Flowers for Algernon author dies

[Narz]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/books/daniel-keyes-a-novelist-of-the-mind-dies-at-86.html

Daniel Keys, most famously known for Flowers for Algernon kicked the bucket a few days ago.

I liked "Flowers for...", thought provoking, touching book. Never did see the movie version.

I'd be curious to read his memoir.

 

[Kyriakos]

RIP....

Only know this work by him, but it had caused a huge impression since i first read it for english class (i was 14 at the time). An excellent short story (i read the short story, iirc there is a later version too). Surely one of my favorite works in English literature

 

[Borachio]

Never read it. Is it well written?

I remember the film [I]Charly[/I], though.

'Twas OK.

A fairly straightforward premise, iirc.

 

[Kyriakos]

^Heathen

I love the plot in that story. Even the way he sets up the wild fluctuations of the narrator (going from an IQ of 68 to genius level, and...not going to spoil the rest ) is great by itself.
Algernon too. Very good work in my view. I tried to re-read it a few months ago but i found it so bleak that i gave up (and i write bleak-ish stories myself) :\

 

[Smellincoffee]

I remember reading a short version of this in my American lit book back in 1998, and finding it depressing but unforgettable -- and so magnetic that I read the full version of the book in 2000 and found it depressing all the more. It's one of the few books I keep near my bedside, but I don't understand why it attracts me so.

 

[Lillefix]

I read the book for the first time a few months ago. It was very very, good. Highly recommended.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I remember reading a short version of this in my American lit book back in 1998, and finding it depressing but unforgettable -- and so magnetic that I read the full version of the book in 2000 and found it depressing all the more. It's one of the few books I keep near my bedside, but I don't understand why it attracts me so.

Sometimes one is in the mood for depressing or dystopian stuff. That's why I re-read The Handmaid's Tale every so often.

 

[Glassfan]

I saw Charly as a kid, and so I and all of my friends got the book and read it. It was deeply moving and thought-provoking. Especially the nature of the ending. Other movies and TV shows have been made over the years, including a recent hommage, The Bourne Legacy, with a somewhat more popular resolution (certainly more action).

But I agree with Valka, the original poignant, melancholy ending is "better".

 

[CivCube]

dis bums me out. i member reeding this en middle skool and wannted to reed thwhole novvle hafter that. one of dose books that gives yoo more mputhy for ottthers.

 

[Kyriakos]

^

As for the ending, yes, it is very dark, but it fits the rest of this work. Not really something most people could go through reading (already mentioned that i could not re-read it when i tried to).

Maybe the hardest part is that he doesn't have any humorous (even if minor) passages as well, to disperce the sadness a bit. Maybe Gogol's 'The Overcoat' would be equally sad if he did not deliberately include such passages, let alone have an ending which rather eases up the sentiment of the otherwise quite horrifying story of the protagonist there..

 

[Borachio]

Sometimes one is in the mood for depressing or dystopian stuff. That's why I re-read The Handmaid's Tale every so often.

Yeah. Why not?

I'd also recommend Riddley Walker.

 

[CivCube]

I do wonder how much of "Algernon" holds up today. I get the feeling Charly, as well-developed as he is later in the novel, is still a dated stereotype for people with developmental disabilities. Trying to write a nondescript Abed today really only works if he's a supporting character. If the book were written today, I bet Charly would have been written with a specific diagnosis and its effects. Otherwise there are loads of nuanced situations regarding discrimination that even "Algernon" doesn't get into.

 

[Kyriakos]

^Worth noting that the motif of massively expanding one's intelligence and then being faced with trying to solve old problems but themselves apparently having massively expanded in complexity now too... is a very strong one, and in my view the core of this story.
But the story is so much more than that anyway. For one it is extremely dramatic. Although - as i mentioned before in the thread- likely too dramatically sad, and on the unhealthy side of things.

 

[Lillefix]

I do wonder how much of "Algernon" holds up today. I get the feeling Charly, as well-developed as he is later in the novel, is still a dated stereotype for people with developmental disabilities. Trying to write a nondescript Abed today really only works if he's a supporting character. If the book were written today, I bet Charly would have been written with a specific diagnosis and its effects. Otherwise there are loads of nuanced situations regarding discrimination that even "Algernon" doesn't get into.

You're definitely on to something. I'm not sure how realistic Charly is, but on the other hand that wasn't the point with the book. The point was his journey towards genious, not so much why he was unintelligent in the first place. But yes. It would different today. One with Downs syndrome would be interesting.