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    Flowers for Algernon
    Flowers for Algernon
    Flowers for Algernon
    Audiobook9 hours

    Flowers for Algernon

    Written by Daniel Keyes

    Narrated by Jeff Woodman

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Charlie Gordon knows that he isn't very bright. At 32, he mops floors in a bakery and earns just enough to get by. Three evenings a week, he studies at a center for retarded adults. But all of this is about to change for Charlie. As part of a daring experiment, doctors are going to perform surgery on Charlie's brain. They hope the operation and special medication will increase his intelligence, just as it has for the laboratory mouse, Algernon. Meanwhile, each day Charlie keeps a diary of what is happening to him. This is his poignant record of the startling changes in his mind and his life. Flowers for Algernon was first published as a short story, but soon received wide acclaim as it appeared in anthologies, as a television special, and as an award-winning motion picture, Charly. In its final, expanded form, this haunting story won the Nebula Award for the Best Novel of the Year. Through Jeff Woodman's narration, now it becomes an unforgettable audio experience.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateSep 11, 2009
    ISBN9781440773433
    Author

    Daniel Keyes

    Daniel Keyes (1927 - 2014) was born in Brooklyn, New York, and received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Brooklyn College. He was the author of eight books, including the classic Flowers for Algernon, first published in 1966, which would go on to sell more than five million copies and inspire the Oscar-winning film Charly. He also worked as a merchant seaman, a fiction editor, a high school teacher, and as a university professor at Ohio University, where he was honored at Professor Emeritus in 2000. He won the Hugo and Nebula awards for his work and was chosen as an Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2000.

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    Reviews for Flowers for Algernon

    4.5/5

    280 ratings19 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This is a great book with a great recording. The voice actor delivers with a lot of intention and range.
    • 5/5
      Wow… such an uplifting and depressing feeling book all at the same time. It’s like the old adage “careful what you wish for”. Sometimes things don’t quite turn out like how you thought they would. Highly recommend it.
    • 5/5
      This novel has always been a favorite of mine, but listening to it in audio format was a revelation. By hearing the story in Charlie's own voice I was better able to appreciate the character as a person. I'm sure like many like many people reading the hard copy, I was distracted by the rampant spelling and grammatical errors in his Progress Reports, as these tend to exaggerate the severity of his impairment. I'm sorry to say I do tend to estimate the level of a person's general smarts from the way they write.

      The audio version frees the listener from these prejudices and preconceptions.
    • 4/5
      i enjoyed this book and really think it's interesting how you can tell it was written by a man
    • 5/5
      My teacher read us this book in grade 8 and over 40 years later I listen to it again and it still makes me sad but happy. A book I will never forget.
    • 3/5
      The book was interesting and opened your eyes on how other people are treated. Glad I read it
    • 5/5
      Genuinely one of the greatest books I've read. I cannot put into words how it made me feel. The awkwardness of him at the start, my annoyance in the middle, and then my crying sympathy at the end. Truly one of the best books I've read.
    • 5/5
      Narrator is easy to listen to. Great book and something to think about.
    • 5/5
      Highly recommend.

      I liked the writing style of this book and how it is told as a diary (ie. progress reports) through Charlie's eyes. This made it hard to put down.

      There is a line in the book, early on, where Charlie is reading Robinson Crusoe and he doesn't understand why the book ends. He just writes "WHY". That sums things up quite well for me. This book leaves you questioning WHY about so many of life's mysteries.

      My only complaint, if I have one, is that I knew a lot of the story beforehand and almost wish there wasn't as much foreboding. I'd still recommend it to everyone.

      Note: I went back and forth between the e-book and audio version because I felt the progress reports were intended to be read. I needn't have worried, the narrator of the audiobook is excellent and changed his vocal inflection as Charlie changed. Both mediums felt real. This book doesn't read like fiction at all and is not overly dated..... Yes, it all felt very real.
    • 5/5
      this is such a beautiful story. I enjoyed every minute of it.
    • 5/5
      The narrator was amazing! This is a must read book!
    • 5/5
      ?????
      Damn what a ride. Great reader, fun to listen to the New York accents. Cried a lot.
    • 5/5
      A true classic. Heartbreaking. A look into what it truly means to be intelligent.
    • 5/5
      This novel was truly moving. I just wish the ending was better.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful story developing strong character attachments and evoking introspective depth. This was a surprise read for me and I finished it in about 5 hours.
    • 3/5
      Flowers for Algernon was recommended to me by a list on Reddit, subreddit r/books. I wasn't a fan, it was pretty boring and the idea was great but I found the plot to be dull and the characters pretty uninteresting.
    • 5/5
      This book got my attention from the first words I heard. It's amazing
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed the cyclical aspect of this story and that we came back to his sweetness. Also how emotional intelligence informs true intellect
    • 5/5
      Wow, I wasn't sure about it when I first started listening tbh. It's deep and it's raw. There are times when it is uncomfortably relatable, and there are times where it's just uncomfortable. I think listening through audio made it even better. It was like listening to an audio log, and honestly there are things you hear that almost feel invasive or too personal.

      1 person found this helpful