A Clockwork Orange: A review

Review

Brilliant. Although I can not talk directly on the way in which it was written as I listened to it, I will say it is mighty clever. I thoroughly enjoyed the colloquial language and dialect. You can understand the slang used through the context of events, and I didn’t feel the need to search up the definition. It was fun.

Now, as for the story, it is quite horrific and full of disgusting crimes by the youth. There is content warning, so please look it up before reading, as it doesn’t shy away from horrible events. The language, however, does somewhat hide this as it brings an element of play, which perhaps could be argued to add to the horror.

I read this book not knowing what it was about, so I was completely surprised by the events and progression. There are plenty of uncomfortable sections during the crimes and ‘rehabilitation’. But, I suppose that was the intention.  I can see why there is a strong desire to analyse this book and it’s characters. 

Each section was a jump from crime to crime to horrific events. The dystopian element of youth rebelling against society, and forced from their own humanity and freedom when caught, has posed many questions on the element of what is good or evil. Even after rehabilitation, he continued to have evil desires, but was muted by psychological conditioning.

A truly fascinating read, one that will get your brain cogs ticking through the play of vocabulary dancing around horrific events. It was great fun… as fun as reading about the human condition and crime can be.

What did you think? Have you watched the movies? (I haven’t)