A Clockwork Orange in Classics Without All the Class

Dec 01, 2013 W rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fantasy, crime, political, books-turned-into-movies, bizarre

I thought this book was wonderful in the sense of touching on the subjects of social, political and human morality.

When i started reading this book, i could't understand a word the narrator was saying, but thankfully there is a a special dictionary, i only had to look up a few of them, and i then started getting most of the words in context.

This book has a lot of commentary on social and political issues, which of course is still relevant today. Alex, the main, character is morally corrupt, he I thought this book was wonderful in the sense of touching on the subjects of social, political and human morality.

When i started reading this book, i could't understand a word the narrator was saying, but thankfully there is a a special dictionary, i only had to look up a few of them, and i then started getting most of the words in context.

This book has a lot of commentary on social and political issues, which of course is still relevant today. Alex, the main, character is morally corrupt, he is violent and out of control. The ultra-violence as he calls it (By the way, a song by Lana Del Rey) is his life. He and his friends set out to terrorize, attack, rape, steal and run amock in so called "good society"

He sees himself as the leader of a group, listens to Mozart, and classical music, wears "high fashion" and oddly enough takes care of himself physically. He is still very immature, and falls victim to society and the government, who uses him, which is quite ironic. He is selfish, does not care about anyone, and does anything as he pleases.

As the book progresses, you start to see some changes in him, as he is finally sent to prison, and is used as a test subject to get criminals to be "good" which then backfires, as society is against people being "changed".

It's almost as if everything goes around and around. The government, society, are hypocrites. So they all contradict themselves. And also, as he is rehabilitated, his old friends have turned against him, his family turned against him, but eventually his family ask for his forgiveness, although he has done them wrong.

He eventually gets what he deserves, but is he really the only bad guy here? I don't think so. The government, most of society, are guilty. It's still so relevant today.

Yes, there is a lot of violence, but is it purely physical violence? If you look deeper, i can see some themes where the violence is also mental. We are being taken advantage of.

I truly enjoyed it, i look forward to watching the movie, It might be graphic, but i will try and see it as mental violence.
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Sep 04, 2015 Angela rated it liked it

Quite an interesting, if morbid, read once you get used to 'nadsat' - the youth lingo. Nadsat is the russian suffix for 'teen', and most of the lingo is based on russian words. I found the book in some ways more confronting than Kubricks movie (the two young girls) and in some ways less (the lingo disguised the brutality which Kubricks medium makes evident). The familiarity of the narration is very well executed, and is another means of disguising the horrific acts committed.

Worth reading, if on ...more

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