Flowers for Algernon is a science fiction short story and subsequent novel written by Daniel Keyes. The short story, written in 1958 and first published in April 1959, in the The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story.The novel was published in 1966 and was joint winner of that year's Nebula Award for Best Novel. The eponymous Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence by artificial means. The story is told by a series of progress reports written by Charlie Gordon, the first human test subject for the surgery, and it touches upon many different ethical and moral themes such as the treatment of the mentally disabled.
Although the book has often been challenged for removal from libraries in the US and Canada; it is regularly taught in schools around the world; and has been adapted many times for television, theatre, radio, and as the Academy Award Charly.
My opinion: (sure you wonder why I am writing this in English, I usually use the language in which I read the book to prepare these summaries...). Well, I just think the book is gorgeous. I have it by recommendation of my younger sister (thanks, thanks and thanks again), and I came into its reading after long time but in a very accurate moment; I teach creative writing and Charlie's reports were the perfect example of narrator who knows -at first- less than the Reader and, in the middle of the book, more than the Reader. It is simply amazing. But it is one of the several aspects you can extract from the reading. Keyes has composed a fine psychological portrait of Charlie, and we are able to see not only him but everyone in his field of vision with a strenght quite extraordinary. Even the title, not convincing me very much at the beginning, came to a complete sense when I finished to read. It is just perfect. I felt overwhelmed, really. I cried at the end. I recommend you, a thousand, no, a billion times. Enjoy it.