• Flowers for Algernon

  • By: Daniel Keyes
  • Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
  • Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (11,063 ratings)

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Flowers for Algernon  By  cover art

Flowers for Algernon

By: Daniel Keyes
Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
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Publisher's summary

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 mentally challenged 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, it now becomes an unforgettable audio experience.

©1966 Daniel Keyes (P)1998 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

  • Nebula Award, Best Novel, 1966

"A tale that is convincing, suspectful and touching." ( The New York Times)

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What listeners say about Flowers for Algernon

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Walk with a Swagger

It made me sad as I kept reading "Flowers for Algernon." I'm roughly the same age as Charlie and also was born with a disability. I could had had been mentally retarded, but by mother nature, my disability is different than his. I really don't think when Daniel Keyes was writing this book, he was going for the science fiction genre, but more how society treat people differently base on their mental status.

As Charlie gets smarter and smarter, he is treated differently and his attitude becomes more pompous as he learns more and more. He is no longer the happy go lucky guy that used to mopped floors in the bakery. As the experiment becomes more successful, he starts losing himself.

I can relate to Charlie. Although I am not a genius and I was raise in a loving family, the flashbacks of Charlie's parents is so real to me. For example, when his mother seeks for a cure to his mental retardation, I also had a similar instant in my life. For me, I had every treatment that my grandma could think of to make me try to walk or use my hands. None of the treatments worked and my family was forward thinkers at the time and gave me every resource to succeed.

If there was a magic cure to relieved me from my Cerebral Palsy and be like Charlie and be normal, I wonder how would my friends and family treat me. More importantly would I be walking with the norm, or would I be walking with a swagger and start to distance myself from people that I use to know?

This is an extremely powerful book. There is so much to the story other than the lab rat and the science experiment with the mentally retarded. A book like this is very rare these days.

"Flowers for Algernon" was published in 1959 and I have yet to read anything else that touch me.

Pure excellence. .

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Phenomenal Classic

Beautifully written classic tale of Charlie Gordon, a man with mental retardation who undergoes an experimental surgical procedure to cure his “condition.” Charlie is mentally and physically abused by his mother and teased for the entirety of his 32 years. He enters into therapy, and an accelerated learning program, attending classes and racing mazes with the first subject, Algernon the mouse. Keeping a diary, Charlie tracks his current progress and remembers the painful details of his previous memories with new clarity.

The story questions the attitudes and sickening treatment of people with special needs and the isolation felt from being on the outside looking in. I’m reminded of George Bernard Shaw’s, “Pygmalion.” Eliza Doolittle, like Charlie, becomes a subject in a test to prove those believed inferior can transform to the norms of society. The question ignored is when emotional immaturity doesn’t catch up quickly enough with newfound intelligence and the pitfalls therein. The human being is ignored for the advancement of science. Charlie also struggles to find meaning and purpose. All of these themes are explored in depth by Keyes and the narrator is phenomenal; moving back and forth with spot on cadence and dialect, perfectly emoting the evolution and regression of Charlie.

Outstanding novel.

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224 people found this helpful

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Don't Even Debate It, Just Click "Add to Cart"

Any additional comments?

The story and narration were superb and the plot was engrossing. After listening to about 60+ nonfiction books I have started to dip my toes into fiction--particularly science fiction. I remember listening to a classmate give a review of this book in a high school English class and decided to use one of the 'ol two credits on this one. Smart decision. Even though I knew the ending before I hit the play button, the journey--as any good book reveals--is more important that mere facts.

The ending will hit you.

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Great Writing and Incredibly Good Narration

Although written in 1966 based upon a short story published in 1959, nothing about this book is dated, hackneyed or trite. In fact, little would need to be changed for it to pass as a recently published novel set in the 1960s. The current Wikipedia entry for this book notes three main themes: treatment of the mentally disabled, the conflict between intellect and emotion or happiness, and how events in the past can influence a person later in life. Keyes does effectively develve into each of these issues, particuarly the last. However, for me, the deeper issue is Keyes' subtle, unstated questions about the value of all life, particularly the lives of those with little awarness of their own worth. In addition, Jeff Woodman's narration was superlative. His voice, inflection, cadence, etc. gave life and meaning to Charlie's character in a way that complemented and added to Keyes' writing. I listen to audiodbooks about 20 hours each week, and few books have affected me like this one in months. Give it a try.

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You won't forget this story.

I saw the play of this story years ago but could not remember the plot so I decided to listen to the book. I will never think about intelligence and society's perceptions the same way again. Perhaps because the novel is a much more in-depth exploration of Charly's psyche, the book stuck with me in a way the play did not. In the beginning the stuttering prose is frustrating, but it is such a necessary component of the novel and the gradual transformation to the point where Charly is speaking over your head sneaks up on you. Charly's reactions to the world change as his understanding of the world changes, and the reader can't help but reflect on the themes on a personal level.

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Didn't Remember THAT in High School...

This is a clever book in so many ways and it attempts to confront so many social and philosophical questions - questions all the way up to the meaning of life.

I read this story in high school and remember it being pretty good, so I decided to read it again. What I found was a much different book. Now I know why there were rumors about it being provocative. I must have read the cleaned up version, with none of the main character's sexual hang-ups. This book is tragic, sad, and thought provoking. I recommend it for a book club.

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An amazing experience

I have heard about this book many times but have never read it or watched one of the movies or TV shows based on it, but I decided it was about time that I did. Written originally as a short story in 1958 and later in 1966 as a novel it is an amazing tale of a mentally challenged man who science turns into a genius with an incalculably high IQ even though he still has the emotions of a child.

As narrator Jeff Woodman brings this story to life, he does an incredible job presenting Charlie through his many changes and growth along with the people around him that I regularly forgot that only one actor was conveying the story. Not many narrators have done that for me and this performance is the best I have heard in an audio book so far.

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beautiful and heartbreaking

this is deservedly a classic. there is much to think about regarding intelligence and enhancement. if you value what makes you an individual this novel will grip you and haunt you. one of my all time favorites.

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We All Must Feel Superior

This book is an one of a kind, on a subject that few have written in story format. Keyes is an excellent writer who makes you feel for his main character, Charley. You follow Charley from retardation to genius back to retardation. You get a first hand look in how the retarded are treated in society. As he moves up in intelligence, we see that even in the academic world there are many who strive to hide their weaknesses. How uncomfortable people get with people who are smarter then they are. Striving to not look dumb is a goal for most of us. Some do harm to those of less intelligence in order to make themselves feel smarter. It happens at all levels.

This is listed under Science Fiction, but it should be under American Classic. I believe it is required reading at some schools, as it should be.

The narrator is great

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GET READY TO CRY!

It won't seem like it a first.. but if you're not distracted.... and you let yourself feel the story... you will be moved... so much so... I dare say... that everything you ever thought about those less fortunate than you are... will slowly melt away...This is a beautiful... sad... story.. worth every spare minute of your time... I don't want to ruin it for you... but... you need to know... that it will enrich your soul... and... it will break your heart...

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