Hot off the Shelf: What I’m reading – ‘A Clockwork Orange’ Burgess, Anthony

No Spoilers.

Wow. I don’t want to sound corny, but this book actually blew me away. Burgess’s own story is actually quite sad – in 1959 he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour and decided to become a full time writer. Despite only initially being given a year to live, he apparently wrote the equivalent one book per year until he died in 1993. ‘A Clockwork Orange’ is a dystopian tale, something I’m a fan of anyway, set in a future England that harbours a culture of extreme youth violence where the teens speak in ‘nadsat’, the slang of a not-too-distant-future.  I’ll give you an example:

“Our pockets were full on deng, so there was no real need from the point of view of crasting any more pretty polly to tolchock some old veck in an alley and viddy him swim in his blood while we counted the takings and divided by four, nor to do the ultra-violent on some shivering starry grey-haired ptitsa in a shop and go smecking off with the till’s guts. But as they say, money isn’t everything.”

I promise, once you get used to it, it works. The long sentences start to roll off your tongue too.  The language was part of why I liked it – once you’ve got it – you’re in. You follow Alex’s story, a somewhat unreliable narration, with amazement. It’s morally horrible and will tear you to pieces if you let it. You’re following Alex’s story, in his language, and sort of sympathise with him because it’s him telling it. Even though what he’s doing, on a nightly basis, is shocking and horrific it’s complemented with all these sophisticated elements Alex possesses.  He listens to Beethoven, his language is eloquent. And later on, in his reformation period, the manner in which he is treaded by the system is just about as torturous as the crimes he committed; you don’t know whose side you’re on in the end!

If you’re easily put off my strong violence, rape, murder and emotional/moral confusion, don’t read it. Anyone else – read it. I cannot rave on about this book enough. It’s a novella, it takes a couple of days to get through but it will stick in your head forever. Literally.

Over and out.