Rating: 
Summary: Enlightenment
Review: 1984, A Brave New World, and The Clockwork Orange make up the structure of what we call Satire on Society. I have read this book twice and I still haven't picked up all the details that its pages hold. The gruesom and horrific acts within its covers make the mind run and hide from the idea of its possible truth. Alex, the protagonist and his droogs commit rape, theft, assult, and even murder for the pure pleasure in it. Most of this is covered up using a type of slang known as Nadsat. Although the slang is sometimes hard to understand, it can be picked up quickly. After being caught and forced to reform to society's standards of living("Ludivico's Technique"), he tells the readers at the end his dreams to start a family as a younger man.
Like in Orwell's 1984, this book brings up the question, "Do we want a society where the price of prosperity is the loss of our cherished rights; freedom of speach, press, religion, and even thought?" Read "The Clockwork Orange" and feel the terror, the mind provoking feeling of a world that could be.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Use of Language in a Book
Review: I loved this book because Burgess manages to do so much to enhance the imagery and feel of it by using a language he invented, known as Nadsat. It is reminiscent of Russian, with gutteral undertones and an English spin, and it is perfect for the characters in the book. While the violence in this novel is profoundly disturbing (made even more so by the words used to describe it), it is disturbing with a purpose. Without making the crimes of Alex (the main character, a violent 15-year-old) horrendous, the novel wouldn't pose such profound moral questions. While the reader is driven to hate Alex by the crimes he commits (which include ...torturing as a way of regular entertainment), the horrible treatment he is given by the government (which causes him to go into horrible spasms and fits of nausea at even the slightest thought of violence ...) inspires some sympathy for him, even if its only on the level of his being a 'victim of the state'. The question arises, should Alex be forced to endure this treatment as a way of 'purifying him', or should he be allowed to choose whether to be a psychopath or a good member of society?Another theme arising in this novel is of the nature of human change and of violence being an activity primarily of youth. Unfortunately, you will not get any hint of this unless you read the book with the 21st chapter added on. Originally, the book was published in the US with this chapter hacked off (it is not featured in Kubrick's movie), but thankfully in subsequent additions it has been added and it really changes the meaning of the book. So if you have a penchant for language and can handle 'a bit of the old ultraviolence', I would strongly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Crime, Punishment, And Its Consequences
Review: In Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, we meet Alex, a nasty 15-year-old hoodlum living in a not-so-distant dystopian future who narrates his story to us in an invented slang called Nadsat (basically a cross between Russian and English). During a botched burglary, Alex accidentaly kills an old woman and is sent to prison to serve a 14-year sentence. A couple of years into said sentence, his jailers offer him a proposition - sign up for this experimental treatment which only lasts for a few weeks, and you're a free man. Alex, of course, does just this, much to his later chagrin - it turns out that this treatment takes the notion of "cruel and unusual punishment" to undreamt-of extremes. The first thing that clues you into the fact that A Clockwork Orange is not your run-of-the-mill popular fiction novel is the Nadsat. It may seem intimidating at first (I know it was intimidating to me, to the extent that I waited several months after I purchased the novel to actually start reading it), but it actually only takes a chapter or two until you get the hang of it. If you have trouble with it, simply do a search on Google on "Nadsat" - you'll find at least half a dozen links to Nadsat-to-English glossaries. The other thing that stands out (once you dig in a little bit) is the book's thematic complexity. A Clockwork Orange asks many difficult questions, none of which have easy answers: To what extent are we willing to punish criminals? Why have we always felt the need to dehumanize them? And finally this: if a man no longer has free will, is he truly a man? One to put on the "challenging reading" shelf, and highly recommended (by me, anyway).
Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly Scary
Review: Honestly, I have to say this before I begin my review. I wish people would STOP COMPLAINING about the Nadsat. I mean, I read this book as a junior in high school and a page into it I understood it completely.
Anyway, after venting, here I go. Burgess is a genius and this book is definetly on my list of everything I must read twenty times before I die. Alex and his desire to destroy and corrupt is so perfectly like what every teenager, whether they admit it or not, feels like. The government, which has gone to the ultimate extreme to stop crime, is so real, I could picture the Minister and the Doctors myself.
The transformation, which even I must admit, gets a little difficult to believe, is the perfect ending, which the Introduction explains so well, I can't even do justice to it or the book. It's well worth every second you spend on it, and generally I'm not a fan of science ficton.
