A review by beklovesbooks
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

challenging dark

2.0

I originally read excerpts in high school and really liked this book. I didn’t like the unabridged version as much. So much lust and sex and weird stuff about becoming one with the universe or something. Kind of creepy about voyeurism and out of body experiences , The whole thing is really sad. I don’t need to read it again. What I am intrigued by is the idea of scaling the writing to go from retardation to average to college graduate to genius and back down again incrementally.

Editing on further reflection: it’s a crazy male fantasy of a nude next door neighbor who only wants dancing and sex and no strings, voyeurism and a messed up fantasy of her saying things like don’t disappoint me again at his inability to perform sexually. And then the other girlfriend is fine with his affair, and the other woman  even though she wants him too. It could have had such a different more wholesome focus and impact.
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