I just wrapped up the drama Flower for Algernon with Tomohisa Yamashita and Chiaki Kuriyama and I found to to be an enjoyable and occasionally tear-jerky story of a retarded flower delivery boy who goes through a series of operations and slowly becomes a genius.
I’d missed the drama when it originally came out in 2015, but when d-addicts was first announcing it was going to close its subtitling section, I began grabbing which EVER dramas I could that were subbed, and Algernon happened to be one!
One of my favorite authors is Stephen King, and I’d recently decided to re-read his epic novel The Stand again.
Now, the Stand is probably my FAVORITE book from him, which I’ve read countless times, but I didn’t recall this passage I read that night right after finishing watching Algernon ni Hanataba O, regarding the status of troubled character Harold Lauder:
Detail:
Huh, I hadn’t realize Flowers For Algernon was based on a real book, nor that it had been made into a movie, both supposedly popular? So the Yamapi character was originally a janitor? That was intriguing! And secondly, how much of a coincidence was it that I’d read that passage right after finishing up the drama? But the coincidences didn’t end there!
So I’ve been following this youtube book reviewer named Emily Fox, and though I’ve seen all her recent videos, the youtube algorithms popped up an older one of hers from 2016 into my feed, and when I watched it, I did a double take when what book should she pull out to recommend but Flowers for Algernon itself!!!! WHAAA! I had to laugh- the book cover even had an illustration of the Algernon the rat going through a maze in case I wasn’t sure it was indeed the same story!
But it was indeed, and it was a high recommendation from Emily, who summed it up saying “Following Charley’s journey totally broke my heart!” Even more interesting, she mentioned that the book was told in “journal” form from the point of Charley, so the entries start out simplistic and slowly become more and more sophisticated as the book goes along.. .
VERY intriguing…I might have to actually check out Flowers For Algernon- clearly seems like it’s written in the stars!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
