2006 books
68) Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon, 1966
One I've inexplicably been putting off for years, and I now wonder how much it was influenced by Theodore Sturgeon's similar 1947 novella Maturity, which I also recently read. I haven't seen the film Charly but I did enjoy the remake (which reverted back to the book's title), even if, as I can see in retrospect, it did reinterpret some of its best scenes. Charlie Gordon, IQ 68, has had his intelligence experimentally enhanced to such a degree that he becomes ostracised and emotionally remote, unnerving even the scientists who created his vastly superior mental abilities. Then Algernon, the intelligent mouse who served as the prototype for his experiment, prematurely dies and Charlie must face the possibility that his redemption was only temporary.
Daniel Keyes crafted an exceptionally insightful and readable book, one that succeeds in just about everything it sets out to do while exploring most of the philosophical avenues aswell. It's also noticeable how Keyes can look into the hearts of his characters to show just how inescapably fallible they all are, no matter how great or small their intellectual achievements. A book that's never superficial, I'd also recommend it to anyone who doesn't habitually read science fiction as an example of how SF doesn't need any science in order to tell its most humane stories.