Rating: 
Summary: Splendid
Review: Though not reading much of Burgess's literature, I rather enjoyed this book. I found myself entailed in the simplicity of a love story which the book is. As complex as the meaning of the book, I focused on the simplicity. The story of ill-fated lovers in a world full of struggle. The over population problem is very plausible which creates a sense of dread. The future at hand in the book could happen. Every time I read it I find something which I overlooked before. The plot moves smoothly enough to want to finish it. Over all it's a delightful book.
Rating:
Summary: Tis pity Burgess ain't alive to update it!
Review: Tis pity Burgess ain't alive to update it! A great read, positing the dreadful and hilarious near future in truly Swiftian terms. For those who want modern, politically incorrect satire, this and a 1998 novel, satirizing the future of America, are IT! That other work is "The Savaged States of America: A Futuristic Fantasy" by Kevin Beary, where a balkanized America divided and ruled by steroid-crazed feminists and self-serving "Jesse" clones runs amok: brilliantly blending satire and outrage in a searing, Orwellian portrait of a future America. See how Shakespeare's Julius Caesar reads as translated into Ebonics in "Malcolmland"; how the cringing, chemically castrated white men of the (Northeastern) "Corridor" keep house as their wives rule the roost (and the "nation"); banquets of "mystery meat", Aztec-style, in the new "Aztlan"; and the final, poignant expiry of the last traces of the old timers' old America in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty....
Rating:
Summary: Tis pity Burgess ain't alive to update it!
Review: Tis pity Burgess ain't alive to update it! A great read, positing the dreadful and hilarious near future in truly Swiftian terms. For those who want modern, politically incorrect satire, this and a 1998 novel, satirizing the future of America, are IT! That other work is "The Savaged States of America: A Futuristic Fantasy" by Kevin Beary, where a balkanized America divided and ruled by steroid-crazed feminists and self-serving "Jesse" clones runs amok: brilliantly blending satire and outrage in a searing, Orwellian portrait of a future America. See how Shakespeare's Julius Caesar reads as translated into Ebonics in "Malcolmland"; how the cringing, chemically castrated white men of the (Northeastern) "Corridor" keep house as their wives rule the roost (and the "nation"); banquets of "mystery meat", Aztec-style, in the new "Aztlan"; and the final, poignant expiry of the last traces of the old timers' old America in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty....
Rating:
Summary: Sarcastic humor in love and war
Review: When I got the wanting seed as a christmas present, I knew it would be good because of other works of bugesses. But it was more. This book includes so many bold statements agianst gov't, population, homosexuality, and yes, marriage and fidelity. This book has such involving and well created characters it is hard to believe it a work of fiction. In a clockwork orange, you almost have to hate the characters til the end. But in this book, he really shines on creativity.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best books I've read this year
Review: While at times Burgess seems to mimicking Orwell in plot, he is a one-of-a-kind in language and tone. Somehow he manages to make The Wanting Seed funny, disturbing, and horrifying at the same time. It causes one to sit back and reevaluate issues in their mind such as abortion, gay-rights, love, war, and even cannibalism (as black-and-white as the subject may be to most). Good read, especially for fans of Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.
Rating:
Summary: Turns the typical dystopian novel on its ear
Review: Your bookstore is stocked full of novels predicting mankind's future, but none quite like this. With the Wanting Seed, Anthony Burgess turns the typical dystopian novel on its ear. Instead of a methodical, technorganic world, Mr. Burgess presents a smelly, macrobiotic mess of overpopulation and disharmony. Instead of a more stringent emphasis on rightwing ideals, the aforementioned overpopulation has caused an enthusiastic governmental endorsement of homosexuality and opposition to typical family ideals. Instead of a grim, foreboding atmosphere, Mr. Burgess employs a lighthearted, quirky tone, allowing readers to smirk at the ridiculousness and incongruity to which the world of the Wanting Seed has been driven. It is obvious that Mr. Burgess, the same literary practical joker who filled his best-know book, A Clockwork Orange, with make-up slang, meant to poke some well-needed fun at the dismal 1984/Brave New World genre.But just because the Wanting Seed is a work of playful parody and dark comedy does not mean there is nothing profound about it. In fact if I had to pick the one dystopian novel towards which our society is most surely leaning, it would be this one (which is pretty amazing considering it was written in 1962). As counties like China and India are regulating procreation and instituting their own versions of Mr. Burgess' "population police" and the value of human life wilts ever downward, I wonder how close we are to vision of the Wanting Seed. The novel stands as a warning that repressing man's natural urges and diminishing his worth is not the answer to the problem. Your bookstore is stocked full of novels predicting mankind's future, but few as startling and important as this.
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