Product Description
A portrait of a tortured young man, arrested for a series of kidnappings and rapes, explores the world of a multiple personality, whose traumatic childhood shattered his mind into twenty-four distinct personalities. Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (37)

Billy Milligan
Billy Milligan, suffers from the highly controversial psychological condition of multiple personality disorder.His alternate personalities range from a deaf child to a lesbian to a well cultured British man.While "Billy" sleeps, the others take "the spot" and commit a series of crimes, including rape and robbery.

In prison, it becomes immediately evident to his attorneys that something is not right.Psychologists uncover the truth, and Billy is found not guilty by reason of insanity.Billy is shuffled from hospital to hospital, where doctors and staff doubt his condition and describe a series of harmful treatments.

Hard to put down, this book is an intriguing look into Billy's mind.It is well written and the cast of characters come to life to the reader.I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in psychology or multiple personality disorder.

Great book!
The Minds of Billy Milligan
I have read this book a couple of times. I really like it.

The Minds of Billy Milligan
The Billy Milligan story is a very interesting book that is difficult to put down.

Amazing read. Great resource!
I have read and re-read this book.It fascinates me and really gives a great example of what it's like to live with Multiple Personalities, or Dissociative Identity Disorder.Would recommend for school if you need to do a report, or just to read for fun!Enjoy!!!

Great book
If you like books like Sybil you'll love this one.Very detailed.Heartbreaking.Shocking.You won't be able to put it down.Well written.Great buy. ... Read more

Product Description

Flowers for Algernon is a timeless tear-jerker with a terrific emotional impact. --David Langford ... Read more

Customer Reviews (469)

Book Review For:Flowers For Algernon
A Book Review On: Flowers for Algernon
By: Haley Anderson

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is a true classic that really comes to life as you read it.The book really made me appreciate living a normal life much more.Thirty Five year old Charlie, (the main character), was always told that he could never be as smart as everyone else.Charlie was forced to deal with being mentally challenged.Lucky for Charlie, he had enough faith in himself to overcome everyone's doubts that he could be as smart as or even smarter than everyone else.
This book is about how scientists discover an experiment that is supposed to turn mentally challenged people into geniuses.According to Alice, (Charlie's reading and writing teacher), he is the perfect candidate for this experiment.Alice claims that Charlie is self-motivated to learn and could be trusted for this job.Charlie has to have a special surgery for this experiment to work.Will Charlie become a genius or will the experiment fail?Read the book to find out.
This was a deep book that included a lot of life lessons and important facts of interesting knowledge.Every couple of pages or so I had to stop and think about what I had just read.This was a fantastic book that had suspense, heart, and dreams to make the book more entertaining.If I had to judge how much I enjoyed this book, 1 being the worst and 5 being the best, I would definitely rate this book a 5!

Excellent Read
I really loved this book. I never had to read it in high school, but I wish I had. Incredibly moving.

Flowers for Algernon
Flowers for Algernon
by Daniel Keyes

Flowers for Algernon is an emotional story about a mentally retarded man named Charlie Gordon. He is 33 years old and works at Donner's Bakery. Charlie is teased and made fun of by his co-workers Joe Carp, Frank Reilly, and Gimpy. Charlie believes they are his friends because they always laugh at him, but they definitely aren't friends with Charlie.

At the beginning of the story, Charlie had an unusual low IQ of 68. He has bad mechanics, several spelling errors, and expresses his ideas indistinctly. Charlie was chosen as the subject for an experimental medical procedure at the Beekman College for Retarded Adults. This procedure is expected to increase his intelligence dramatically. The procedure was originally performed on a lab mouse named Algernon. Algernon runs through intricate and complicated mazes. In the beginning, he races Charlie and beats him to the end every time. This story is told through journal entries that are written by Charlie. He maintains these journal entries because the doctors that are in command of the procedure want to analyze how his intelligence has expanded before and after the procedure. Although Charlie has a terribly low IQ, he is very hard-working and motivated to become more intelligent and educated.

