The Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

Review: Novel by Anthony Burgess, published in 1962. Set in a dismal dystopia, it is the first-person account of a juvenile delinquent who undergoes state-sponsored psychological rehabilitation for his aberrant behavior. The novel satirizes extreme political systems that are based on opposing models of the perfectibility or incorrigibility of humanity. Written in a futuristic slang vocabulary invented by Burgess, in part by adaptation of Russian words, it was his most original and best-known work. Alex, the protagonist, has a passion for classical music and is a member of a vicious teenage gang that commits random acts of brutality. Captured and imprisoned, he is transformed through behavioral conditioning into a model citizen, but his taming also leaves him defenseless. He ultimately reverts to his former behavior. The final chapter of the original British edition, in which Alex renounces his amoral past, was removed when the novel was first published in the United States. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

Opinion: After the initial cultural shock of reading in that weird vocabulary I eventually got used to it and began to understand what the main character was saying by understanding the words by context (some hard work). But the I started to flow along with this strange vocabulary and started to be shocked by all the things he said he does in the streets (I was like OMG!!!). Then he starts telling of how much he loves classical music, enjoys reading articles about why he is how he is, and then the story of how everybody deceives him. At that point I started feeling emphaty for the poor boy and more after he describes how the police treated him and then his horrible description of his time in prision. But what I loved the most was the last chapter that shows that everyone has a chance to change.

Final Rating: 7/10