Book Review: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

 My rating: 5/5 

                                Image courtesy: Goodreads

*SPOILER ALERT* 

This novel made me go through a roller-coaster of emotions ranging from hope and perseverance to sympathy and fear. I don't usually read much science fiction but this was one novel I really enjoyed. And that is probably because of the fact that the operation and related tests seem believable and something that is possible in the near future. The entire novel consists of journal entries or rather progress notes written by Charlie, and his transformation from being intellectually disabled to a genius and back is quite evident. There is a proverb in my mother tongue that roughly translates to "you won't know the worth of vision until you are blind" and it is very true. Charlie didn't know about knowledge, intelligence or the need to have it but after the surgery and realizing the amount of things he could learn and understand, he was trying desperately to hold on to the memory and knowledge with his life. Was it better for him to stay with a low IQ always or to have experienced extreme intelligence and then go back to how he was before? Is it better to be chained and jailed always or to go out and experience all the freedom and then be jailed again?

-Rithin. 

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