A review by bookishfaye
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
I think there are things about this book for its time that are important & in some ways foundational in literature depicting disability; however, man oh man does this NOT hold up well over time. From the violently ableist language used repeatedly, to the constant misogyny and overall written by a man vibes this book simply does not age well. 

I think as a response to Frankenstein/the Prometheus myth and with commentary about man playing god within science and also monstrosity, there are some interesting things at play within this book. There were moments where I felt very seen by Charlie, and at times very beautiful/important language towards disability as well, it’s just a very very hard read that has extreme ableism/misogyny culture from the late 1950’s marked all over it. 
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