Item: as a photography student I'm obliged to mention the brilliant movie by Kubrick-- one of the gods of directing. It ends without the 21st, but it is so nearly as amazing as the book itself.
Rating:
Summary: Tasty
Review: This book was utterly amazing. I admit I was a bit uneasy to read of the violent happenings that happen in the first two chapters. I was not expecting such quick -paced situations. But it keeps happening and I couldn't help but get intrigued with the whole thing. My heart was beating the whole time. Anthony Burgees paints such vivid pictures of what is happening I found myself wanting to stop and catch my breath. This is deffinately not a book for those who have dainty lifestyles. It is quite violent and disturbing...which are books I love!
Rating:
Summary: Makes you think...
Review: A Clockwork Orange is one of those books that forces you to think about the message that is sending. Much like the character, Alex, we are forced to see things and think of things that we would rather not. Alex starts out as a gangster with no morals. After he is arrested, he becomes the subject of a new government program that's policies asks the reader if morals can be forced upon someone. And if they are forced, is their any point. This story never slows down and is a great quick and very direct reading that will stay with you for a long time.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the time trying to figure out the 'Nasdat' language
Review: When I picked up this book, I read the first few sentences and found myself completely confused. You see, "A Clockwork Orange" contains a little bit of this language Burgess made up that is supposedly Russian slang. Regardless, I kept reading and in a few chapters I had picked up most of the vocabularly. It actually became fun trying to decifer the words that Burgess refers to as the Nasdat language. This book is about a young boy named Alex who runs around with his friends and terrorizes society. They steal, they rape, and they beat people. All is well for Alex until he gets caught by the police. He then undergoes experimental treatment at a correction facility. This treatment was suppose to make it so he could no longer do harm; however, it doesn't all go exactly as planned. This is a dark novel based a bit into the future where the night is run by villans such as Alex and his gang. It is well written and a joy to read. Plus, even though some people disagree, the book is actually pretty humorous. Well worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: The Darkest Side of Humanity
Review: "Being the adventures of a young man whose principle interests are rape, ultra-violence, and Beethoven." This is a quote from the movie poster of A Clockwork Orange. I think that that quote accurately describes the main character Alex. Burgess takes us deep into the mind of a teenager that enjoys shopcrasting, scapping, and the old in-out. Or in plain English shoplifting, fighting, and sex. Burgess uses a truly unique language throughout the book. He literally made up an entire language of made up slang words. Although it was quite confusing at first, I found that by the end of the book not only did I understand the words but I was actually using them in everyday conversations. Burgess also brings up deep social questions. He made me question some modern day practices of punishment. I have learned more from this book than any other I have read before. Truly a 20th century masterpeice and the best book I have ever read before. Viddy well my little Droogs.
Rating:
Summary: AHHHH i love you
Review: This book makes you think about life, and it shows you the silver lining in the clouds. Such as our wonderful US goverment. I know were better off than most countries, but its still corrupted. it tells about how a boy named Alex is driven to kill himself because of what the goverment does to him. the goverment controlled his mind and drove him insane, which happens everyday. the goverment hides these things from us, thats why i love this book so much. plus its just plain strange, which i like. its hard to understand at some points but you gotta love it.
Rating:
Summary: 20th Century masterpiece
Review: Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange is a true classic of modern English letters and one of the greatest works of the 20th century. In a nighmarish future society every bit as scary as 1984 (and much more plausible, it now seems today), Burgess thrusts us into the world of Alex and his three "droogs": a world of ultra-violence, shockingly base acts of treachery, and pure sadism. However, as anyone who cares to dig deeper into the book knows, what appears, on the surface, to be a mere feathers-ruffling shocker, is actually a book that poses forcefully insightful philosophical questions. The notion of crime and punishment - as well as more practical side issues, such as the overcrowding of prisons - have been perenially debated, but what about some of some of Burgess's more troubling points: if we can, some day, some how, condition criminals to refrain from violent acts by quite literally depriving them of the free will to act, are we in the right? Do we now have a harmless, perfectly good citizen - a true good Samaratin - or do we have a mindless stooge who cannot even defend himself? If we take away a persons's choice, even the choice to do evil, are we left with something less than a man? And, even more thought-provoking - is a person who does not do evil only because they are physically not able to any better than a person who does do it by their own free choice? Burgess tackles these and other issues with a sheer abandon, brilliance of writing, and a truly original vernacular rarely seen in 20th century literature. As ground-breaking as the movie was and is, the book is even better. A must-read.
|
