A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess *****

Brave New World, Animal Farm, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Lord of the Flies, … and then came A Clockwork Orange. How did I miss A Clockwork Orange? …the story of Alex, aka Your Humble Narrator, told in three acts. First, his life as a fifteen-year-old “ultra-violent” teen. Next his time in prison, subjected to behavioralist experiments to rid him of his violent behaviors. Finally, his life after prison. Two things mark this book, the ultra-violence and “nadsat” slang. The slang is pervasive and slows down the reading. However, the slang softens the violence. When the teens tolchock someone, it doesn’t have the same emotional impact as the English equivalent. A one-of-a-kind classic.

Examples of slang…

He made out that he was the only real horrorshow prestoopnick in the whole zoo, going on that he’d done this and done the other and killed ten rozzes with one crack of his rooker and all that cal.

What sloochatted then, of course, was that my cellmates woke up and started to join in, tolchocking a bit wild in the near-dark, and the shoom seemed to wake up the whole tier, so that you could slooshy a lot of creeching and banging about with tin mugs on the wall, as though all the plennies in all the cells thought a big break was about to commence, O my brothers.

The book refers to Nazis and World War II. It also includes autobiographical details. Especially the incident with his wife. [Wikipedia] During the blackout, his pregnant wife Lynne was raped and assaulted by four American deserters; perhaps as a result, she lost the child.

From the book: ‘Your wife, sir?’ I said. ‘Has she gone and left you?’ I really wanted to know about his wife, remembering very well. ‘Yes, left me,’ he said, in a like loud and bitter goloss. ‘She died, you see. She was brutally raped and beaten. The shock was very great. It was in this house,’ his rookers were trembling.

A one-of-a-kind classic.

The American version left out the final chapter where Alex outgrows his ultra-violent teen years.

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