This introspective science fiction master piece was first published back in the early sixties. What makes this book different from other books I’ve read from that time period is just how thoughtful the author is. What I mean by that is Keyes treats his subject matter with care and consideration. Most speculative fictional writers from this time used the mentally disabled as throw away characters or as the focus of some strange super/alien ability or access to something similar. In this story the narrator (Charlie) is, initially, a mentally disabled person who is telling us his tale. Keyes gives us a smart introduction to Charlie by having him write out progress reports. The initial reports are messy, misspelled, and short, reflecting the state of mind of the patient and his intellectual inability to form, full cohesive thoughts and narrative. As the story moves along, things change. This is the science fiction part of the story, which is quite mundane and understated compared to other sci-fi books.
There are quite a few themes running throughout the book as you can probably imagine. They are themes you would expect to come up in such a situation as a miracle treatment for mental disability gets administered. The need for a parent to believe their child is going to be okay, and be like everyone else, is powerful and very personal for me. The emotional impact resonated through Charlie’s memories expertly put down on paper by Keyes who managed to do it in a believable manner. Keyes also focuses on some of the problems that a greater intellectual insight can bring. How stress creeps in and becomes a greater factor and the concept of “the more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know.”
Keyes also deftly weaves the past into the story by asking the thematic question, “is the past worth knowing?” Charlie defines his past in relation to his present as he realizes the maze of a path he chose to go through and how it made him into what he is now. He makes similar mistakes about others that people made with him and then comes to a self awareness of what he is doing based upon what he went through in the past. He rails against his doctors for not treating him like a person instead of a science experiment. All this is presented so naturally and feels very much like a true journal. You kind of forget it is science fiction it seems so real.
Keyes also briefly touches upon religion and how that affects someone of a sudden growth in intellectual prowess. Charlie reflects on how “going to college was to learn that the things you’ve believed in all your life aren’t true, and that nothing is what it appears to be.” Charlie sheds some of the beliefs he found childish in his new state of learning, but when he presents it as such to those who knew him before, they throw those beliefs back at him. “The fruit of that tree was forbidden to man. Charlie, if you done anything you wasn’t supposed to– you know, like with the devil or something–.” This ties into how some religious beliefs can see progress as an unnatural occurrence and self-improvement as a negative, at least in Charlie’s view point at this time.
The wonderful thing about Charlie’s sad journey is that none of these themes and ideas are forced upon the reader. Keyes does a wonderful job of keeping you engaged and the story moving forward without hitting you over the head. He lets you think for yourself and figure things out on your own. Precisely what Charlie was fighting for his whole life.
Check out this amazing sci-fi masterwork, Flowers for Algernon.
By the way, Algernon is a mouse.