After the surgery was performed on Charlie, he learned the procedure turned out to be a fleeting achievement because he absorbed more and more knowledge very rapidly. His punctuation, spelling, and pronunciation of words improve severely. Just weeks after the experimental surgery, his IQ shoots up to 185. Charlie's intelligence soon flies past Algernon's intelligence and he beats Algernon at the mazes. Charlie begins to bond with Algernon during his progression.

As Charlie progresses, his interests in loving relationships also progresses. During the story, Charlie falls in love with his teacher, Miss Kinnian. He is very attracted to her and grows very close to her throughout the story. Charlie also has a physical relationship with his neighbor, Fay. As his intelligence grows, so does the pain of past memories. Charlie has painful flashbacks of his family and friends. When he was mentally retarded, he didn't realize that his mother always cried because she felt so ashamed of Charlie. He also wasn't aware of the fact that his "friends" always made fun of him. Now that Charlie realizes what was happening, he emotionally fell apart.

Suddenly, Algernon's intelligence deteriorates quickly. He soon dies because of this sudden deterioration. Charlie is concerned about how this happened. Charlie succeeds in finding Professor Nemur's error in his hypothesis. Charlie scientifically proved that one flaw in the operation would cause him to lose his intelligence just as fast as he gained it. He calls this the Algernon-Gordon Effect. Soon Charlie's intelligence deteriorates as well. At the end of the story, he becomes mentally retarded again. Charlie still wants his relationship with Alice to continue, but sends her away because he feels his old self coming back. Charlie decided to move because he didn't want the people he knew to feel sorry for him. Charlie moved to a home for disabled adults. His last petition was to put flowers on Algernon's grave.

The lesson learned in this story is to accept yourself for who you are no matter what others say about you. Being true to you is more important than what others have to say. The genre of this book is science fiction . I gave this book a 5.0 out of 5.0 stars because it was a great book. It is the best book I've read all year. Although this story had a sad ending, the book kept me wanting to read more.

An Very Good Book that Hooks You Easily
Flowers for Algernon is interesting although boring in some parts. It revolves around Charlie Gordon a 32 year old, mentally retarted man. Charlie undergoes a risky brain operation that can triple his I.Q of 68. After the operation Charlie is asked to take an operation with a mouse named Algernon. Algernon is a mouse who had the same operation as Charlie; Algernon is very useful to the scientist because the scientist can predict what is going to happen to Charlie through Algernon. Though the effects of the operation are slow, Charlie eventually starts seeing signs that he is progressing. Charlie has multiple internal and external conflicts, because of his emotions and feelings in this book. Some of the conflicts revolve around Miss Kinnian. Miss Kinnian is Charlie's teacher, after the operation Charlie starts growing feelings for her. Even though Charlie is considered an intellectual "genius" he still shows sign of an emotional retard, causing him to have multiple conflicts with Miss. Kinnian. The major conflict Charlie has is with himself. Algernon starts showing signs of detoriation causing the scientist to think the same is happening to Charlie. Soon after Charlie also starts showing signs of detoriation, causing him to have major internal conflicts with himself. In the end Algernon dies, and Charlie completely regresses. This book in my opinion was a very good book with only a few parts that I didn't like, I would recommend it any day.

Beautiful, thought-provoking and ultimately heartbreaking
This is absolutely one of the best books I have ever read (twice). I first had to read it sometime in high school or junior high for English class and it is the first time I remember staying up almost all night to finish a book (literally "couldn't put it down" as they always say), and the first time I remember crying after reading a book (still doesn't happen often - see Steinbeck's 'East of Eden' for an exception!). I dared to pick it up again a couple years ago (while studying neuroscience no less) and found my childhood praise vindicated.

Briefly (others have summarized it well), the story follows Charlie Gordon, a mentally handicapped ('retarded' in the parlance of the time) man in his thirties, who becomes the subject of a radical neurological procedure which raises his IQ to normal levels - and then far, far beyond. A mouse (the eponymous 'Algernon') undergoes the same procedure simultaneously and the experimenters keep tabs on both of them.

