A Clockwork Orange

by Anthony Burgess

Paperback, 1972

Status

Available

Call number

823.914

Genres

Collection

English paperback sf

Publication

Penguin Books Ltd (1972), Paperback, 176 pages

Description

Told through a central character, Alex, the disturbing novel creates an alarming futuristic vision of violence, high technology, and authoritarianism. A modern classic of youthful violence and social redemption set in a dismal dystopia whereby a juvenile deliquent undergoes state-sponsored psychological rehabilitation for his aberrant behavior.

Media reviews

The New York Times

Mr. Burgess, whenever we remeet him in a literary setting, seems to be standing kneedeep in the shavings of new methods, grimed with the metallic filings of bright ideas. A Clockwork Orange, for example, was a book which no one could take seriously for what was supposed to happen in it-its plot and

"meaning" were the merest pretenses-but which contained a number of lively notions, as when his delinquents use Russian slang and become murderous on Mozart and Beethoven. In a work by Burgess nothing is connected necessarily or organically with anything else but is strung together with wires and pulleys as we go.

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The New Yorker

Burgess’s 1962 novel is set in a vaguely Socialist future (roughly, the late seventies or early eighties)—a dreary, routinized England that roving gangs of teenage thugs terrorize at night. In perceiving the amoral destructive potential of youth gangs, Burgess’s ironic fable differs from

Orwell’s 1984 in a way that already seems prophetically accurate. The novel is narrated by the leader of one of these gangs-—Alex, a conscienceless schoolboy sadist—and, in a witty, extraordinarily sustained literary conceit, narrated in his own slang (Nadsat, the teenagers’ special dialect). The book is a fast read; Burgess, a composer turned novelist, has an ebullient, musical sense of language, and you pick up the meanings of the strange words as the prose rhythms speed you along.

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New York Review of Books

A Clockwork Orange, the book for which Burgess — to his understandable dismay — is best known. A handy transitional primer for anyone learning Russian, in other respects it is a bit thin. Burgess makes a good ethical point when he says that the state has no right to extirpate the impulse

towards violence. But it is hard to see why he is so determined to link the impulse towards violence with the aesthetic impulse, unless he suffers, as so many other writers do, from the delusion that the arts are really rather a dangerous occupation. Presumably the connection in the hero’s head between mayhem and music was what led Stanley Kubrick to find the text such an inspiration. Hence the world was regaled with profound images of Malcolm McDowell jumping up and down on people’s chests to the accompaniment of an invisible orchestra. It is a moot point whether Burgess is saying much about human psychology when he so connects the destructive element with the creative impulse. What is certain is that he is not saying much about politics. Nothing in A Clockwork Orange is very fully worked out. There is only half a paragraph of blurred hints to tell you why the young marauders speak a mixture of English and Russian. Has Britain been invaded recently? Apparently not. Something called ‘propaganda’, presumably of the left-wing variety, is vaguely gestured towards as being responsible for this hybrid speech. But even when we leave the possible causes aside, and just examine the language itself, how could so basic a word as ‘thing’ have been replaced by the Russian word without other, equally basic, words being replaced as well?

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The New York Times

But all in all, “A Clockwork Orange” is a tour-de-force in nastiness, an inventive primer in total violence, a savage satire on the distortions of the single and collective minds.

Time

In A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess has written what looks like a nasty little shocker but is really that rare thing in English letters—a philosophical novel. The point may be overlooked because the hero, a teen-age monster, tells all about everything in nadsat, a weird argot that seems to be

all his own. Nadsat is neither gibberish nor a Joycean exercise. It serves to put Alex where he belongs—half in and half out of the human race.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member toongirl81

One of the pain in the ass things about knowing good writing when you see it is that sometimes, often even, you have to acknowledge that something is well-written even though the ideology of the piece doesn't gel with your own personal beliefs. Such is the case with A Clockwork Orange.

This

particular edition supplies a half-snarky, half-whining introduction by Burgess where he complains about the book's success and rails against the injustice of the New York publishing scene in the 60's which forced him to cut the last chapter of the novel. Finally in 1986 it became available to us pitiable yanks in its full glory.

Burgess uses the introduction to stress the importance to the story arc that the narrator--a psychotic criminal named Alex--should make an emotional shift in the heretofore omitted final chapter, with Alex opting on his own to forego the life of ultra-violence (as he calls it) in favor of looking forward to the future.

