Lance McNearney
lance@mcnearney.net

I received the book Flowers for Algernon for my birthday (along with other things). I read it over the weekend since there was nothing else interesting happening. I found that it was one of those books that is hard to put down once you start reading it.

The book is written as a journal from the perspective of a mentally handicapped man (Charlie) who volunteers for experimental brain surgery that promises to triple his IQ. During the course of the book, Charlie slowly gains intelligence until eventually he becomes a genius, surpassing the scientists who are responsible for his procedure.

There is a large amount of drama that takes place in the book including:

• Psychological issues relating to his childhood with an abusive mother.
• Previous friends and co-workers fear and resent him after the procedure.
• Although he is smart, his emotional development has not progressed at the same rate and he has problems developing friendships and romantic relationships.

I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone.

Slightly off-topic to the review of the book is a sentence that illustrates how little politics have changed over the last 50 years (this being written in 1958 - ignore the bad spelling, this is written by the main character early in his journal):

"...while their werking they start talking about things like about god or about the truble with all the mony the presedent is spending or about the ripublicans and demicrats..."