This book made me incredibly sad. Even so, I’m glad I read it. I think that anyone who deals with those who are mentally challenged should read it. It’s a real eye opener. I found myself thinking a lot about my husband’s half-brother… We’ll be his guardians someday, as he has Fragile-X Syndrome and will never be able to care for himself. The parts where Charlie Gordon was slow opened my eyes to what it must be like for someone like that, my brother-in-law included. It’s bittersweet…knowing that people laugh at them, but they don’t even realize it. That they don’t even know when someone feels sorry for them. It’s one of those things you just try to avoid thinking about. And the parts where Charlie was a genius made me wonder… If I was given the opportunity to put my brother-in-law in such a place as to become a genius… If I knew it would be permanent, and that there were no physical risks involved… Would I do it? Knowing that he’s not got an easy life now, but he’s at least oblivious to those who tease him… And knowing that he would discover the pain of knowing someone doesn’t like you… Would I put him through all that, to make him smart? I don’t know. No such thing as an easy answer to that. I suppose I’ll never know, as such an opportunity won’t be offered in our lifetime, I’m relatively certain…

I’ll just watch him play on the swingset for now, oblivious to sadness, if sometimes confused. I’ll do his worrying for him. I’m okay with that.

My friend found this cheap at a used bookstore and was inspired to re-read it. He convinced me to do so also, and I don’t regret it, though I think that I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I’d read it as a teenager. There’s a lot of ‘60s psychobabble that detracts from the basic ideas of the story, but there’s also a lot of real emotion to the story and the characters. I would definitely give it to a kid of the ages 11-16 or so.