Is it though? Really? This last chapter of minor redemption for Alex reads like an effort to pull a punch long after the opponent has been beaten senseless. The point of the novel was never about making Alex likable or even all that relatable. The point Burgess seemed to be making is that regardless of how ignoble and sinful the criminal, there are certain punishments or tactics that a civilized government should not be in the business of doing. The ends do not in all cases justify the means. (Burgess also appears to offer a full dose of red scare throughout his seemingly communist dystopia.)

Reading this book was a bit like having my hair pulled by some sort of ill-tempered child. At first the relentless slang was off-putting and too self-congratulatory by half, but after the culture shock wore off, I had to admit that Burgess's use of language in order to quickly ground the reader in an unfamiliar world is impressive. His character development is believable, his craft of setting is finely detailed, and even if certain elements leaned much too heavy on clumsy allegories, the experience was overall engrossing. Likewise, I found the complexity of the governmental ethics of the story to be engaging.

It's really too bad then that I would never read this book again, nor recommend it to anyone I know. I only give it two stars out a begrudging respect for the author's indisputable talent. Maybe Burgess lost me before I even began, when he wrote in his introduction "My own healthy inheritance of original sin comes out in the book and I enjoyed raping and ripping by proxy." It's hard for me to get behind someone's rape fantasy. And the violence and mayhem that the young protagonist rains down upon the unsuspecting and un-initiating bystanders in the first 3rd of the book is never truly questioned or condemned. Oh, Burgess assures us in his introduction that the previously missing chapter will give us the kind of character-growth we were looking for in previous, edited editions. But upon reaching the end of the book, I find myself somehow disgusted beyond my original visceral revulsion to Alex's behavior in the first chapters. The final chapter, which feels tacked on and entirely authorial (Burgess should have thanked his American editor for cutting it instead of resenting him) gives us this notion to hang our hats on: Alex's violence was the juvenile pastime of youth. A kind of trumped up version of "boys will be boys," if you will. Once Alex grows up, he grows bored by the thug life and he chooses to put away childish things and look to the future, to daydream about his son (whom he already can picture as a murdering rapist. And his son's son. Because hey, they've got to learn these life lessons on their own). Burgess in his opening remarks, all but comes out in favor of this as all the redemption Alex needs. If anything, it is this tone that I personally can't stomach. I'll try to abstain from going off on a rant about my personal beliefs here, but when the man behind the curtain, a.k.a. the author, suggests that he himself finds the extreme violence of the book to be a lamentable but understandable indiscretion of youth, then if your anything like me you have to go have a cold drink and remind yourself that there are a lot of good people out in the world.

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24 more

LibraryThing member EmilyK

When I saw that A Clockwork Orange was on the book list for our AP English “Utopias and Dystopia’s” unit, I immediately knew that I wanted to read it. I’d heard that it was disturbing and controversial and just strange. So I wanted to see why. And after finishing the novel, I can see why.

It’s violent, spine chilling, disturbing, and made me question what I knew about good, evil, and the power of free will.
The story is told from the point of view of Alex, a teenager growing up in England in a future where the government is a permanent source of fear and abuse for average citizens and gangs of teenagers violently roam the streets in protest. Alex, at first, is an unsympathetic protagonist committing horrific crimes with pleasure and always looking for his next robbery or fight or rape victim. Eventually he gets caught and is sent to jail where, lured by early release, he decides to enlist in an experimental program designed by the government to make him “good”. Failing to beat the system, Alex becomes conditioned to be good against his will, he becomes, as the book calls it, a clockwork orange, a mere piece of clockwork in the society. And as Alex faces the pain of having free will taken away, the reader is forced to question whether or not goodness in a society is worth losing the right to free choice, the very thing that makes us human. Is a society of good-doers worth losing the population’s sense of humanity?
At first I thought this book was pointlessly violent with no plot. But once the story began to unfold, I was hooked. I loved it. I even started feeling sympathy towards nasty little Alex. My advice to those reading is to just push through the first third of the book, it may seem horrid and terribly pointless, but all the violence has a point that’s revealed at the end. Also, make sure to buy the book with the dictionary in the back of the book because Alex speaks in the teenage slang of his time. You can infer what’s going on without the dictionary but it makes reading so much easier and faster.

