Flowers for Algernon
by Daniel Keyes · first published 1966
52% recommend45% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
A man's intelligence is artificially raised, showing how intelligence shapes personality and awareness. Readers call it deeply moving, tear-inducing, and a useful reference for thinking about intelligence.
Common criticism: Some prefer the original short story; the novel's expansion is seen as weaker
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Until he was thirty-two, Charlie Gordon --gentle, amiable, oddly engaging-- had lived in a kind of mental twilight. He knew knowledge was important and had learned to read and write after a fashion, but he also knew he wasn't nearly as bright as most of the people around him. There was even a white mouse named Algernon who outpaced Charlie in some ways. But a remarkable operation had been performed on Algernon, and now he was a genius among mice. Suppose Charlie underwent a similar operation...
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…Management - Kahn, Grinold * Thinking, fast and slow - Kahneman * Protein Power (the Eades') / Why we get fat (Taubes) * Why we sleep (Walker) * Deep Work / So Good They Can't Ignore You (Newport) * Flowers for Algernon (Keyes) * Getting to Yes (Fisher)
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Joan Didion) Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes) The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (Paul Zindel) The Things They Carried (Tim O' Brien) This Side of Paradise (F. Scott Fitzgerald) Something Wicked This Way Comes…
on “Ask HN: I have no commitments for the next 6 months – what books should I read?” ↗Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes. This is easily the most moved I have been by a book that was equal parts a theory of intelligence and equal parts a realization of how important of an ingredient intelligence is to enable…
on “Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?” ↗Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Read it first when I was 16, at the recommendation of my literature teacher in high school. For the past... - darn, this was long ago! - ...more than 20 years, I've read it at least…
on “Ask HN: What's one book that changed your life?” ↗Flowers for Algernon was great, but I'd strongly suggest reading the short story and avoiding the novel. The short story was lengthened in to the novel and was ruined, in my view, by all the Freudian-influenced attempts…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Wild by Cheryl Strayed - not strictly fiction but it could be read as such. Opened my mind to areas of society I wasn't aware of.
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗Oh, and Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes.
on “Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?” ↗Flowers for Algernon from David Keyes
on “Ask HN: Books on specific topics that have applied to many areas of your life?” ↗…They're more likely to say "You're stupid!" Would you rather be a brain without a body or a body without a brain? For a heartrending story about the role intelligence plays in shaping personality, read Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.
on “Ask cperciva: Are great mathematicians born or made?” ↗"Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes (the short story, not the novel) "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton
on “Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books.” ↗Here are two fiction books that I really enjoyed and learned from: 1) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. This book is an emotional roller coaster. After reading it, you will better understand what life is like for the mentally challenged. 2) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. You will get a…
on “Ask HN: Fiction books that entertain and educate?” ↗Ignorance is bliss. This reminds me of the Jewish tradition, where men is punished when he eats from the Tree of Knowledge. The more you know, more easily you find anguish. "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes deals with this subject in a splendid way (won the Nebula Award for best novel in 1966). The tao says: therefore the sage, in exercise of his government, empties their minds, fills their…
on “Relationships between Depression and High Intellectual Potential (2012)” ↗These all had a profound effect on me; especially Dune.. Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes Dune Series, Frank Herbert Foundation Series, Isaac Asimov Calculus Made Easy Paperback, Silvanus P. Thompson
on “Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?” ↗Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon. Both the short story and the book (I read the book first, so I'm more attached to it). It is still deeply moving after all these rereads, decades on.
on “Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?” ↗Fiction: 1. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes because it's so beautifully written and made me experience a flood of emotions. 2. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Again, a very touching, charming book about a little kid's…
on “Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?” ↗