Review Detail

So why am I reviewing this book now? It was orginally published in 1962, long before I was born. There are so many deserving contemporary hot-off-the press books that I could gush about. But if there is any one book that turned me into a serious reader. Any one book that showed me what a book could do. Like taking a ride in a Ferrari after reading only station wagons. It was this malenky bit of horroshow masterpiece.

A Clockwork Orange is at bottom a basic coming-of-age novel. The book takes place in futuristic Britain and the protagonist, Alex, is the leader of a gang of violent thugs. The worst sort. Seriously bad dudes. But his luck runs out when he's caught and sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence. In prison, he's given the option of shortening his sentence by taking part in the Ludovico technique, a psychological therapy that will leave him unable to even think of committing crimes. Alex takes the deal.. and the remainder of the novel is an exploration of the choice between allowing oneself to be brainwashed (A Clockwork Orange) versus choosing freewill. But even if Alex wants freewill, how will he get it back after he's already been brainwashed? And if he gets it back, will he be able to manage it without committing crimes again? Deep questions that all high school age kids should be exploring as forces in the world around them vie for the chance to brainwash them.

But this book would still be a thing of beauty even if it didn't induce intense soul searching. From the first page, Burgess introduces you to a very cool world where teens speak a language called Nadsat (a sort of dialect invented by the author by combining a number of languages). Nadsat takes a little time to get used to but once you pick it up, you can't help but start speaking it, dreaming in it, and wishing everyone else could speak it too because it's a lot more fun than ordinary English.

The language isn't the only cool thing about the future. Burgess' illustration of futuristic Britain is WILD. As an adolescent boy, you can be sure that I too wanted to hang out at the Korova milk bar and peet milk with knives in it to sharpen me up for a bit of dirty twenty-to-one. Not sure how the h@#$ he came up with all of his ideas but I'm so glad he did. Apparently Stanley Kubrick was too.

I think that a lot of adolescent boys growing up in the US are filled, whether biologically or culturally, with violent tendencies. They want to take risks. Fight. Break the rules. Run amok. Most don't want to go as far as Alex and his droogs. But they sure like reading about it. I did. As a reluctant boy reader, I connected with Alex and his gang and was drawn into their story. It's unfortunate that it took extreme violence to get me interested in reading. But it is largely through reading that I became more humane.

A Clockwork Orange is a YA classic. I recommend it to reluctant adolescent male readers. This is the sort of book that can turn TV watchers into readers.