by Daniel Keyes

***~~ (3/5)

Fiction / Science Fiction

Click here to buy the book Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (free delivery worldwide)

Book Synopsis:

With an IQ of 68, Charlie Gordon works as a sweeper in a bakery. He thinks has friends, but little does he know he is the butt of their jokes, an amusing plaything.

Charlie’s life changes radically when he undergoes an experimental operation that to enhance his intelligence. Charlie becomes a genius.

However, Algernon, the mouse who had been successfully enhanced before Charlie, dies. Charlie has to live with the knowledge that his new life and his insights into the world are only temporary.

My Book Review:

This book, Flowers for Algernon is interesting on many levels. Firstly because of the fantastic ‘What if?’ question that it poses. What if there was an operation that could enhance a man’s intelligence? We could make all the mentally disabled people like us, they could integrate into society, they could live ‘normal lives’, they would no longer be a burden.

But this book goes deeper, as it charts the changes in Charlie, who undergoes this operation. As he becomes a genius, his eyes are also opened to the ugliness of the world and he realises that the people whom he thought were his friends, were actually making fun of him the whole time. So, despite gaining superior intelligence, he has lost what made him happy, friends who enjoyed his company, who laughed with him. As a reader we feel the cringe of Charlie’s lack of knowledge before the operation, that his colleagues are actually laughing at him. But in Charlie’s mind, he has great friends, and he is happy. Which begs the question: is Charlie better off in his lack of knowledge, or in knowing the truth of his situation?

Flowers for Algernon covers many areas, from the disparity in the intellectual and emotional growth in Charlie, to flashbacks to the past and the way his family treated him, to love . Charlie was severely taught that he was to keep away from women. This inculcated a fear of getting close to women, which stayed with him, even as he became intelligent and integrated into society. The love story with his former teacher, Miss Kinnian, shows the push and pull of these emotions. Will the old Charlie let the new Charlie be free of this fear?

The main arc of the novel is the lack of knowledge of whether this experiment will last, and then the knowledge through Algernon’s behaviour and subsequent death, that Charlie would end up back at square one.

The book is written in the form of Charlie’s journals, or Progress Reports for the scientific experiment. Charlie’s writing starts off simplistic with bad spelling. Then immediately after the operation, when he is told how to spell the word ‘progress report’ correctly, he remembers it, and continues spelling it correctly. That is the first sign of Charlie’s change, even if Charlie himself doesn’t recognise it. But then, he suddenly becomes super intelligent, learning new languages, going through pages of books at one glance. I missed the leap. So when the men at the bakery became afraid of him, and both the bakery workers and Miss Kinnian suddenly felt inferior to him, I missed the connection. I didn’t get the full impact of this intellectual shift, the wideness of the subverted gap, as I didn’t realise it had happened. I guess the author doesn’t have to spell the shift out, but I think my understanding and the impact of their reaction would have been clearer and more powerful if he had established this beforehand, as opposed to after. As a reader I knew that Charlie would become intelligent, but I didn’t realise that he’d become a genius.

The questions that were raised when I read the book were:

Would Charlie have been better off if he had never had the operation?

Is Charlie a better person before or after the operation?

Why do people make fun of disabled people? What in them makes them do this?

Reading about how Charlie’s family treated him, made me realise that we don’t truly treat the mentally disabled like human beings. Directly or indirectly, consciously or sub-consciously, we have an aversion to such people, a dread or sheer thankfulness that we are not like them. We see them as deprived of a real life, a burden. But we don’t know what’s really going on inside. Could they be happier than we the ‘normal people’?

I’m beginning to realise that what makes us happy is not what we think makes us happy. The external societal push towards this concept of ‘happiness’ doesn’t always equate to us actually being happy. Money, material things, education, career, marriage, children. The ‘normal things’, that everyone is striving for, may not be what will truly make us happier in our own skin. What we are striving for is the path that society has said is the correct and ‘normal’ one, or we end up searching for surface happiness, instant gratification that will soon fade away.

But then the question is: What DOES make us happy?

I don’t know yet.

x Julie

Reading Like Rabbits

Bookstore and Book Review Site

By Richard Bach

Photographs by Russell Munson

***** (5/5)

Fiction / Inspirational

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Book Synopsis:

Seagulls fly to find to food. Seagulls eat. Seagulls survive. This is seagull law. But Jonathan Livingston Seagull has discovered the sheer joy and pleasure of flying and swooping and diving. Because of this, Jonathan is banished by the seagull elders. But Jonathan still continues to fly, expanding his horizons and searching for his higher purpose.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a fable about seizing life by the horns, and following your dreams, even if it means going against the norms of the flock.

