Read This! #16 - A Clockwork Orange

I finally got around to reading Anthony Burgess’ disturbing dystopian novel “A Clockwork Orange” recently and was completely floored by its incredible originally, and yet, its all too familiar description of a mindlessly violent and amoral sub-society of youths infringing upon the lives of good honest hard-working people.

Narrated by Alex, a 14 year old youth of obvious intelligence, with a love of classical musical…and a vicious bent toward mayhem and murder, the novel is written in a sort of street-slang language that takes the reader a few pages to get used to, but is well worth the trouble.

One night Alex and his gang embark on a violent crime spree and, having completely gotten away with their hideous acts, repeat the violence the following evening. However, there is no honor amongst criminals, and our young narrator soon finds himself incarcerated after being abandoned while committing a homicide.

But the overcrowded prison is far from a rehabilitative experience for Alex, and before long he has killed again. He appears to be a lost case, but because of his young age he is singled out by the authorities to be their first ever subject to go through a radical reconditioning experiment thought to completely reverse one's predisposition towards violence. The process is brutal, and Alex is a changed man...or is he?

This novel is the basis of the even more famous movie of the same name directed by Stanley Kubrick. Interestingly, Kubrick elected to faithfully follow the U.S. version of the novel, which had 20 chapters, and not the U.K. version, which contained an additional chapter. This final chapter is significant, in that it has an older and wiser Alex now starting to see some folly of his ways. This "changed" Alex was withheld from readers by the U.S. publishers because they felt it somehow took away from the overall bleak impact of the work. Burgess himself always said he had wanted the novel published in its entirety but, desperate for publication, agreed to the changes. Thankfully, now the full version is readily available, so you can judge for yourself.

Read This #15 - A Walk in the Woods

Bill Bryson has a gift. He can take a subject like hiking the Appalachian Trail in the Eastern United States and make it infinitely entertaining even to a Canadian residing across the continent under the shadow of the Rocky Mountains.

Part travelogue, part history lesson, part slapstick, this tale is also a rumination on growing old and on the extreme diversities found between the various regions of the U.S. We follow Bill and his unlikely companion, Katz, with glee as they painfully inch their middle-aged way north along a 2,000-plus mile wilderness trail.

The wilderness here is tough and these guys are by no means athletes, so every mile is an exercise in pain and suffering and every day is an ordeal. The duo makes just about every mistake possible, yet somehow still manage to cover nearly 800 miles before calling it quits, and we gain an appreciation for the splendor of this wild corridor as it's described by Bryson.

Bill Bryson is likely the world's most popular travel writer and all of his books are overwhelming bestsellers. Weirdly, collectors have been a little slow to catch onto this - a signed first edition of most of his books can be found for well under $100.00.

Read This #14 - His Dark Materials Trilogy

I often wonder if, "back in the day", when J.R.R. Tolkien or a C.S. Lewis were turning out what would become their signature series of juvenile novels one carefully crafted book at a time, they knew on some level they were creating a masterpiece - something that would only gain in strength and resonance long after their own lives had passed.

Besides being wonderfully entertaining sagas pitting good against the darkest of forces, both of these series shared some pretty BIG themes, many of which parallel those that form the doctrine of the Christian faith. These have been thoroughly discussed and examined by academics for decades, so I will let that sleeping dog be.

In his wildly popular trilogy "His Dark Materials", Philip Pullman has also created a rousing adventure rich with characters and page-turning action, resting on a foundation of the most classic of conflicts: Good vs. Evil. However, it is here that Pullman becomes more Dan Brown than C.S. Lewis, as the antagonists are no other than the organization of the Church, loosely disguised by the title of "the Magistrate", and the faulty "God" they serve, known as "The Authority".

Do I have a problem with this? Not at all. The past and present abuses of the Church and crimes committed in the name of religion are well documented in history and sales of this trilogy and the novels of Dan Brown are unprecedented. Nevertheless, Church bashing and conspiracy theories seem to be a modern phenomena and I have to wonder how the attack on the secular aspects of religion in these novels with stack up in the long run against the "high road" taken by Lewis and Tolkien.

Collectors of first editions seem to agree. While Lewis and Tolkien signed firsts are astronomical in price ($100,000 plus!!), the much more recently published book "The Golden Compass" can still be had for a more earthly sum of around $6,000. Still, not a bad little investment for a book costing under $30 in 1995, eh?

What about Harry Potter? Don't even get me started.

Having said all that, of the three series, I found Pullman's to be the most entertaining - complex enough to engross adults, while remaining accessible for the teens. I recommend reading book one, "The Golden Compass", before renting the recently released movie. While the movie is good, there have been many changes to key facts and it ends at a point several chapters from the end of the book. I can only assume the next movie will pick up from where the last left off.

But be warned, the books are very much intertwined, so if you do start with book one, you may feel compelled to press on without interruption to the end of book three. So, you may as well save some money and buy the entire set now.