by Anthony Burgess
'A vicious fifteen-year-old "droog" is the central character of this 1963 classic, whose stark terror was captured in Stanley Kubrick's magnificent film of the same title.
In Anthony Burgess's nightmare vision of the future, where criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. When the state undertakes to reform Alex—to "redeem" him—the novel asks, "At what cost?"'
In Anthony Burgess's nightmare vision of the future, where criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. When the state undertakes to reform Alex—to "redeem" him—the novel asks, "At what cost?"'
Anthony Burgess created a very interesting - and terrifying - dystopian world in A Clockwork Orange. Violence seems to be the norm in society, even amongst teenagers, as our protagonist, Alex, is only fifteen at the novel's opening.
Alex engages in many aggressive acts, both in physically harming others as well as thievery. As the leader of his gang of four, Alex encourages his 'droogs' to do the same as he, and yet, somehow, I found myself sympathetic with his character. Growing up surrounded by violence, he doesn't know any better, and for me Alex was more of a product of the world around him than anything else.
The novel is written in a language created by the author, known as "nadsat". It is colloquially used by the teenage population and includes words such as "gulliver", for head, "rooker" for hand, as well as many others. At first this was confusing and off-putting, as it made reading between the lines a necessity, and distracted me from what was happening in the storyline itself. However, eventually, I grew accustomed to the language, even memorizing some meanings of the words after their constant repetition in the book.
What I most enjoyed about A Clockwork Orange were the themes that it conveyed. The ideas of free will, and the fact that, without choice, we simply are not quite human, and those of an imposing good not really being good at all, were some of these themes. Overall, the novel was thought provoking and challenging, and for that I highly commend it.
Alex engages in many aggressive acts, both in physically harming others as well as thievery. As the leader of his gang of four, Alex encourages his 'droogs' to do the same as he, and yet, somehow, I found myself sympathetic with his character. Growing up surrounded by violence, he doesn't know any better, and for me Alex was more of a product of the world around him than anything else.
The novel is written in a language created by the author, known as "nadsat". It is colloquially used by the teenage population and includes words such as "gulliver", for head, "rooker" for hand, as well as many others. At first this was confusing and off-putting, as it made reading between the lines a necessity, and distracted me from what was happening in the storyline itself. However, eventually, I grew accustomed to the language, even memorizing some meanings of the words after their constant repetition in the book.
What I most enjoyed about A Clockwork Orange were the themes that it conveyed. The ideas of free will, and the fact that, without choice, we simply are not quite human, and those of an imposing good not really being good at all, were some of these themes. Overall, the novel was thought provoking and challenging, and for that I highly commend it.
4/5 stars.
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