A story that will inspire you to follow your dreams, so that you can soar too.

My Book Review:

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a beautiful and inspiring story. After reading it, I feel like I can do anything. IF I choose to. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut in your mind, but when you read Jonathan’s story you want to join the race to learn and to shed all your limitations. Bach writes, ‘Break the chains of your thought and you break the chains of your body too’.

This book is wise and accessible, told simply from the point of view of a frustrated seagull with dreams and aspirations higher than what his fellow seagulls could ever comprehend. Russell Munson’s photographs which are scattered throughout the book, of seagulls in flight, cement the idea of flying and freedom. There are so many quotes I want to extract from this book, but you really have to read it to understand.

I have read Jonathan Livingston Seagull twice now, and have decided I should read it periodically, to remind myself that ‘whatever stands against freedom must be set aside’ and that nothing can be achieved without practice. Give this inspirational book as present to yourself or to others.

I also recommend another Richard Bach story Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah.

x Julie

Book Show and Book Reviews

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Outliers

by Malcolm Gladwell

****~ (4/5)

Non-Fiction

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Book Synopsis:

Why do some people achieve so much more than others?

Can they lie so far out of the ordinary?

In his provocative and inspiring new book, Malcolm Gladwell looks at everyone from rock stars to professional athletes, software billionaires to scientific geniuses, to show that the story of success is far more surprising than we could have ever imagined. He reveals that it’s as much about where we’re from and what we do, as who we are – and that no one, not even a genius, ever makes it alone.

Outliers will change the way you think about your life story, and about what makes us all unique.

My Book Review:

Malcolm Gladwell’s books are the sort of books in which you unwittingly exclaim out loud while reading, immediately spouting out little facts and discoveries to whomever is within listening range. I had so many dinner time stories to share during and after reading this book, I felt like a little fountain of interesting and unique information.

I hesitate to bring up too many examples of the discoveries that Gladwell reveals in Outliers, for fear of giving the punch-lines away. Lets just say that it was an informative and smile provoking read that confirmed many of my suspicions about the path to success:

Hard work + Circumstances = SUCCESS!

For those of us who don’t really ‘get’ the word Outlier straight off, Gladwell starts the book with the definition:

“out.li.er

1.something that is situated away from or classified differently from a main or related body.

2.A statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample.”

I was a little confused by this definition, but it soon became clear that it was about people who lay outside the realm of ‘normal’, who had special abilities, be it mathematical or musical genius, had earned piles of money or tons fame, or even a group of people who somehow managed to evade illness.

Outliers is about HOW these people got to the top. The results are surprising as well as obvious.

Minor Spoiler Alert!

I’ll bring up two examples and no more.

The first example that is quite obvious but still important to know:

It takes people 10,000 hours to become really great at something, be it playing the piano, or becoming a computer whiz. Hard work and practice, practice, practice are the key.

The second example is a surprising insight is about Canadian hockey players who manage to make it to the big league. Canadian hockey is thought of as a meritocracy, however, a vast majority of players are born in the early part of the year. This is because the cut off date for age class hockey is January 1st. Therefore, those children born in the early part of the year are naturally older and often bigger, giving them an early and immediate advantage. This advantage can stay with them their whole hockey career, having been given the seemingly minor but massive head-start of being born at the right time of year.

[Tip for parents to be, plan to have your child at a time that coincides with the primary school cut off date of your favourite sport.]

Gladwell demonstrates with interesting examples how ones economic and social circumstances, the year and even month they were born, and who their ancestors were contribute significantly to who you become and how you behave. Legacy plays an important part – legacies dating back generations have an effect on how you act and react in your daily life.

I enjoyed reading Outliers, the examples were surprising at times and although his insights sometimes seem obvious once you’ve read them, they act as a confirmation that you can work towards success (10,000 hours, here I come!), and also make you wonder what cards your circumstances have dealt you, and if you are limited or freed by them.

One of my favourite chapters was the one about how Korean Air (a previously freakily dangerous airline to fly on) transformed itself after acknowledging legacy.

Read it, you’ll feel smarter after.

x Julie

Non-Fiction Book Review

- Reading Like Rabbits