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LibraryThing member sburton

A Clockwork Orange, strangely enough, is like our generation now. We have gangs that go out and do things they shouldn’t just because they can. I thought Anthony Burgess did a wonderful job portraying our society, even though it wasn’t written in our time.
The whole time I was reading the book,

I was tossing around the idea in my head that you could be bad if you wanted to, or you could be good because you’re told to. I think everyone goes through this idea at least once in their lifetime, and Anthony Burgess did a good job on this because he is giving characteristics to a fictional person that people can relate to in their lives.
I think my favorite part of the book was when Alex was in prison, and he finds the new prisoner lying next to him, causing Alex to lash out. This was my favorite part of the book because prison represents a place of being forced to be good, and you have to do so in order to get out and be back with society. Even though Alex is in this situation, he still lashes out at the prisoner because he wants to, not because he is forced to.
I also liked the part of the book where Alex meets with F. Alexander. Because Alexander’s hatred of the government, he takes Alex in because of his beating. But, once he realizes who Alex is, he plays the symphony he hates most, causing him to jump out of the window. I thought this part was important because this is the point where Alex breaks most of his bones, causing doctors to operate, which eventually changes him back to his old self. I thought Anthony Burgess did a good job of explaining that you can never change someone, no matter how much you want to.
Overall, I thought the book was good, but a little confusing at times because of the language used. But, I did like the idea of choosing between being bad because you want to, or being good because you’re told to.

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LibraryThing member littleman

Do narrators come anymore distinctive than Alex? Astonishing stuff; one of the most distinctive novels I've ever consumed. Brilliant stuff.

LibraryThing member richardderus

Book Circle Reads 162

Title: [A CLOCKWORK ORANGE]

Author: [[ANTHONY BURGESS]]

Rating: 1* of five

The Publisher Says: A vicious fifteen-year-old "droog" is the central character of this 1963 classic, whose stark terror was captured in Stanley Kubrick's magnificent film of the same title.

In Anthony

Burgess's nightmare vision of the future, where criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. When the state undertakes to reform Alex—to "redeem" him—the novel asks, "At what cost?"

This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition and Burgess's introduction "A Clockwork Orange Resucked."

My Review: I found the slang, "Nadsat," stupid and tricksy. I found the "ultraviolence" almost risibly dated, since I've seen my nephews playing video games more violent than this. I found the prevalence of rape so voyeuristically deployed, so gratuitously hamfistedly bludgeoningly prevalent, that in the end it evoked only a snort of derision from me.

That, in the end, is my problem with the book. Leaving aside the roll-my-eyes-so-far-I-can-see-my-brain nonsense with words, and the novella becomes a pursey-lipped Great Aunt Prudence-shocker, a piece made to play on the fears of right-wing conservative religious nuts and libertarian dupes of the twin perils of Moral Degeneracy and Government Intervention.

I'll give the last words to Burgess, whose response to the book I found on Wikipedia:

In 1985, Burgess published Flame into Being: The Life and Work of D. H. Lawrence, and while discussing Lady Chatterley's Lover in this biography, Burgess compared that novel's notoriety with A Clockwork Orange: "We all suffer from the popular desire to make the known notorious. The book I am best known for, or only known for, is a novel I am prepared to repudiate: written a quarter of a century ago, a jeu d'esprit knocked off for money in three weeks, it became known as the raw material for a film which seemed to glorify sex and violence. The film made it easy for readers of the book to misunderstand what it was about, and the misunderstanding will pursue me until I die. I should not have written the book because of this danger of misinterpretation, and the same may be said of Lawrence and Lady Chatterley's Lover." Burgess also dismissed A Clockwork Orange as "too didactic to be artistic." (emphasis added)

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LibraryThing member crazy4reading

I don't know where to begin in writing a review for A Clockwork Orange. I have heard of this book before and of the movie. I have not seen the movie and didn't read anything about the book prior to deciding to read the book.

The language in the book makes it very difficult to read A Clockwork Orange

at first. The language is made up teenage slang. The story takes place in a world of poverty, violence and in the near future. Once I got past the language and started to understand the usage the book started to make sense.

Alex is the main character of A Clockwork Orange. He is the somewhat leader of a group of teenage thugs and yet he is the youngest. The story is written in 3 parts. The first part is where you really get to know Alex and what he does that gets him into trouble. Part two continues with him being in prisoned for his crimes. Part three wraps up the whole story.

