Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

   Well, I finally sat down and finished Flowers for Algernon. Just three of J.H.'s books to go.
   This book is about a man with mental retardation, Charlie, who is the subject of an experimental surgery that makes him an incredible genius.  Algernon is a mouse who also had the surgery.  While this book talks a lot about science and psychology and literature and whatnot, the main thing I got out of it was that none of that really matters when you think about it.  By that I mean, as Charlie gets smarter he gradually loses most of his friends and becomes more and more lonely, less able to emphasize with others.  Meanwhile, everyone he knows suddenly find themselves looked down upon intellectually by him maybe even more so than they had looked down on him in the first place.  It is a very interesting book and gives the reader new ways of viewing several things.
   Normally this would be a criticism section, but I don't have any that come to mind.  Some of it was a bit graphic but nothing I found over the top, I suppose.  Mainly, the problem I had with this book was that the way everyone treated him when he was retarded made me feel kind of sick but that was probably the point. Also, expect this book to make you cry. I didn't cry, but that's because my high school English teacher read me a condensed version so I knew the ending. Also, the copyright is 1959 so some parts of the book jar a little with the modern reader, like saying that a $10 therapy session was expensive and so on. Admittedly, I would have gotten a tiny bit more out of the book if I hadn't just looked at the date five seconds ago but now you know and that's all that matters.

   Rating? Good to great. (Honestly, my ratings are basically worthless. They depend too much on my mood at the time, but they give a general picture for you people too lazy to do anything but skim so I'll keep them.)
   Read again? Yes, but not until after a year or two probably. Yes, I usually read books again after a month or two. Sometimes after an hour or two. I could go on a rant about how you won't always get the same thing out of a book every time you read it but you skimmers are probably already getting upset with how long this normally six word section is so I won't.
   You read? Yes.
   Age :Young Adult. I already mentioned it but... you know what? See paragraph above this.

   As always, if you have read this book and have more to say, let me know. My opinion is not the only one in the world, after all. Yes, that is an incredibly sad and depressing thought, but we all just have to live with it.
   Yes, I'm kidding.