The genius of the book is that it is told in first-person 'logs' that Charlie is made to keep by the experimenters. Thus, in a way we know only what Gordon knows (as per the first-person medium), but at the same time we know so much more (or less), and here the book succeeds very well on an intellectual and emotional level. Throughout the first part, we witness Charlie being taunted and abused and not even knowing it, and it's heart-wrenching. Later in the book he becomes a super-genius of sorts, and the reader can hardly keep up with his theories of brain function derived from the Japanese neurological community (all fictional of course - but, though I can't remember the scientific details anymore, for what it's worth it all seemed very interesting and even semi-plausible to me when I read it last and was in the midst of studying very similar research in school).

Besides being intellectually interesting and emotionally stimulating, we get the roller-coaster ride of a man waking up to the world in a matter of days, suddenly discovering art, music, women, science, and his own morbid past - to say nothing of his terrifying future.

The ending is heart-breaking and beautifully done, though I don't wish to spoil anything. Just writing this review I'm determined to find another copy of this book and read it again - I gave mine away to a friend.

I feel this review has been utterly insufficient, so let me just say that this is an exceptional book and should most definitely be given a read. I've looked at the negative reviews on here, they appear to all have been written by bored, boring high school students. 'Nuff said. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

this book will make you wish you were in an asylum
I was given an advance copy of "The Asylum Prophecies" by Daniel Keyes, billed as a psychological thriller. Had to read it through to the end, not because it was thrilling, but just to see how he was going to bring this mess to a close.

Now, let me start with my self-professed love for writers who aren't necessarily the deepest of thinkers, but who can spin a good yarn. I even enjoyed "The DaVinci Code" until the end, when it seemed to me that Dan Brown threw in more than a few contrivances just to get the darn thing over and done with.

But back to this book. The short book report is "it sucks." Now, as to how and why it sucks? Let me count the ways. It's all over the place with plot devices, geography, and characters. Geographically is probably the easiest to follow, because Keyes lets you know where you are with chapter headings.

The plot is designed to scare American audiences by using not one, but two obscure terrorist organizations, 17N (Greek) and MEK (Middle-Eastern). All of the information he uses about 17N can be found in one Wikipedia article. Some information about MEK may be made up by Keyes or he may have gotten it from other sources; it sounds better to have a female army all of whom have taken vows of chastity than just another splinter group in Iraq that was disarmed in 2003.

The Prophecies are a series of quatrains that give in riddles the plan for a major terrorist attack on the United States, including targets, weapons, and methods of delivery. Only one living person knows all the riddles, and as they are revealed we realize these quatrains are a terrible thing to do to poetry.

The characters are the worst. There isn't a sympathetic or even likable one in the bunch. The main character, Raven, is a young lady with borderline personality disorder who hears the voice of her stillborn twin in her head. Sometimes, in an attempt to make things interesting, the twin takes over, but she's no more sympathetic than Raven. They both seem to be little more than bundles of disorders, phobias, histrionics and suggestibility, all of which are hammered at the reader over and over again. When you get toward the end of the book and for about the thousandth time it is mentioned that pyrophobia is fear of file and acrophobia is fear of heights, you find yourself muttering "I get it, I get it." Other times you're saying "Yeah, yeah, she disassociating again. Now can we get on with it?"

Everyone else is a personality-deprived caricature. The terrorist men all go on about the evil capitalists while wanting to get into the blonde woman's pants. The terrorist women all go on about the evil capitalist infidels while wanting to get the blonde woman into a headscarf. The FBI agent goes on about trying to solve the riddles, while wanting to get the blonde woman into psychiatric care.

And just when things get interesting, when the main character finally does something besides being dragged around the world and showing off her symptoms, the narrative comes to a screeching halt by bringing in a psychiatrist with a boring back story, and then he goes on about Freudian versus Jungian treatment while wanting to get into the blonde woman's brain.

