Key

I love everything about this.

WWWP

When I picked that book up I was so engrossed that the whole world around me ceased to exist. I read it three times in a row over a weekend and it's the last book I've read that really shook me emotionally. If you have any recommendations for something similar I'm all ears!

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Janszoon

From my list, honestly, Frankenstein. It's unfortunate that movies have so colored people's perception of this story because the book is so much more than all that. It's complex and emotionally frought and pretty heartbreaking. In many ways, the monster is analogous to Charlie as a freakish outsider who is tragically self-aware.

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OccultHawk

I wasn't able to connect with Frankenstein like that. I'm not sure if it was my frame of mind when I read it or what. I read it about 20 years ago I guess. Honestly, I don't think I understood it completely. I followed the basic plot but I think I missed a lot. It sucks when you're distracted and don't appreciate a book like you should.

innerspaceboy

My Lion books mass market PB features what must be the least appropriate cover of any edition I've encountered. I take it the scene is support to represent Victor's cousin Elizabeth who died on her wedding night at the hands of the monster. But hey, anything to sell a book.

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OccultHawk

That's hawt

Lisnaholic

^ Yes, I also loved this unique book; it's so neatly constructed and has some very moving moments, as when, quite early on, Miss Kinnian has to run out to the ladies room. That gets me every time! I still remember the first time I finished the book, aged about 15 and impelled to go for a walk to let the story percolate through my mind.

I'm always intrigued by the diary format - the idea that we'll see the intimate workings of someone's mind - and a much shorter fictional diary is Gogol's Diary of a Madman , although it doesn't have the emotional wallop of Flowers For Algernon. Alternatively, if you want the real thing, there is August Strindberg's From An Occult Diary.

^ That's an interesting connection that I might follow up on given the chance, never having read Frankenstein.

For a book as powerful as Flowers For Algernon, I can recommend the first book on my list, The Solid Mandala. The writing is more dense and convoluted, but it also explores the life of outsiders. In this case, the lives of two drab people who wouldn't usually merit a second glance are meticulously examined. The author shows us that despite the trappings of mediocrity, their lives are full of unguessed-at wonder and drama. Even though I take it slowly, perhaps ten pages a day, I've read The Solid Mandala about five times; it's one of those few books that has discernably affected who I am today because of its underlying messages - about the conflict between the heart and the head, and about the worth of the ordinary person.

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Lonesome Hobo

What would be the name of one of his books Frownland? I've never thought about reading a book about this subject, but the more I think about it, it'd be a great read.

Frownland

Night is autobiographical so I'd go with that one.

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Chula Vista

Just ordered it. Thanks everyone for the rec.

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