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?
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.
