A Clockwork Orange

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Summary: A fantasy response to society's problem with crime
Review: Because I have spent virtually my entire adult life in prison, I'm always interested whenever I hear about a book suggesting a different response to crime. Locking people in cages for decades at a time fails to prepare prisoners for the challenges they will face upon release.

Several years ago I heard a fellow prisoner talking about Anthony Burgess's novel, A Clockwork Orange. He said that Burgess wrote about the state 'reprogramming' prisoners in a way that would ensure the offenders would no longer break the law. I decided to read the book if ever I came across it, and was happy to see it last week.

Burgess tells his story through the first-person accounting of Alex, his teenage protagonist. Alex is a juvenile delinquent who catches his thrills by hurting people and destroying property. Eventually, one of his robberies turns into a homicide, and Alex finds himself in prison. He becomes part of an experimental project where prison doctors cause Alex to experience severe pain and nausea whenever he witnesses or contemplates the possibility of crime. When Alex's mind is completely reprogrammed, he is considered 'cured' and released from prison as a free man.

I found the book somewhat difficult to read because Burgess tells the story in the vernacular of a British teenager. Many words are not Standard English, so it's like reading a book in patois. Fortunately, the volume I had included a glossary in the back that I was able to turn to frequently, and through that translation, I was able to understand the book.

Like George Orwell, Burgess uses satire to expose the government's efforts to control all aspects of its citizen's lives. During these Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft/Rumsfeld times, we're seeing more and more of this governmental intrusion. In A Clockwork Orange, the government tinkers with the thought patterns of criminals in order to bring them into compliance. Once the government perfects its methods, those in control may use those methods to program everyone to think and live in accordance with the government machine. Freedom becomes threatened as citizens become numbed into the New World order.

Although I'd like to see the criminal justice system reformed in way where individuals could earn their freedom after they achieved some clearly identifiable objectives, the onus should be on the individual, rather than the government, to make the change. This book was not an easy read, but one that the politically cynical might enjoy.

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Summary: Brilliant, but leave the "Orwell" comparisons behind
Review: Has anyone read "Animal Farm"? That book is the worst anti-socialism propaganda ever written. It was as anti-capitalist as it was anti-communist and it appeared to make a point.

Burgess tells a tale that is anti-facism, anti-capitalism, andti-communism... anti-ism!! One of the more amazing novels written in the twentieth century, the fact that it is short and still brutally effective is its most amazing attribute. What Burgess has done with this novel is actually change the idea of what literature can be. He dances on the edge of de-construction without crossing over the line.

The language is incredibly anguishing to read, but at the end of the first few chapters, you realize that the effect of this "translating" that you have to do, you begin to think exactly like Alex. You feel complete empathy with his feelings. Its actually rather chilling when you think about it.

Anyone who enjoyed the way in which this novel was written should pick up "Naked Lunch" by William S. Burroughs.

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Summary: A Clockwork Orange
Review: I read Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange. I enjoyed the book very much. The story is will developed, and it is written in a creative way. Anthony Burgess uses many words pulled from other languages to replace ordinary everyday English words. For example he uses the word "krovvy" to replace the word blood. There is a Glossary of Nadsat Language in the back of the book. At first the words make it difficult to comprehend what is happening. The first couple of chapters I had to keep flipping back to the Glossary. Then I got the hang of the words. Not only do the different words make it an interesting read, but he also has a creative style of writing.
The story is the first person view of a young boy named Alex. It is about how he and his friends, droogies, like to walk the streets and beat people up. Unfortunately for Alex all the trouble comes back on him. Anthony Burgess uses Alex's story to get across many points depending upon how much one wants to reads into the story. Burgess refers to the change in times and how the police abuse their powers by cracking down too hard. The story is violent, but does not go into details too much to gross someone out. I am not one who likes to read a lot, but I certainly liked this book. I would recommend this book more to males even if they do not like to read.

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Summary: Conciseness makes the book great
Review: This is Burgess's most famous novel, largely to the controversial treatment of it by Kubrick. As with most famous novels, there is the danger of disappointment because they are so hyped up. This was the case with me, until I was about halfway through. Then, because it was sufficiently different from the movie, I realised that it was good beyond the hype. And overall, it is the fact that Burgess has condensed quite a lot of ideas onto about 150 easy pages that makes this book a great read. If it was much longer (like so many other thematic books of novels-of-ideas) it would lose its tolchok...