I would consider A Clockwork Orange a book of a coming of age type. All teenagers go through a period of rebellion and some grow and change and others don't change as much or as fast. This book is the one written in America but with 3 parts and 7 chapters in each part. The original work written in America was missing the last chapter and the movie is based on that same book. I was given this information right up front in this book. While reading the book I had decided to really think about having the book end on 20 chapters instead of 21 chapters and I have to say I am glad to have read the one with 21 chapters.

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LibraryThing member SqueakyChu

I enjoyed this book very much. Be forewarned, though, that this book contains the kind of graphic violence that may be off-putting to sensitive readers. Sometimes, when I read fiction containing violence, I say to myself that this is just a story and try to read the narrative without making a value

judgment. My daughter did not like this book, nor did she want to finish reading it. I had seen Stanley Kubrick’s movie “A Clockwork Orange”, many, many years ago, but I honestly could not remember anything about the story itself. Now I’d like to see the film again.

Narrated by the ultimate bad boy Alex, a 15-year-old hoodlum in England, the story follows his adventures with fellow “droogs” and what becomes of him after he is caught by the “millicents”. If you don’t understand some of these words, this is bit what the book is like. It is filled with Alex’s “nadsat” vocabulary which becomes easily understandable after following it throughout the book. At times, the newly-coined words seem amusing. In fact, the book is chock full of a very dark humor. I’m not sure how much of this book was written to be tongue-in-cheek or how much to be satire, but I found the story very entertaining and took what was written at litso (face) value. I find it interesting that this book has become a classic. It certainly is unique.

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LibraryThing member goonergirl1982

I've had A Clockwork Orange in my "Must Read" pile for years, having longed to read it but being concerned for the level of violence it allegedly contained. I didn't need to worry. Yes, there was violent scenes, but the book wasn't violent for the sake of being violent.

The story is narrated by

Alex, who - with his "droogs" - spends his days beating and raping innocent civilians. This is set against the backdrop of a totalitarian government keen to show that it is tough on crime. When one of his victims dies, Alex is arrested and incarcerated. It is in prison where he is subjected to the new "Ludovico Technique" which forces him to reform.

There lies the moral dilemma at the heart of the story. The Ludovico treatment forces the change on Alex, rather than letting him make the decision to change. If human beings don't have the ability to choose whether to do good or do harm, then that would make them robots or machines ready for someone to programme them to go. Rather like Clockwork Oranges, really.

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LibraryThing member Magus_Manders

This is a strange sort of book, requiring an utmost in concentration and patience just to read, much less understand, but it's well worth it. The entire work is written in a sort of English/Russian pidgin tongue representing the youth culture of his undefined future in an undefined place. The main

characters are young men, no, children, who live in a world where indifference and lawlessness give them carte blanch to have their fun, which comprises of equal parts of some real horrorshow theft, rape, and ultraviolence. The Stanly Kubrick film captures all of the intense terror that lurks in this novel, but also holds some of the almost sickening sympathy that the reader holds towards Alex, the protagonist (if one can call a teenage rapist such a thing).

It is a mind-trip, to be sure, but well worth it. Just make sure you get a copy with the proper 21 chapters.

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LibraryThing member stillatim

More like 3.5 stars, since this is above average stuff. Burgess' invented language is a marvel, and I'm sure people who like linguistics more than I do will be able to find lots to think about. Just from the context of a word you can usually work out what it means; from the sound you can tell if

it's a positive or negative word, and so on. As a novel of ideas, it'll hold up as long as there's a debate about free will (so, probably for a while yet). It's a bit too straightforward, as Burgess admits in his preface, but somebody has to say 'um, actually, I think we can do things,' and it might as well be novelists, since philosophers and political theorists and so on don't seem interested in doing so. As a novel, it should be read by anyone who wants to avoid dull, dull realism without giving in to the boring extremes of 'experimental prose.' Another reviewer described the book as a morality play, and I think that's about right- but that makes it interesting and fun and unusual. Much better than bringing the realistic novel back to 'life' (I'm looking at you, Franzen).

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LibraryThing member Clara53

Linguistically speaking it's a total nightmare - filled to the brim with Russian words, brutally anglicized by making them look like English slang. Much later in the book it's explained as "...Odd bits of old rhyming slang... the roots are Slav. Propaganda. Subliminal penetration". But until then

most readers just have to guess (being fluent in Russian, it was easier for me). Although, credit must be given to the author - he used all tricks imaginable to make these words "guessable" through the context around them. And yet - not a pretty picture linguistically... But all that had a purpose. A powerful dystopian premise. So the book does make an impact and is compelling, despite the tortured English. One of the most poignant slang words (this one not Russian-related) was a slang word for "cigarette", repeated throughout the book - like in a phrase: "he puffed at a cancer" - it blew me away, as the novel was written in 1962...

