As I mentioned in the last post, I read "A Clockwork Orange" last week as the first book for my 2009 reading challenge. I gave the book 5 stars. It was a disturbing and powerful novel about a very disturbed young man, Alex. The novel, narrated by Alex, was in a "slang" that was completely made up by the author. (A feat in and of itself that is remarkable.) I have to say that when I saw the movie (years ago) being a young woman from Texas, I thought that I was just having a hard time understanding British English. However, after reading the book I realize that wasn't the case. For the first two-three pages, I was having a little bit of trouble reading this foreign language, but by the middle of the first chapter, I was able to use the words I knew to at least grasp the general meaning of the words even if I didn't completely understand them. The novel was also quite brutal (killing, assault, rape, murder, drug abuse, etc.) and I think the slang helped make that more tolerable.
Another difference from my memory of the movie and the novel is that in the movie I thought the protagonist was between 18-20 years of age. In the novel, he is only 15 at the beginning. The most important difference though between the novel and the movie is that the novel that I read had all 21 chapters as originally published in England by Anthony Burgess. The American version ended after chapter 20 as did the movie.
The main premise of the novel is that a person who is "altered" to remove free-will, therefore the ability to be evil, is worse than the evil itself. Without spoiling the plot, chapter 21 really puts the whole premise in perspective and I am glad that I had the publication that included that chapter. I have thought about this book for several days now, and I think that I agree with that premise despite the fact that it would be nice to flip a switch and make it impossible for an evil person to do evil. It is as interesting a premise today as it was back in the 1960's and oddly enough, although written in the 1960's, the setting is in the "future." I would highly recommend this book, but make sure you get the version that has 21 chapters.
Stay tuned for book number 2!!!
2 comments:
Thanks a lot for your review. I must admit that I have never seen the movie in its entirety. It just doesn't make me feel comfortable, which is, I think, the objective. I will put the book on my wishlist.
Thanks.
Greetings from London.
I will admit, it was an uncomfortable book to read but yes, I think that is point. What I find worthwhile is that I thought about it for several days before I decided what I really thought about it. I think that is a good sign of anything: book, movie, conversation is that it makes you think and in my case think really long and hard...which in my case can be difficult! HA HA...
I have read some articles since then about Anthony Burgess and his thoughts about this book. That has been enlightening and I am glad that I didn't know all I know now before I read the book. I think it would have tainted my views.
Genna
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