A Clockwork Orange

Not sure how I felt about this book. Definitely won't read it again, and I read so many books for a second (third, fourth ...) time. This was interesting but extremely unsettling and violent. Glad I read it, but very happy to be finished.

I read this in the 70s just after I saw the movie. The book is an excellent, but hard read. It gets easier once you get your head around the Nadsat slang.

5.0

I've already seen the film by Stanley Kubrick a couple of times before reading this book. The film version is one of my all-time favorite films and it's just one of those films that resonated with my soul. I then Googled the book online and saw that it's less than 300 pages, so I ended up reading the entire novel in a single night. Here's what I think for this amazing book:

This is one of the most brilliant books I have ever read. Ingenious in the way it is written, executed, and created. Anthony Burgess created a fascinating, gruesome world, in which he sucks you right in leaving you feeling sick to your stomach but intrigued nonetheless. He created an entirely new language, confusing you and entertaining you all at the same time. I was at first very confused and put off with the slangs used, and it was hard understanding all the words and making sense of it, but soon enough you get the hang of it and you start to enjoy reading it. You would think that it would be impossible to write a book about a 15-year old rapist/murderer and somehow have him come out as a sympathetic character. Burgess has achieved that remarkable feat in this book. The genius of it is in the use of the first person and in the use of slang to give voice to Alex. The slang also serves to make the violence almost comical as instead of kicking someone in the mouth, Alex describes “giving a tolchok into the rot and knocking out a few zoobies”. So even though the book is full of violence and ~rape~, the language removes us from it in such a way that the book feels less violent than it is.

The story itself is a fairly simple and fast read. If you have seen the film then you already know what happens in the book. Alex and his friends commit violent crimes, Alex gets arrested, he gets cured of his violence and then gets cured of the cure. The movie follows the book almost EXACTLY!

Nearly forty years after it's first publication, Burgess' controversial novel still stands as a masterpiece. Burgess himself thought that this book is overrated. He said that there were other books that he would rather have been remembered for, but I don't agree. This is brilliant on every level. A Clockwork Orange is a deep exploration of good and evil, with the conclusion that it is better to choose to be bad than to be forced to be good. In other words, man's free will must be protected at all costs, and we mustn't curb our nature so that we become little more than a machine - we mustn't become like “a clockwork orange”.

A Clockwork Orange changed the way I look at literature for it provides a balanced look at life and the decisions we make. It makes a statement more so than just tells a story. It exposes human emotions, the darkest parts inside of us that we keep hidden from us all. Upon finishing this novel I was forced to reflect on it and ask myself, “aren't we all the same?” and it's a question I feel this novel addresses well.

This is one of my favorite quote from the book: “What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him? Deep and hard questions little 6655321.”

“What's it going to be then, eh?”

It seemed a bit daunting at first but once I got a hang of all that nadsat I started enjoying the book. The narrative really holds it together. This particular edition I read had an intro which gave the book a context. I suppose I would prefer the American edition which had the last chapter dropped. It feels out of place. But all in all I'm glad, O My Brothers, to have added a colourful bunch of nadsat words to my vocabulary.

What's it going to be then, eh?

In this brief review of A Clockwork Orange I'm not going to run through the plot of the book, just the thoughts I had when I was reading it. Set is a dystopian near future it focusses on Alex, “your humble narrator”, a 15 year old anti-hero, who spends his day indulging in ultra-violence, rape, theft and listening to classical music. I also watched the Stanley Kubrick movie too before I read it; I'd recommend doing this as it certainly helped me to grasp the structure of the story and what the Nadsat slang (a version of Russian and Cockney English, along with Shakespearean and Biblical influences) referred to.

Actually, I did think the movie was more shocking than the novel because the use of the poetic Nadsat slang slightly reduced the brutality of the violence diverting my focus to trying to understand what was being described. While you could initially guess what the slang terms meant it's progressive and constant use soon meant you became accustomed to it. It also sucked you into Alex's world and made you part of his gang. This is especially true as Alex addresses readers as “oh my brothers”, which is disconcerting: if I am his brother then should I accept or tolerate what he does? This then begs the question, what effect does language have on the way we think and the way it can be used to control and influence others?

One of the major themes explored is that of free will. Your own voluntary choice to be moral or not distinguishes humans from other “lower” creatures, who rely more on genetic intuition. Alex chooses to be evil, this choice is later taken away by the Government, so does this make any subsequent good behaviour meaningless as the prison chaplain suggests?

”Goodness comes from within... Goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man.”

While the book describes acts of terrible violence these are not glorified, rather they are used to show that individuals have free will:

“Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?”

The book also distrusts government which it suggests tries to supress individual thought using media, technology and violence amongst other things to demand compliance with a collective and accepted way of thinking and acting. Perhaps this is why Alex and his droogs drink milk; a homogeneous liquid of choice for helpless infants? Is this a comment on the uniformity and passive nature of society?

Classical music is referred to constantly and is used to structure the novel itself; Parts 1 and 3 of the novel seem to mirror each other (Alex is free), with Part 2 being markedly dissimilar (Alex is not free), for instance. Also the dichotomy between music and violence, which provoke the similar feelings in Alex, generates a certain dissonance in the reader. The two things are not supposed to exist in the same mind and at the same time. Interestingly, I know that Burgess did try to structure other novels such as Napoleon Symphony like Beethoven's Third Symphony, and elements of this approach are present in A Clockwork Orange.

Finally, one last word on the film: it omits the last optimistic chapter which suggests that the cure delinquency is simply maturity. However, this assumes that irresponsibility in teenagers is almost inevitable and something that you simply have to grow out as you enter adulthood. I'm not so sure about this and I can see why Kurbrick decided to leave this out as it doesn't make much sense to me.

