Flowers for Algernon

Title: Flowers for Algernon
Author: Daniel Keyes
ISBN: 0553274503

Plot Summary: Charlie Gordon, a developmentally disabled man, is selected by two researchers to be the subject of an experimental technique designed to increase intelligence, having already tried the technique on Algernon, a laboratory rat. The technique works, and Charlie's intelligence increases exponentially; at the same time, he also becomes increasingly aware of how the people in his life relate to him, and develops an interest in the opposite sex. However, this increased awareness is not without its drawbacks: his former co-workers, resentful that he now realizes how they have taken advantage of him, become alienated from him, and Charlie is unable to carry on a meaningful romantic relationship without being haunted by images of his former self. When his increase in intelligence turns out to be temporary, those around Charlie who care about him are distressed, but Charlie does not wish them to pity him, content with the memory that he was once a genius.