"Until he was thirty-two, gentle and likable Charlie Gordon had lived in a mental haze. He realized that knowledge and the ability to write were important, and though he was functionally literate, he wasn't as bright as most people around him. Even a white mouse named Algernon seemed to outpace Charlie. But Algernon's gifts weren't natural. They were the result of a unique operation. When Charlie undergoes a similar operation, readers are at once drawn into a radical experiment that has complex and profound implications."--Page 4 of cover.