So in summary, A Clockwork Orange was both horrific and wonderful. There is no doubt that it is a thought provoking novel which everyone should read. While it is a challenge, the fascinating way it is written and the manner in which it conveys its ideas set it apart from other novels I've read. Definitely recommended, o my brothers.

The author would rather never written the book had he known there would be Kubrick's movie :-) He wrote the book as a cautionary/moral story, while the movie glorified violence. I liked both, and the movie ending better, but that's just my cynical taste.

This is the original version with an extra chapter at the end that was not included in the American version and thus not include in the Kubrick movie.
A book exploring teenage thugs and human rights. Is it a human right to have the choice to kill and maim others? Is it a right to exact revenge on another human? Counter conditioning to render a person to be unable to enact harm on another- a perfect rehabilitation or does it take away free will? This book is told in the slang laced and droll voice of the young author as he enjoys life through violence. Many of the scenes are squirm inducing but the narrator voice stays engaging.
The additional chapter changes the whole story even though it is relative short. The character becomes bored with violence and starts to grow up.

I only picked up this book because there was a sale going on and I've heard of this book having a sort of cult following. Supposed to be a rather shocking piece of work. Wonder what it says about me, since I didn't find it all that shocking. Sure, the beatings, the rapes, the break-ins... well, maybe it's a different era I suppose given what we see on TV and in the news these days.

The nadsat-talk “slang” was pretty easy to follow - you get the gist of the meaning. It was kinda interesting at first, but towards the end, I got weary of it.

The author seems to railing against the impetuousness of youth, uncontrolled youth at that, painting a dystopian society which turns almost lawless during the night. The violent narrator is an example of such a youth, one who got caught, was forcibly redeemed, and then reverted back. None of the other characters were ever much fleshed out; it was like they were all more symbolic, given what seems to be stereotypical characters - the backstabbing comrade, the brtual police, the self-serving politician, etc.

I don't really have much else to say about the plot. It wasn't all that interesting, except for that “redeeming” process, but then again, that isn't all that unheard of anymore, in this day and age. I also read the author's foreword rant, where he lamented the exclusion of the final chapter in the first edition. Neither endings felt satisfactory to me. One was sort of dangling, the other was a liitle too “eveything's ok now.”

Second time reading the book. Have seen the movie many times. I still find the language and voice entertaining.

I believe this was the first time I've been exposed to the last chapter (older editions have the last chapter cut out, and the movie doesn't adapt the last chapter). I'm not sure how I feel about it. It does provide a nice symmetry to the first chapter, but I thought it was a bit too convenient. It features a character change in Alex that seems like it's just there to make a point and to end it on a positive note.

The first 30% of this book was really hard for me to get through because I just didn't enjoy it. While it did get better after that, I never loved it, but I am still glad that I spent the time reading it.

FYI the edition I'm reading is apparently meant for German students of English and it has like a million footnotes in German on each page and IT'S AWESOME.
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Awesome German footnotes aside, I don't really think this book was for me. I watched the first 20 minutes-ish of the movie & turned it off because I was too grossed out by all the violence. I ended up skimming over a lot of descriptions of attacking old people. I mean, I also was not in favor of the totalitarian regime, but basically I didn't relate to/care about any of the characters. I tried, as an exercise in empathy, but didn't get that far. It was kind of funny in places and I had a good time with the “nadstat” words, but overall... well, eh.

I haven't seen the movie and don't plan on it, but the book is great. Before reading it, I didn't know much about it except that it was “crazy” and apparently something that teens read in High School then immediately put down and go out and either form a punk band or get a tattoo or dedicate their life to writing. Generally books with that reputation (On The Road, Atlas Shrugged, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance etc.) just don't appeal to me that much (OK so I liked Atlas Shrugged as well). Despite the reputation, A Clockwork Orange was absolutely worth the read. I might even dedicate my life to writing.

The audio version I listened to was narrated by Tom Hollander, my new favorite narrator. His performance is flawless. At the end of the Audible version there are a few sample chapters narrated by Burgess himself but not even he can hold a candle to Hollander's performance. It is wonderful.

I didn't, for better or for worse, find the ultraviolence as offensive as its reputation suggested. Maybe it's because just I'm coming off reading Lolita, or maybe it's because the violence in ACO, while the acts are horrendous, is not described explicitly . Whatever the reason, it didn't seem all that controversial to me.

The main philosophical issue is interesting: the merit and humanity of doing good of free will versus being compelled to do good. Looking into the mind of a kid who feels absolutely no desire to do good and no remorse for doing bad is disturbing and intriguing as well– Alex is not your typical protagonist. There are some beautiful descriptions of music and at the end some fairly touching moments. Still though, my favorite parts weren't the story or the philosophy, they were, like, the language and dialog, oh my brothers.

This book is awesome. It reminded me of 1984 quite a bit since it deals with a futuristic culture, but instead of complete oppression like Orwell wrote about, Burgess depicts a society which still has lots of corruption. The complete disregard for human rights will shock you, but the punishment will shock you even more. The ending of the version I read left in an extra chapter that had been left out of previous American editions, and I must say that it leaves the reader with much more closure about the situation at the end of the book. I highly recommend this edition over others because of that. It's a real bezoomny book! Your glazzies will leak kroovy all over - it's horrorshow.

“And now I felt this bolshy big hollow inside my plott, feeling very surprised too at myself. I knew what was happening, O my brothers. I was like growing up ... Youth must go, ah yes.”