By the end of it, I was almost hoping the terrorist attack would happen -- at least it would put all these people and with luck, the reader, out of our collective misery.

More effort than entertaining
Raven Slade is an unfortunate young woman who suffers from multiple personality disorder and regular dissociative episodes.Believing that she has the secret to a surprise terrorist attack planned against the United States locked somewhere in her divided subconscious, the FBI, the State Department and two different terrorist regimes battle to control her and unlock her secret before it's too late.

The premise of //The Asylum Prophecies// is unique and mesmerizing; unfortunately the writing doesn't do it justice.Filled with utterly direct statements and characterizations, the author doesn't bother implying anything about the characters, settings or actions.Instead, the reader is told what to feel and what to think.The action is disjointed and at times completely non-linear (how does one "mime strumming guitar" if in the previous sentence one has just been "strapped down" to an interrogation chair?)To throw the reader even more off-balance, the foreign characters regularly slip from perfectly normal grammar to suddenly conversing in broken sentences as though they've completely forgotten how to converse in their native tongue.

Unfortunately, the one-dimensional characters, chaotic action and abrupt tone changes make this book less of an entertaining diversion and more of an undeserving effort.

Reviewed by Heather Ortiz

fast-paced action-packed thriller
A coalition of terrorists have merged with a plan to deploy Operation Dragon's Teeth that will make 9/11 look like a quiet day at the park.The only person outside of gangs who knows of the specifics of the upcoming assault is Raven Slade, the daughter of a CIA field operative; resident of a mental institution in Athens, Greece as she suffers from multiple personality disorder (MPD) and talks with her dead sister.

Her father hypnotized Raven to insure she cannot reveal what she knows about 17N and MeK to anyone even the FBI or CIA until they are defeated.However, she is kidnapped and tortured by one of the terrorist groups, the 17N.Rookie FBI agent Frank Dugan is sent to Europe to prevent the plot scheduled for 17 November by the Mujhadeen-e Kalq starting with rescuing Raven so he can learn what she knows.

This is a fast-paced action-packed thriller from the strange opening scene in the Athens hospital and never slows down until the climax.However, readers need to set aside their plausibility meter as several spins like the hypnosis and sending a novice to prevent a major terrorist attack seem farfetched even with late denouements.Still fans of Daniel Keyes will enjoy this exciting tale mostly seen through the hypnotized mindset of an alleged MPD sufferer with voices on her head.

Harriet Klausner

... Read more

Product Description
When Karen Stark becomes pregnant, she and Barney are overjoyed. They’ve wanted a baby for so long. After an industrial accident, Barney unknowingly spreads radioactive dust into his neighborhood, into his home, and onto his wife’s body. As frightened friends and neighbors become enemies, the dream of becoming parents turns into a nightmare. . .

This new edition of Keyes' second novel includes a preface and additional material by the author. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Touch
The Touch is about a man who becomes contaminated by radioactive dust from his job. The book does a good job in explaining the effect the radiocativity have on their lives. The reason why I gave the book 4 stars was because I felt Barney's relationship with Karen's sister does not fit anywhere in the book. The ending is touching. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Not Bad, Could Have Been Better

In UNVEILING CLAUDIA author Daniel Keyes tells the story of Claudia Yasko, a beautiful but emotionally troubled young woman who falsely confesses to having been present during a triple murder. Yasko, who is presented as suffering from latent schizophrenia, appears to have had psychological problems since childhood, which, when combined with considerable drug use as a young adult, became considerably more severe as she got older.

The first part of the book tells of Claudia's confession to the police which included some minute details which could have been known only by someone who had been at the scene of the killings. Claudia is arrested but subsequently released from jail with the charges dropped as other information is developed which leads to the arrests and convictions of two brothers for these as well as other murders. After her arrest and during the time she spent in jail Claudia exhibited great difficulty in distinguishing reality from fantasy. She often retreated mentally to scenarios in which she became an actress playing a role in a film about whatever difficulties she may have found herself in.