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LibraryThing member sherryjones

One of the best books every written, IMHO

LibraryThing member JuliaBoechat

Burgess disse: "We all suffer from the popular desire to make the known notorious. The book I am best known for, or only known for, is a novel I am prepared to repudiate: written a quarter of a century ago, a jeu d'esprit knocked off for money in three weeks, it became known as the raw material for

a film which seemed to glorify sex and violence. The film made it easy for readers of the book to misunderstand what it was about, and the misunderstanding will pursue me till I die. I should not have written the book because of this danger of misinterpretation, and the same may be said of Lawrence and Lady Chatterley's Lover."

O livro é uma crítica tanto à violência gratuita praticada pelo sociopata protagonista quanto à violência praticada pelo Estado. A terapia de aversão praticada em Alex foi duramente criticada por Burgess, e é comparada às técnicas modernas de castração química.
Em uma adaptação da novela para o teatro feita pelo autor, o Dr. Branom se demite quando descobre que a técnica Ludovico destruiu a capacidade de Alex apreciar música.
No filme, a violência sexual no filme é de fato estilizada, embora não glorificada.Talvez porque se os espancamentos e estupros coletivos fossem mostrados pela perspectiva das vítimas, ou se as vítimas fossem mostradas de forma mais humanizada, seria difícil mostrar o tratamento Ludovico e as inúmeras vinganças como algo além de karma ou justiça, que é a visão da maioria das obras sobre o assunto.

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LibraryThing member Spiceca

Many who are familiar with the movie are probably not as familiar with the fact that the movie version was not exactly accurate - specifically in the ending. I think I can understand the reasons behind the last chapter being initially left out (in the American version) after reading it.

This book

was a challenge to read due to the nosdat language used throughout. The idea of using the nosdat language did indeed keep this classic from becoming dated- the language is old yet futuristic in a bizarre contradictory way.

Once you get familiar enough with the language its quite a hearty take on the concept of having a choice to do right or wrong and whether it is acceptable to change those who don't choose a "moral" path. It also addresses the concept of morality too- are those that enforce change more moral or less moral than those who are committing crimes? Or is this just one really big mess of a gray area? As the reader you must debate and decide these concepts for yourself. As for me it was a read horroshow read and when I have more time I will focus my glassies for a re-read.

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LibraryThing member magicians_nephew

The first thing that hits you about A Clockwork Orange is the language; Russian words almost teased into English equivalents, the Cockney slang, the gypsy cant.

Alex our young hero (only fifteen!) is telling his tale, and he tells it in bright brassy language that brings us into his world while

simultaneously proving us outsiders to it.

For Alex is a boy in a grey and regimented future Britain, who likes nothing better than to tear and smash and rape and kill. He doesn't ask us to understand him - he just is, like a grinning, deadly Peter Pan.

But then his “droogs” betray him, and he winds up in a grim prison. To get out he agrees to a neo-Skinnerian experiment in operant conditioning – he will be trained to find violence painful, impossible, even sick making.

But while young Alex has been defanged, the world around him has not – and he is in turn beaten and mistreated and used.

So what’s it going to be then? Allow free will and the individual – and you allow people like Alex. Protect society against the individual - suppress individuality – and well what kind of society is that?

Or (let's say this softly) is Alex the way he is because God made him that way? (O Bog!)

Burgess rubs our noses in the chaos and madness that “liberalism” and free will can lead us to. But he makes Alex charming and likeable even in the darkest side of his story. (I do like a book that lets the reader make up his/her own mind about people).

This reading I found the language dated and perhaps the argument dated too. (As Arthur C. Clarke once said “The future ain’t what it used to be”.)

Useful perhaps as a snapshot of a time (the ‘60’s) where youth did run wild in the streets (perhaps for a good cause?) and the “grups” trembled before them and predicted ruin.

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LibraryThing member uh8myzen

This is such a powerful and controversial book. Anthony Burgess crafts an evil and malicious soul and makes them likable to the point that the reader is able to empathize with the character's plight. This is a masterful turn on the part of the author and integral to the major theme of the book,

free will.Should Burgess have failed to make a reprehensible character likable, his entire vision would have fallen in on itself. Very few authors could pull this off, but Anthony Burgess does and then some. (Stanley Kubrick also does this masterfully in the movie) In my mind, that is what makes this book one of the finest examples of Twentieth Century literature.

