March 14th, 2007
Review – A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange
by Anthony Burgess
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. Although this may seem like it would make the book hard to read, it all makes sense when read in context.
The story itself is a fairly simple and fast read. If you have seen the movie then (other than the last chapter) you 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. The key difference is that the original American edition left out the last chapter (the American publisher thought it was a sellout as Burgess explains in the introduction) and Kubrick followed the American edition of the book. Is the last chapter a sellout? Does it cheapen the book? I think it changes the story to some extent. Burgess suggested that it changed the book from a fantasy into a novel. I think this overstates it but if you have read the American edition without the last chapter then you need to read it again with the last chapter.
The book is a classic and should be required reading. Although adult in concept and story line, anyone old enough to read the daily paper is old enough to read this book. Beneath all the violence in the book, Burgess is trying to make a point about free will and what it means to be human but he doesn’t overstate it. The story and the language carry the reader and the message is just there to do with as you please. As Burgess says in the introduction, “Eat this sweetish segment or spit it out. You are free.”
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Map wrote,
I just fell in love wit this book when I read it first time.
Glad you liked it too, Tom!
Link | March 19th, 2007 at 12:25 am
Tom wrote,
It is an amazing book. Did you read it in English or Russian? Did the slang make it difficult for you?
Link | March 20th, 2007 at 9:18 pm