A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

(Originally posted to Instagram on June 13, 2024)

After five brand new reads in a row, I felt I was due for a re-read from the old days. The premise here is the narrator (Alex), a street hooligan in a dystopian future, goes on a tear through an unnamed city wreaking havoc among the locals, but is caught by the police and given an experimental new punishment. I was still in college the first time I read this, and I remember it being a real chore to get through. This one is a tough recommend for a couple of reasons:

1./ The narrator speaks with a made-up “nadsat” slang used by street hooligans in the story, and it can be very difficult to wrap your head around. The first few chapters are a real slog until you get used to the new vocabulary and the quirky way the narrator speaks.

2./ There is a TON of violence in this book, most of it happening in the first seven chapters. And let’s not mince words here, it’s kind of glorified. Assault, murder, SA, the whole nine yards. The glorification doesn’t reach anything outlandish. There’s no “violence is objectively good” moment. But the conclusion of the book (which is different than the movie) takes an “ah c’mon, boys will be boys” attitude and seems to suggest Alex and the other nadsats just needed time to grow up. So philosophically, it’s…icky and bad.

But if you can get past these hurdles, it’s got some of the most lyrical writing you’ll find in any book you can get your hands on. Once you get the hang of nadsat, there’s a real charm to it. It flows like velvety chocolate. There’s a reason why Rob Zombie pulled lines from this book word-for-word in “Never Gonna Stop.” It turns the story into a kind of childish lyrical ballad, which can be delightful at times.

It’d be a good idea to borrow this one from a library if you can find it there, because you may bounce off the first ten pages. I sure did the first few times I tried it. But if you can get past all that (and to be clear, it’s understandable if you can’t), there’s a lot here for the lyrically inclined. I personally think it’s better than the movie.