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LibraryThing member SuBu0820

A wonderful, beautiful book that made me cry a bunch of times...:)
Alex's growth is the most inspiring part of the novel, proving that the human mind, no matter how evil, CAN change. Best book I've ever read. Nadsat is very fun to learn...enjoy this book, little droogies... :D

LibraryThing member MarcusH

There are not many books that I place in the category of "must read," but this is on that list. The world Burgess creates permeates through past, present, and future cultures. Burgess portrays youth culture as degenerate and immoral, yet his portrayal of how society responds to the hooligan culture

is possibly as immoral and degenerate as the youth. Burgess uses a meticulous attention to detail throughout this amazing disturbing tale of youth and Government control to create an unforgettable read.

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LibraryThing member justagirlwithabook

I don't know how to describe this book other than it was really weird but that Burgess was masterful with the written word. The first part of the book was really hard to get through because so much of the 'slang' used was not at all familiar to me and much of it was made up. The more I read though,

the more my brain started to automatically fill in the gaps (slang terms and phrases translated in my brain to what they meant, and I, in a way, basically learned a new sort of language almost!). It was no different than struggling through Shakespeare for the first quarter of a play and by the end, realizing you're fluent. It also definitely had a lot to say about moral issues, acceptable behavior, society, etc. I recommend reading this BEFORE you attempt to see the movie because the movie was horrifying on so many levels and resulted in my needed a good brain scrub afterwards. The book is nothing like it.

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LibraryThing member kenzielynn75

In this 1963 classic Anthony Burgess futuristic world is one of violence and horror. A Clockwork Orange is the heart racing story of 15 year old Alex and his friends who rule the night by causing chaos. After his so called friends leave him to the police he is sent to be rehabilitated. Once he is

re-entered into society it’s up to the reader to decide if it was for the best. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which takes you into a new world filled with horrors that you would assume only lived in your nightmares. Whether Alex’s actions were right, I found myself having to pity him. It made me questioning my understanding of right and wrong. Thus raising a lot of question as to whether this book is ethical.

Burgess’ talent for holding readers in a trance with “Nadsat”, or his own creation of a language, gives this story a sense of seclusion. Alex and the “droogs” that abandoned him are a tight knit group that touches the reader’s need to understand and fit in. In my opinion, A Clockwork Orange is utter genius. While a majority of readers will discredit this book as barbaric and unethical, isn’t the book doing its job? They may look upon it with distaste, but it will continue to be one of the many great classics. This book is great for anyone who loves to be shocked. Burgess has a way of showing the truth in extremes. He has done his part as a writer by shocking the morals right into people.

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LibraryThing member Joybee

I tried to read this, but I read about half and had no Idea what I just read (all the slang). I watched the movie, and liked it though.

LibraryThing member HoriconLibrary

A great book about new government might try to take a person’s humanity to make them good. Great read.--SL

LibraryThing member DameMuriel

WARNING! THIS BOOK IS NOT ABOUT ORANGES.

I first read this in high school, which was a long time ago for me at this point. I reread it a while back and it was still decent. So, yeah.

LibraryThing member BlueBookReviews

It's a classic but I just could not get into it. The author made up slang to suit the story. I tried hard to get past the slang, but I just could not do it. Lots of people love the book, so maybe it was just me. I think the story would have been very interesting if I could have gotten past the

first several pages.

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LibraryThing member ScoLgo

Was glad to get my rookers on this one. I mostly stayed on my sharries while my glazzies fair ate it up like a tasty bit of kleb with some jammiwam. It's a dobby raskazz with a dorogoy message. The Nadsat is a bit of a rabbit to wrap one's gulliver around. At first it near drove me bezoomy but

after a raz I began to pony it better. There's a fair amount of the ultra-violence and plenty of the red, red krovvy being plesked round. There's even a few smecks & guffs for those who enjoy that type of vesch. I'm going to itty off to viddy the sinny of this now.

Ok, so once you get past the weird made-up language, you will find a timeless and disturbing classic. You don't really need the glossary of made-up words too much. If you just go with the stream-of-consciousness delivery, the gist of the story can be gleaned by the context. Definitely a book to be read more than once.

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