No. 338 - Flowers for Algernon

I am currently reading House Rules by Jodi Picoult. I enjoy reading her novels because each chapter is written from a different perspective from one of the main characters, and they are always chock full of interesting facts and stuff I don't know.

To put this post in context, the novel is about a teenage boy, Jacob, who has Asperger's Syndrome.

Today I read the following, from Jacob's perspective:

The aide who staffs the room, Ms. Agworth, is also the Quiz Bowl teacher. Every day at 11:45 she leaves to make photocopies of whatever it is she's using in Quiz Bowl later that day. For this very reason, I've made it a point to use my COP pass [cool-off pass] at 11:30 for the past two days. It gets me out of English, which is a blessing in disguise, since we are reading Flowers for Algernon and just last week a girl asked (not in a mean way but truly curious) whether there were any experiments under way that might cure people like me.

I learned that Flowers for Algernon is a science fiction short story (published in 1959) and subsequent novel (published in 1966) written by Daniel Keyes.

Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence by artificial means. The story is told in the epistolary style, one of my favorite literary styles, as a series of progress reports written by Charlie, the first human test subject for the surgery, and touches upon many different ethical and moral themes such as the treatment of the mentally disabled.

Since its original publication, the novel has never been out of print and has sold more than five million copies.

After learning this I did two things. First, I realized that two days in a row I have learned something involving a mouse, although my wife told me that The Nutcracker did not have a seven-headed mouse in it, although she did say there were mice in it. And second, I immediately went to my PaperbackSwap.com account and ordered a copy of Flowers for Algernon.