Author: Anthony Burgess
Rating: 2 stars
To me, A Clockwork Orange wasn't absolutely amazing mainly because of the slang. If you've seen the movie, you understand what I'm talking about. However, while watching the movie, the slang isn't as noticeable and is downright tolerable. But when you're reading it, you kind of get taken out of the story. For the first few chapters I had to refer to a nadsat talk dictionary specifically for this book that I had found online. Eventually I got annoyed with having to look up every other, Russian-derived word and decided to use context clues instead.
Okay, for those of you who haven't read this book, or haven't seen the movie, here's what it's about; the narrator (Alex) and his three friends (droogs) cause some ultra-violence at night. You know, beating up old drunken homeless people, that sort of thing. One night after beating up a rival gang, they stop at a home, trick the inhabitants into letting them in and then proceed to wreck the place, beat up a man and rape his wife. The next night, they go out. This time they break into a woman's house. There is a scuffle while the woman tries to get Alex out of her house. When he hears that the police are coming, he goes to leave, only to be kicked and beaten by his own droogies. The police pick Alex up. Part one of the novel ends with Alex finding out that the woman had died due to the scuffle and that he's being sent to prison.
Part two deals with Alex's life in prison. By now, he had been in there for two years. He finds out about a new treatment and that will ensure a prisoner's early release. He schemes his way into the experimental treatment, which is nothing short of torture itself. It's actually classic conditioning. Part two ends with Alex being released back into the world.
The final part of the novel is were the action is and is just one long string of bad luck for our narrator. He's not welcome at home, homeless men beat him up, the police beat him up. Finally, it looked like Alex was going to get help, however, that blows up in his face as well. All the bad things that he did before being sent to prison came back to haunt him on his very first day out in the real world. He jumps from a window, hoping to do himself in to make it all stop. However, not even that can go right for little Alex. He wakes up and the government apologizes for messing with his head. In the last sentence of the chapter you can just hear the wicked, badassery of the character, "I was cured all right." As a reader, you just have to think, "Uh oh."
I read the American version had the extra chapter that had been take out of the original American release (and therefore not included in the movie version). I personally, am glad it wasn't included into the movie, I feel like it would have ruined the ending because I felt the end imagery of the movie was really quite amazing and very powerful. However, for the book, I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I won't talk about it here, I want you to read it for yourself.
Alex frequently breaks the "fourth wall" and addresses the audience, calling himself "Your Humble Narrator." The addressing of the reader makes you feel sorry for the poor boy. You almost see him as a victim. Well, more of a victim you would normally see him as if there wasn't a break.
As for the structure of the novel, I particularly liked that each part of his life was a difference part of the novel. You can see the character progress from violent teenage to neutral prisoner to helpless victim. And there is even more progress within the last part. You seen him take back control of his life.
This isn't necessarily a weekend read despite the fact that it's only 200-ish pages. That is, unless you're fluent in nadsat talk. It's probably more of a school break/vacation read, when you have a lot of time to devote to reading the book.
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