Charlie felt that he too was being treated somewhat like guinea pig in a science lab and he wanted to take special care of Algernon--he was "a special mouse" to quote Charlie's words. This book, along with being a fictional story of a retarded man and the operation that gave him the intelligence he always dreamed of, is about Charlie relating to a mouse named Algernon and a romance between him and a woman named Alice, who loved him as he was before. At the end of the book, Charlie realizes that the retarded boy who lay hidden inside his sub-conscious deserved a chance to live his life...althought it may not be on the same intellectual level as others in our society. Maybe the operation shouldn't have even been performed in the first place? Maybe the nurse was right when she said that we should simply appreciate what God gave us and live our lives to the fullest? Maybe we shouldn't try to change what seems as if it was meant to be? I'll leave you with one final quote from the book that pertains to this queston..."Who's to say that my light is better than his darkness?" It refers to whether or not a "genius" lifestyle is in fact any better than a "retarded" lifestyle. Well, is it any better? Could it possibly be worse? Ahhhhh...I leave you with that question to contemplate.This book is highly recommeded for children and adults. Read more than once in your lifetime and see how your perspectives change as you change.
Rating: Summary: This book triggered my emotions more than any other book! Review: I am a 14 year old girl and I had to read Flowers For Algernon for my summer reading! It was by far one of the best books I have ever read! I have never cried in a book before but in this one I couldn't help it! It is so well written and the whole story seems so realistic, even though it is not! I highly reccomend this book to anyone who enjoys good reading!
Rating: Summary: This book is one of the all time classics! Review: I read this book when I was twelve, sixteen and twenty. I loved it more each time. Not only is the story moving, but the writing is fantastic. Keyes really makes you empathize with Charlie. If you are only going to read one SF book in your life, this is the one!READ THIS BOOK
Rating: Summary: A wonderful and inspiring book. Review: I read this book for the first time when I was in 6th grade I'm now a sophmore, I liked it then and I still do know. It explanes how people who have mental problems are just like those who are highly intelgent, they are treated very diffrently from the "normal" people. It's wonderful to see the changes in Charlie, the good and the bad. It is a very inspiring because you it makes you think about all of the strugles that mental chalaned people have with trying to be "normal".
Rating: Summary: Very original, touching, and thoughtful! Review: I have to admit I didn't read this book by my own choice. Flowers For Algernoon was one of my summer reading books and I really didn't look forward to reading it. As soon as I started reading though, I saw that I had been assigned an excellent story. This story is a suspenseful tale about a mentally challenged man, named Charlie Gordon, who volunteers himself as a guinea pig for a very special experiment. He gets another chance at life, as an intelligent man... This book is one that will definitely stay on my mind for a long time to come.
Rating: Summary: read to believe!!! Review: I've read the book, I've seen the movie, it's an extraordinary story. I emphatize with Charlie... it's amazing how "intelligent" and "normal" people can really be so arrogant...still, it should make one realize the strength of the human spirit... I love this book, and I recommended it to my students ... those who have read it have overwhelming comments. The obstacle to reading this book is the difficulty finding it. I had to request relative in the States to buy me this (The first time I read it, I had to borrow it), I watched the movie at a faculty development seminar... truly enlightening. I hope it will be easily available in this country.
Rating: Summary: A truly memorable book Review: I read this book when I was 16, and it's one that I never forgot. This is a true classic.
Rating: Summary: The worst book I ever read Review: This book had nothing to interest me. The plot and characters were not appealing. The details were boring. I had to read this book for school otherwise I wouldn't have read it. Anyway, this is a really bad and boring book.
|