This novel actually began as a short story and was later elongated to become this book. In mid elementary school, we read either an excerpt or that short story and it had been on my to read list ever since. What finally got me to read the book was one of my roommates (who was Russian) happened to see it on my bookshelf and got super excited and borrowed it and read it in English for the first time. (apparently it is a part of their curriculum over in Russia as well, which is actually pretty amazing if you think about it).
This is one of those books that took me a day to read. Yes, it is pretty short only 216 pages, but it was more along the lines of how unbelievably empathetic you are towards Charlie and how much shit he goes through. At first he is the most lovable and sweet man. He goes through the testing for these experiments to make him smarter than, or at the very least as smart as the average adult. You read his diary and walk with him through the changes first in simple things such as vocabulary and spelling, next to being aware of social cues and notices that his friends are actually not so friendly at all.
He grows in knowledge at an incredible rate and with that does not necessarily come wisdom and understanding.
Charlie progresses through his learning and he becomes more and more isolated, as he quickly reaches an intelligence far outshining the doctors who did the surgical procedure on him. he withdraws into himself as it becomes more and more apparent that his treatment is not a permanent situation and has a time limit. He experiments with love and sex and experiences loss and grief.
When the treatment runs it course and he begins to degrade, he lashes out and is in such turmoil that the reader feels as if they are in the same situation. By the end of the novel he has to be institutionalized and you experience with him, every intelligence level on the spectrum.
Genuine in its raw emotion and moving in its personification of the affects intelligence has on the individual and how they relate to the world and those around them. Definitely a book I will be reading again as it was so engaging (and I really do need a dictionary at some points just to understand the enormity of Charlie's intellect).
REST IN PEACE ALGERNON.
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