Let me first say that I learned about "Flowers for Algernon" in an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (s9, e8) many years ago and it has since been in my TBR list, but I was afraid it would be overrated. Well, I can confidently say I was wrong: the book is truly amazing.
For those who dont know, the book is about Charlie, a mentally disabled men who undergoes an experimental surgery to enhance his intelligence. The book has some kind of Benjamin Button vibe, as Charlie starts the book as someone with a low IQ, very sweet but naive, then goes on to become a genious, but with a lack of true emotional intelligence, and then in the end goes back to being mentally challenged. The end completely broke me, especially when the spelling mistakes in the progress reports came back. Tears were literally rolling out of my eyes.
I have a lot of thoughts I want to discuss with you, so Im trying to organize my thoughts chronologically. First, let's talk about Charlie's family and the special place in hell his mom (and all similar) have. Im paraphrasing but there's some sentence in the book where Charlie mentions how unfair it is that his mom loves the person who she desperately wants him to be (a "normal" boy like she calls it) and not the son she has. There are many scenes that broke my heart but when Charlie went to visit his mom after the operation and she - in a moment of dementia - threatens again to kill him with a knife just shattered my soul. His co-workers at the bakery also deserve hell, though I guess they tried to become better in the end of the book when he gets dumb again (cause toxic men need to feel superior at all times).
A second thought concerns the stress of knowing your intelligence will decrease and your life as you now know it will end is probably so awful. I could only think about people with degenerative diseases that know their brains will shut and they have limited time. It's so awful and this book depicts it very well.
Also, I want to discuss Alice. I think my opinion will be unpopular (happy to hear everyone's opinions) but I think she’s just like everyone else in Charlie’s life. She liked him when she felt smart next to him, she doesn’t like him anymore when he's too smart cause she’s too insecure near him. And then when theyre "back at the same level of intelligence", shes into him again. I know it’s not this simple but yeah, I don’t like her.
Lastly, I read somewhere that Daniel Keyes was inspired to write this book because of his work with students with developmental disabilities and I think it's quite obvious that he learned a lot from them. I think it's quite impressive that a book written in the 1950s about mental disabilities (a subject that has been getting much more attention in the last 70 years) still holds up so well (with the exception of the slurs). Please correct me if you disagree, but I thought the book was very respectful of disabled people, never made fun of them and showed them as people who might not have the capacity to do advanced research but are capable of loving, being happy, laughing, making friends and learning.
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