Film & Book Club – Flowers for Algernon

Considered one of the all time classic science fiction stories (256pp), it is a heart-wrenching tale which transcends the genre. Have tissues at hand as it is emotional! There are three adaptations which were all well received by critics but we will be showing the first adaptation (1968) entitled ‘Charly’, which won a Best Actor Oscar for its lead, Cliff Robertson.

The Book

Charlie Gordon, IQ 68, is a floor sweeper and the gentle butt of everyone’s jokes – until an experiment in the enhancement of human intelligence turns him into a genius. But then Algernon, the mouse whose triumphal experimental transformation preceded his, fades and dies, and Charlie has to face the possibility that his salvation was only temporary. Winner of the 1960 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, and subsequently expanded into a Hugo-nominated novel, Flowers for Algernon earned Daniel Keyes the honour of SFWA Author Emeritus in 2000 for his contribution to Science Fiction and Fantasy.

‘Heartbreaking and beautiful. Required reading, as far as I am concerned’ – Wil Wheaton’A masterpiece of poignant brilliance . .

. heartbreaking, and utterly, completely brilliant’ – The Guardian’Excellent . .

. extremely moving’ – The Encyclopedia of Science FictionWelcome to The Best Of The Masterworks: a selection of the finest in science fiction

The Film

Cliff Robertson earned an Academy Award for playing the title role based on the novel by Daniel Keyes entitled “Flowers for Algernon.” His portrayal is heartbreaking and you can’t help but feel for the character who is the butt of so many jokes by his so-called colleagues and friends at his workplace, a bakery. Seinfeld’s Barney Martin and Dick Van Patten play his co-workers. The divine Claire Bloom (who should be made a Dame) is the sympathetic attractive teacher. Ruth White plays the landlady in one of the last film roles before her death in 1969 from cancer. The setting is filmed on location in Boston, Massachusetts.