A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Publisher: William Heinemann
First Published: 1962
Finished reading: 17^th January 2012
Genre: Science-Fiction Novella
Rating:  2 / 5

What can I say about A Clockwork Orange? I can’t say that I enjoyed the book, but I also didn’t dislike it. It’s very violent, so violent in fact that even I (someone who professes to have a rather strong stomach) almost skipped a paragraph or too. However, in the interest of this TIME Top 100 Challenge, I continued. Aside from the violence though, it was quite a good plot. It draws similarities to 1984 in the way that it revolves around political totalitarianism and the rebellious streak is kind of tortured out of the protagonist.

The setting is not so much a future reality as an alternate one; however there are mentions of things from our ‘real world’, such as the Nazi’s and WW2. However, again similarly to 1984 many new words make the reader almost work to understand some sentences where rot means mouth, viddy means see and horrorshow means good.

A backdrop of drugs, rape and violence surrounds the story of young Alex, of only fifthteen, as he and his ‘droogs’ carry on about their business in this strange world. The novella is split into three separate parts, the first of which being Alex’s world where we are shown what it means to be a young delinquent in near future England. The reader is introduced to Dim, Georgie and Pete; Alex’s friends as such and then shown how he is betrayed by them. The whole first part does paint a picture, this much is true, but it can be challenging to wrap your head around young Alex who despite being intelligent and quick witted is also blatantly a sociopath. In the second part, Alex is taken to prison and taken under the wing of the prison chaplain, who mistakes his interest in the Bible as faith rather than a craving for the violent parts of the Old Testament. By causing interest in his self, Alex is accepted into an experimental behaviour altering programme called the Ludovico Technique which seems to be a kind of aversion therapy. Although brutal the technique is apparently effective and Alex is released back into society after just two weeks. However, the return to society in part three is not as smooth as the technique would quit want as Alex is rejected by his parents and unintentionally encounters his old victims, and pays the price. He is taken under the wing of a political activist who plans to use Alex as an anti-Government tool but it unknowing that it was Alex’s doing that his wife was killed two years previously.

Overall, I am not convinced that I can call the novella a classic, but I can see that it has some appeal. I cannot say though, with full confidence that I would recommend reading A Clockwork Orange.