Some time after the murder cases were disposed of, Claudia came to the author Keyes asking him to write a book about the case and her life.
Keyes spent over two years trying to "unveil" Claudia, that is to try to understand her mental processes and, specifically to try to determine how, if she were not present during the murders, she came to possess the detailed knowledge she had of the crime scene. The process was extremely difficult for Keyes due to Claudia's tenuous grasp of reality. And the difficulty was greatly increased as Claudia compulsively lied to Keyes, even when she was aware of the truth, because, as far as I can tell, that is just the way she is. Eventually, though, Claudia provided Keyes with a scenario which explained her knowledge of the details in question without her having been present at the actual crime. And Keyes accepted this scenario.

UNVEILING CLAUDIA is fast paced, well written, and interesting to read.
Keyes clearly has done a lot of research, both in his interviews with Claudia and his cross checking with other people involved either centrally or periphally, and all of these interviews are recorded in the book, creating a feeling of thoroughness.

Ultimately though, despite the positives I have noted, UNVELING CLAUDIA,fell short for me. The main goal of the book seems to have been to crack the riddle of explaining Claudia's intimate knowledge of the crime scene without her having been there, and Keyes eventually accepts a scenario which does that. However, by then Claudia has provided Keyes with many other stories and then recanted them as Keyes' further research
found them to be unlikely. The story he finally accepts, while it may be true, does not really seem to me to be any more likely than the others. In other words there is really no reason to believe any of Claudia's explanations.

I had hoped and expected that the major focus of UNVEILING CLAUDIA would Claudia's personality and psychology and that the culmination of the book would be an in depth analysis of her diagnosis at the time the book was written and of the events in her past which caused her to be what she became. But, while her psychological condition is by no means ignored and in fact is the main reason for the book having been written, there is very little about her childhood or her upbringing, and certainly no final analysis of her condition. The book ends with Keyes' finally accepting a possible explanation for the riddle of Claudia's crime scene knowledge,and that's it. In short, what I feel could have been a more important -"bigger"- book ends in an unfortunately small and anti-climactic manner.

UNVEILING CLAUDIA is hardly a bad book, but it could have been better. Three stars.

another "true" story based on an unreliable account
i read this after being similarly disappointed by Keyes "The Minds of Billy Milligan" (i read them because i loved "Flowers for Algernon" also by Keyes).both "non-fiction" works are based on the accounts of people who have been diagnosed as mentally ill, and both accounts i feel are unreliable.in this book you learn that Claudia made up a story for police partially giving them what they wanted to hear.i believe she did the same thing for Keyes here.there is no way of knowing when she is telling the truth and when she is lying and there is no reason to believe that any more than half of what she says is true.at times she says she doesn't remember anything and at other times she gives conflicting information in great detail.either way, luckily the real killers were caught and spent the rest of their lives behind bars.

Great
Daniel Keyes has done it again.Another great book he has done.Riveting like all the others. ... Read more

Product Description
Un discapacitado mental es utilizado como cobaya para una operacion de cerebro. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

PROFOUNDLY MOVING AND THOUGHT PROVOKING...
This is the Spanish text edition of a wonderful and highly original novel, "Flowers for Algernon", which isabout a mentally challenged man named Charlie who wanted to be smart. One day, his wish was granted. A group of scientists selected him for an experimental operation that raised his intelligence to genius level. Suddenly, Charlie found himself transformed, and life, as he knew it, changed.

His story is told entirely through Charlie's eyes and perceptions in the form of progress reports. The reader actually sees the change in Charlie take place, as his progress reports become more complex, well written, and filled with the angst of personal discovery and growth, as well as with his gradual awareness of his amazing and accelerated intellectual development.

