Image credit - Google Books
I recently joined a book club and we were tasked to read this title as our first book. As soon as I opened the book, I was very impressed with the writing style. I immediately understood what the writer was trying to portray and it gave me a nostalgic feeling to the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. A lot of people in the book club had an issue with the writing style and complained that it was preventing them from reading and I was very surprised by this.
Basically, the book is a point of view type read. The main character Charlie was a retard (clinically confirmed - with an IQ of below 70 or so) who had trouble parsing emotions, remembering stuff, reading, understanding what he was being taught and writing too. The story talks about his experience at the beginning chapters with him not fully understanding the reason for certain things that happened in his life. The book text basically contained him writing as best as he could describe the spelling of words and although seems difficult to read, once you get in the flow, you actually start to understand the point of view.
He was invited to an experiment where scientists had discovered a way to increase the intelligence of a rat via surgery and needed a human specimen to try it out on. The surgery was a success and the book gradually moved from the retarded writing to impeccable English as it was still from his point of view. He was basically narrating his life as it progressed as it was supposed to be part of the tasks given to him by the scientists from the moment he was approved to be operated on till they were to showcase him to the world as a medical success.
His journey went from hopeful to filled with despair as his growing intelligence and emotional understanding made him start to realize that he had been in a world where nearly everyone took advantage of his dullness. Due to his good nature, he thought everyone was nice to him but as he got more intelligent, read more and understood the world more, he began to have revelations that shook him to his core.
I'm starting to say too much about the book. Give it a read if you get the chance to.