A Clockwork Orange

Surprisingly, it didn't take long to get a hang of the 'made up' words. This book is a classic for a reason - but man, it isn't for the faint-hearted. The senseless violence does kind of get to you. I finished this book with a lot of important and heavy questions in my mind, definitely recommend for anyone who enjoys reading heavier stuff.

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.”

“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.

Story: well told and sometimes it made me look away (I know it sounds weird)
Characters: well developed and sometimes I had sympathy for Alex so yeah, Anthony Burgess managed to make me like a horrible criminal
Feeling: disgusted when it was disgusting, happy, but sad at the same time when Alex was beaten
Overall: a great story about a psycho

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.

This is a very difficult book to read. Some of the content is very disturbing and difficult to face. It's also difficult to read due to the made up language that is used in it. The addition I read had an Glossary in the back it was pivotal and understanding the story. I've heard the movie is pretty shocking and terrible and leaves out the most important part which is the very last chapter of the book.

I could not put this book down! I read it over the course of two days. Not sure what I can say about it that hasn't already been articulated in a much better way by much smarter people than I. Suffice it to say I thought it was an excellent study of human nature and what “evil” we all allow in ourselves and therefore, in our world. Burgess wrote using the Nadsat language in such a way that the story flows almost like a work by Shakespeare. Alex is a cruel, dangerous wretch, yet seeing him stripped of his choice, his humanity, turns him into a sympathetic character. Our failings as individuals add up to our failures as a society, which perpetuates the broken system and continuously churns out wicked monsters. Is removing the choice and turning us into mindless drones the path to good, or the path to an even greater evil?

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.”

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.

Summary: Young Alex, along with his small group of friends, leads a shockingly violent criminal life until the state decides to take drastic measures to change that. This novel explores the ideas of selfishness and the depth of human depravity, as well as those of youth and the natural course of life.

“When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man.”

In a dystopian future, where everyone works for the good of the state, a group of teens take some drugs and wreak havoc - and Burgess creates Ultra-Violence.

I've read this before and I remember that the language alienated me so that I couldn't get into the story. Not this time, I was so engrossed that nearing the end I didn't want to read any further for fear of what was to come!
I found the words flowed like music (apt considering Burgess' dream to fuse the two) lifting the story to a higher level, drawing me in to the strange world and terrifying mind of Alex, your Humble Narrator.
The beauty of the language is juxtaposed with the horrific violence graphically described throughout. Worsened somehow by Alex's lack of emotional attachment to his crimes, they are just something for him to do with his time.
The apparent hopelessness is echoed by the near repetition of the first chapter at the end. But there IS a glimpse of light as Alex decides to turn his back on the lifestyle (unless you are reading the US version which excludes the final chapter).

I've made it sound awful but it's not, it's visceral and real and you are trapped there, inside Alex's head with all the sights and the music - so when it ends you feel like a bucket of water has been poured over you. And you want to go back and do it all again.

I recently listened to A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, narrated by Tom Hollander, and it was an intense yet thought-provoking experience. Tom Hollander’s narration was fantastic. He fully embraced the heavy accent and navigated the Nasdat slang with incredible ease, making it feel natural and authentic. Despite the harsh nature of the book, I could easily envision a teenage boy speaking, which added to the realism and immersion of the story. Hollander absolutely killed it in his portrayal of Alex, capturing both his rebelliousness and vulnerability.

As a social worker with a strong interest in reformative justice, I found the concept of this book particularly intriguing. The dystopian world Burgess created, where violent youth rule the streets, inflicting senseless harm on anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path, raises compelling questions. Can society become a better place if free will is taken away from these youths, forcing them to obey the law or face biological punishment? Does justice truly prevail when the root causes of the violence are never addressed? These were questions that kept surfacing for me throughout the book. Despite the atrocities Alex committed, I couldn’t help but feel some level of sympathy for him. The trauma he endured in prison was despicable—an ultimate abuse of power, as the authorities toyed with the minds of society’s most vulnerable. It felt like the government was condoning lobotomies on teenagers, stripping them of their autonomy in the name of order.

The ending of the book was a highlight for me. It provided a subtle but hopeful glimpse that perhaps Alex could change his ways on his own terms, through self-determination rather than coercion. It was a satisfying conclusion to an otherwise grim narrative.

I did struggle with the Nasdat slang at first. I had to relisten to the first chapter three times before I could even start to grasp what was being said. Eventually, I found a Nasdat slang chart online, which was a huge help! If you’re planning to listen to this book and having trouble with the language, I definitely recommend looking up a chart to make things easier.

Overall, I really enjoyed A Clockwork Orange, though it’s definitely not for the faint of heart. The book is full of brutal cruelty, and Alex, as the narrator, shows little remorse for his actions. However, the story was incredibly intriguing and raised many questions about morality, justice, and the nature of free will. If you’re looking for something that challenges your perspective, this audiobook is a must-listen.