A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Photo from Goodreads.com

Summary Taken from Goodreads.com

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?"
This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition and Burgess's introduction "A Clockwork Orange Resucked"

My Thoughts

Rated 1 Star

I know this book is a classic and I knew very little when starting to read the book.  The only thing I did know was that friends kept telling me I should read it.  That is how I came to read it now.

Alex is very unlikable.  I know that's what Burgess is going for, given that he is only 15 and goes out on nights with his other "droogs" committing heinous crimes.  We're not supposed to like him and Burgess does a great job with making that happen.

The slang that was invented for this book is what's making it hard for me to read.  At first, I didn't know how I would even be able to get through the book.  But as I kept reading along the chapters, you start picking up on what the words are referring to.  However, to me it's not making the book any easier to read.  I feel that Burgess would've made this story easier to read had it been written with regular words, not this slang that Alex and the others speak.

Alex finally being put into jail was a part of the book I really saw me liking, because he deserved.  After what he did to innocent victims, he should've been put away a long time ago.  The question remains, will this make him change?

Burgess's telling of the story through Alex's I think gives the reader a real feeling of what is going on in his mind.  Yes he is crazy and there is no other reason for him to be doing these crimes other than there is something plain and simply wrong with him.  But you get a clear image of what is going on in his mind during his days and actions.

I really wanted to like this book, but it was hard for me to really get into it and enjoy reading it.  Most of the time my mind wandered and I skimmed most of the last chapter because I wanted to get it over with.

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