From the Bookshelf of Classics for Beginners…

A Clockwork Orange

Anthony Burgess

Start date: October 1, 2014

Finish date: October 31, 2014

Discussion: Current Group Read

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of -4 topics — 818 comments total

Current Group Read

The Prince
By ☯Emily , moderator · 3 posts · 32 views

last updated Jun 08, 2019 03:47PM

April 2019: The Crucible
By ☯Emily , moderator · 10 posts · 40 views

last updated May 09, 2019 05:21AM

showing 6 of 6 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Aug 29, 2010 DARK ROMANCE rated it really liked it

Shelves: dystopian-fiction

I have to be honest, I put off reading this book for a long time. [Mostly due to the fact I didn’t have handy access to the Nadsat translations at the time. Trust me, if you’re going to read this, PLEASE have a copy of the translations with you. You’ll save yourself a lot of headaches that way.

Ok, I’m assuming a lot of you already know the gist of how this story goes thanks to the Kubrick movie so I won’t go into too much detail here. Basically a young man who enjoys ultra violence, rape, oh an I have to be honest, I put off reading this book for a long time. [Mostly due to the fact I didn’t have handy access to the Nadsat translations at the time. Trust me, if you’re going to read this, PLEASE have a copy of the translations with you. You’ll save yourself a lot of headaches that way.

Ok, I’m assuming a lot of you already know the gist of how this story goes thanks to the Kubrick movie so I won’t go into too much detail here. Basically a young man who enjoys ultra violence, rape, oh and also classical music [mostly Beethoven among other things] is one day caught by the police and chooses to undergo a treatment to ‘help make him good’.

The thing is however, that it strips him of being able to have any real choice in what he does. Is it better for a person to freely choose to do bad things, or have good imposed upon him? That’s what the main point of the story is as I’m sure you already know.

I loved the book personally [the movie required a couple viewings before I started to understand it better. Yup, that is definitely one where you won’t catch everything on the first viewing. Lol. ]

But I do have one major complaint about it. I’m sure all of you saw this coming. Yes, the last chapter. Uh, no I’m sorry that just doesn’t cut it for me. You’ve already established this character as being a sociopath rapist brute, there’s no way he’d just suddenly flip and say he wants a wife and kid now. No way! Sure, this may have worked had Burgess slowly led up to this but in no way did he drop any kind of foreshadowing of this flip. It all felt like it came out of left field as I was reading it.

It was almost like Burgess was trying to soften up his character somehow, passing of his raping, violent ways as just ‘him being a teenager’ What the hell? I really didn’t understand that part, it seemed tacked on to me.

This book would’ve gotten five stars had it not been for that last chapter. Sorry, but this should’ve stayed a twenty chapter book. =/ ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 22, 2011 Mae rated it liked it

I read this some time ago but I remember the feelings it gave me.
The slang had the most appeal to me. I don't know why but slang is always something I pick up in books.
I remember the violence was almost casual and it bothered me. ...more

Like · see review