Review by baranskocracy - A Clockwork Orange

baranskocracy 's review for:

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

3.75

dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Thank you to my local public library for the loan.

I had somehow gone my entire life without reading A Clockwork Orange (or seeing the movie), and I really enjoyed it. The slang is incredibly unique and astoundingly well done, such that by the end of the first page you've learned twenty new words. It also helps to dull the visceral impact and graphic nature of the extreme violence a bit, which helps to focus on the plot since the violence is really, really extreme in especially part one.

Despite the fact that I am as anti-behaviorist as you can get, the obviously fictional future world and imaginative elements in the story allowed for enough disbelief suspension to permit the reader to believe in the efficacy

, and ultimate futility

of the Ludovico Technique.

I was

pleased

to see that this edition did not include the final chapter, which after reading online I find

insincere and half-hearted, as well as more than a little ad hoc.

Plus, keeping in mind the meaning behind the chapter splits, having part three be only six chapters

adds to the impact of the edition's ending.

While the story really gets going in the final section (all of parts one and two felt like exposition compared to the heart-thumping scene while the reader waits for

F. Alexander

to realize

how he knows Alex

), the exposition, slang, and fictional world make the book as a whole rich enough to be recommended even if it weren't such a classic, with the caveat that the violence is graphic, brutal, personal, and constant.

Content Warnings