The progress reports are a wonderful contrivance for facilitating the story, and the reader is one with Charlie on his voyage of self-discovery. What happens to Charlie in the long run is profoundly moving and thought provoking. It is no wonder that this author was the recipient of the Nebula Award which is given by the Science Fiction Writers of America for having written the Best Novel of the Year. This is definitely a book well worth reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I weep because this book is out of print
Recently I began a project investigating the works of Alan Keyes for a project in one of literature classes.Through this project I became interested in 'The Fifth Sally' and decided to order a used copy.

I'll admit I had my hesitations, it had been published once in 1980 and hadn't been published since.Evidently it hadn't even warrented a paperback edition.But after reading the novel, I can only weep that it seems fated to die in obscurity.

Without a doubt, The Fifth Sally was one of the best books I have ever had the fortune to read and it solidified my belief that Daniel Keyes is an excellent author and one of the greats of the twentieth century.

Strictly speaking, this book is not comparable to Keyes' Flowers For Algernon, the novel that he will be remembered by and for good reason, but The Fifth Sally is never-the-less excellent.The tale is of Sally, Bella, Nola, Derry, and Jinx.The interesting thing about these five women is that they all seem to be occupying the same body.

Keyes pays little attention to the controversy over whether Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) is a real disease and instead writes from the assumption that it is in fact very real.He hints at the controversy from time to time but ultimately that is irrelevent.You see, the tale is written from a first person point of view, Derry tells us the story.When she is in control, it is pure first person and when one of the others is in control, she is little more then an observer.

The style can be described as little more then simply fascinating.It's generally a cardinal rule not to mix multiple viewpoints, especially in a single scene, but Keyes slips between Derry's first person narration (and Derry is a great story teller!) to an impartial recording that you almost forget it is Derry telling that you never feel lost.

The book is riveting, all along we see Sally's more acceptable personalities: Sally the motherly type, Derry the tomboy, Bella the party-goer, and Nola the artist.But all along we know that Jinx, the maniac, is lurking just under the surface and we never know just what Jinx is going to do.

All I can say of this book is this: ordering a used copy of it will be the best thing you ever do.Pay exhorbatent prices (not too exhorbatent lets hope, I paid a modest $15 but it was well worth it) climb over hills, steal from libraries (ok, well maybe not that) Anything - just find a way to get a copy of this book.It is simply fantastic.Whether it is comparable to Keyes's more well known The Minds of Billy Madigan is hard to say, but I know this much: I won't forget Sally or the others for a long time to come. ... Read more

Product Description
In Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes created an unlikely duo-a laboratory mouse and a man-who captured the hearts of millions of readers around the world. Now, in Algernon, Charlie, and I, Keyes reveals his methods of creating fiction as well as the heartbreaks and joys of being published. With admirable insight he shares with readers, writers, teachers, and students the creative life behind his classic novel, included here in its original short-story form.
All those who love stories, storytelling, and the remarkable characters of Charlie and Algernon will delight in accompanying their creator on this inspirational voyage of discovery.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Of Mouse and Man
This is a pleasant and readable book, mostly about the writing, rewriting and selling of the sci-fi classic "Flowers for Algernon."Without naming me, he refers to me on p. 132 as "a colleague, in whom I'd confided."I'm pleased to be mentioned, though he forgot that the idea of tracing Charlie's spiritual curve was entirely my idea, not his.There is very little about Daniel Keyes' other books; I wish there was more.And I wish more of his books were turned into Hollywood films.

What it takes . . .
What it takes to write one great book is a lifetime of preparation.It seems that every element of Daniel Keyes' life, up to the writing of Flowers for Algernon, was gearing toward that one great book.Every piece of Charlie's life, and every phrase spoken by his coworkers and the scientists who changed him came from Keyes' experience.

Half of this autobiography is the set-up to his great novel, the one work that would define his life.The other half is the aftermath.Thrust into fame and the machine that profits off other's works, Keyes' found himself tossed to and fro.