Speaking of tolchoks, this would be the most challenging part of the novel - nadsat. The narrator is Alex, a juvenile delinquent living in a somewhat not-too-distant-and-certainly-dystopian future, where Britain is quite close to being a police state and where crime is such that the "delinquencies" of little Alex involve rape, murder and other examples of ultra-violence. Furthermore, the teens in this future speak nadsat, a slang peppered with Russian expressions. The first page should be quite a shock to those who don't know Russian (and if like me you do know it, there's the feature of figuring out what Russian word the Anglicised string of letters is meant to symbolise). Anyhow, you can think of it as a cloze passage and in a few pages, you should be fluent. If not, there are excellent resources on the internet, such as Wikipedia's nadsat entry. As for the purpose of this deliberate difficulty, it's actually worthwhile in highlighting the superficial and brutal subculture Alex lives in.

The novel is divided into three parts. Part 1 is Alex and his friends running amok and basically doing what they like. Part 2 is Alex in prison, and the famous Ludovico's "rehabilitation" technique. Part 3 is Alex back in the world, with a difference.

The book is seen to explore free-will and the choice to do good and evil. As such, we climb into the head of someone who would most likely be described as a sociopath in conventional terms. He commits acts of violence simply because this is what he genuinely enjoys. And to go against the stereotype of the low-IQ bum, Alex is considerably intelligent and has a true passion for classical music. This sets up the background of a world-gone-mad. Then, Alex is treated with a technique that physically conditions him to be unable to do harm to anyone. Of course, the prison chaplain is against this but according to the Minister of the Interior, at least it will help in the seemingly-hopeless fight against violence.

Alex immediately becomes front-page material and a political pawn from all sides of the spectrum. Burgess examines the nature of our society, where politics and public perception are at the heart of every issue, and where both sides can become involved in dirty and partisan tactics. Also, the inconsistencies of the way society brings people up, incarcerates, punishes and attempts to rehabilitate criminals is a major idea.

The good thing is that it is unclear to me what moral lesson Burgess was actually attempting to espouse. He really lets the reader draw their own conclusions, more so than most writers. Finally, some of the early editions cut the last chapter, making the novel more edgy and dark (this is the case in the film). The last chapter (part 3, chapter 7) is an actual resolution. People have argued whether it makes the novel better or not. I think it does make it better because it casts irony on the tortuous attempts to rehabilitate Alex. But try to get an edition with the last chapter so you can see what Burgess intended originally.

Because it seems that somehow, violence is still with us *just a bit*, and the Clockwork opens up the recesses of evil and not-so-evil and its such a concise read makes it a great novel of the 20th century, and more original than many other dystopias.

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Summary: A book that breaks down boundaries... truly a must read.
Review: This is the first book I've read by Burgess. It will NOT be the last. It's been quite a while since I've been so enthusiastic about a book!

Burgess creates a tale about twisted teenagers, who's life is dedicated to violence. In their eyes, the more people hurt, the better. When the police capture Alex (leader of the gang), instead of sending him off to jail, they use him as an experiment. He is given to the government as a lab rat for a new "treatment" that boasts criminals can finally re-enter society, and instead of being a danger, will be a constructive and completely "corrected" citizen. However, the method has it's down sides, and leaves Alex completely defenseless. He is quickly and easily driven insane by a group manipulating him in a scheme to prove the government wrong. I won't give any details, and I'm not going to give away the ending, but even if you knew the whole story from start to finish, every twist and turn, A Clockwork Orange would stilll be this good.

What makes this book so fantastic is Burgess's ability to tear you apart. Throughout the book, Alex narrates as if you were his friend. You go through everything with him, and then you begin to feel sorry for him! All the while, I couldn't help but think, "I SHOULDN'T feel sorry for Alex!". I was completely split. It really breaks down traditional good and evil. When I began reading, I thought, Alex and his "droogs" are the evil, the government is good..typical theme... As I read furthur, however, I began to question which was good and which was truly evil. Then you see that not everything breaks down into black and white. A Clockwork Orange is certainly no ordinary tale. It questions all kinds of things that most authors never really take the time to question. Questions that don't really have definitive answers.. that will keep you thinking longg after you're done the book.

The language that Burgess created for the book sets the mood and puts you in the story once you get the hang of it. I had anticipated it being much harder, and printed out a long "Nadsat Glossary", which was completely unnecessary. There aren't any words that you won't be able to figure out from the context.

I also thought that I should address the fact that the original version of the book has 21 chapters in it, and the movie cuts out the last chapter. I've never seen the movie, but without the last chapter the book would be quite different, without as much meaning. So even if you've watched the movie, you should read the book.

I can't think of the last time I read a book that made me smile, laugh, and gasp in horror and discust all within 192 pages. And when it was all over, I came away satisfied, feeling like I'd actully got something out of the novel. It's really an amazing book.