Reading 2008

( 1-29 )

30. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

31. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Plot: Charlie Gordon, a 30 year old mentally disabled man, is offered the chance to participate in an experiment that will raise his IQ. Like the mouse Algernon, Charlie turns into a genius within months. But Charlie also turns from an eager, optimistic, child-like person into a frightened cynic who realises that all his life, he has been ridiculed, belittled and abused even by his friends and parents, and now he is still no more than a guinea pig. At a scientific convention, he frees Algernon and runs away with him - to grow up, to discover himself, and whether the change is permanent, or whether he will slip back and lose the intelligence he has gained.

I listened to it as an audiobook. 9 hours in 3 days, and at the end I lay in my bed in the dark and sobbed. This novel is wonderful. It touches the heart of so many human... things. It's one of those novels wherein you recognise so many basic human feelings that it feels like déjà vu, like you've read this book already, a long time ago. It poses an ethical problem with no easy solution, and it's fair to everyone - neither pessimistic nor optimistic. It's what Plato's Cave allegory would be if it were a brilliant tragedy.

Reading 2008

( 1-29 )

30. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

31. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Plot: Charlie Gordon, a 30 year old mentally disabled man, is offered the chance to participate in an experiment that will raise his IQ. Like the mouse Algernon, Charlie turns into a genius within months. But Charlie also turns from an eager, optimistic, child-like person into a frightened cynic who realises that all his life, he has been ridiculed, belittled and abused even by his friends and parents, and now he is still no more than a guinea pig. At a scientific convention, he frees Algernon and runs away with him - to grow up, to discover himself, and whether the change is permanent, or whether he will slip back and lose the intelligence he has gained.

I listened to it as an audiobook. 9 hours in 3 days, and at the end I lay in my bed in the dark and sobbed. This novel is wonderful. It touches the heart of so many human... things. It's one of those novels wherein you recognise so many basic human feelings that it feels like déjà vu, like you've read this book already, a long time ago. It poses an ethical problem with no easy solution, and it's fair to everyone - neither pessimistic nor optimistic. It's what Plato's Cave allegory would be if it were a brilliant tragedy.