A writer wants to write, not to examine contracts and make decisions about rights.A writer wants to create and then to own his creations, not to see what came from his mind as property to be arbitrated.Daniel Keyes' found himself in the fortunate position of creating a work of beauty and then wrestling with ownership of that beauty for many years afterward.

What I loved about this autobiography is the journey which prepared him to write a great novel - showing the work and creativity and effort that goes into an instance of genius.What I also loved was the life's lessons learned that he put down on paper so that another person might have an easier journey.

- CV Rick

Secret of "Flowers for Algernon"
The main charm of "Algernon, Charlie and I" is the revealed episodes behind "Flowers for Algernon", which make you understand (at least partly) why "Flowers's for Algernon", the author's acclaimed novel, is so increadibly compelling and moving.

By reading this book, you will find that the "Flowers for Algernon" is not a product of pure fantasy, but is based on so actual facts, emotions and feelings, that the author had been observing and experiencing himself. Charlie's desire to become smart comes from the author's experience while working with mentally retarded children, who wanted to become smart.Charlie's feeling toward the professor, while becoming smarter than the professor who created him, comes from the author's experience of suddently over-growing his parents, immigrants who did not speak English fluently.

After reading this book, you will realise that it isthe author's sensitivity, warmness toward other people and his candidness about his own feeling what make his extraordinary novel so warm and moving.In the end, "Flowers for Algernon" is not about this poor guy who has gone through extraordinary experience, but about all of us.

Read this book, you will leave with a greater appreciation.
Mr. Keyes exposes himself personally in this intimate autobiography.I was captured by his honesty, his sensitivity and his fluid writing style.I felt, as though I was a familiar friend and I gained and enormous appreciation for his dedication in writing "Flowers for Algernon".I look forward to more books by this gifted author.I hear his next will be science fiction / mystery.

A "must" for all Daniel Keys fans.
In Algernon, Charlie And I: A Writer's Journey, Daniel Keys reveals thelife experiences behind his creation of the character Charlie Gordon, ayoung man whose quest for intelligence and knowledge parallels that of themouse, Algernon, in his acclaimed novelette "Flowers forAlgernon" (which has been optioned and is in production for a CBSmade-for-tv movie. Both the novelette version, and the novel that followed,have been widely translated and remain part of many school and collegeliterature course curriculums. Algernon, Charlie And I includes theauthor's original short novelette version and is a "must" for allKeys fans. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

PROFOUNDLY MOVING AND THOUGHT PROVOKING...
This is the French text edition of a wonderful and highly original novel, "Flowers for Algernon", which isabout a mentally challenged man named Charlie who wanted to be smart. One day, his wish was granted. A group of scientists selected him for an experimental operation that raised his intelligence to genius level. Suddenly, Charlie found himself transformed, and life, as he knew it, changed.

His story is told entirely through Charlie's eyes and perceptions in the form of progress reports. The reader actually sees the change in Charlie take place, as his progress reports become more complex, well written, and filled with the angst of personal discovery and growth, as well as with his gradual awareness of his amazing and accelerated intellectual development.

The progress reports are a wonderful contrivance for facilitating the story, and the reader is one with Charlie on his voyage of self-discovery. What happens to Charlie in the long run is profoundly moving and thought provoking. It is no wonder that this author was the recipient of the Nebula Award which is given by the Science Fiction Writers of America for having written the Best Novel of the Year. This is definitely a book well worth reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Charly
Charly is based on a short story created by Daniel Keyes.In this novel,he added more details to make it more interesting.The story is about a man who is special ed at the age of 37.The story is all about having his dreams of being smart and whether it was worthwhile or a little too much for him to handle,his struggles and his advantages.See what you think.

Mankind at Their Best and Worst
Charly is a touching story of a man who just wanted to be like others and then finds out that being like them really isn't so great.

You get to see the real Charly in the way it was written.

An excellent book

'Flowers For Algernon' or 'Charly'
This is a very touching story about a retartaded man named Charly and a operation that made him smart and changed his life. ... Read more