Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - A Clockwork Orange

“Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?”

I have so many mixed thought and feelings on this book. Instead of my usual likes and dislikes, I figured I’d talk about some of the interesting aspects of the book.

The main character is despicable, but he’s supposed to be. He’s more a product of his authoritarian society than he realizes, and he embodies many of their core values and falls prey to their whims even as he strives to subvert them.

Language plays an important role in the book, with the narrator speaking Nadsat (a young person’s language) that the reader has to learn to decipher. Alex’s crimes are absolutely horrific, but toward the beginning the reader is so bogged down by figuring out what he’s saying that the crimes themselves almost take on a secondary nature. By the time the reader is able to decipher the meanings of the words without having to think about them, we have moved on to the next part of the story where he’s moved past them in one sense or another. I think some of the violent scenes would have been too much to read were it not for that, and even with it there were times I had to take a break from the book.

Many ethical conundrums are brought up in this relatively short book, to include free will, subversion, and the horrors that can occur when the government has too much control.

I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the book per se, because it was dark and very violent, but I did find the concepts and language very interesting. I’m not sure I’d revisit it in the future, but I’m glad I finally read this classic! I’m also very glad I read this with my book club, because the discussion was excellent.

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oophshnartthepde's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Musical Pairing: Orange, Caroline Shaw & Attaca Quartet

Above all else, A Clockwork Orange is a very fascinating read. Though I thought the slang would turn me off the book, by the end it was the primary thing keeping me flipping to the next page. I'd never read a book with that kind of a storytelling devise, and for that I applaud Burgess.

My main critique is in the characters - I thought they were a bit flat, and perhaps intentionally designed that way to portray the stereotypes of Burgess' dystopia. The flatness didn't turn me off of the read, but I think it's a missed opportunity not to explore some interesting character relationships in this world.

But the world itself is fascinating, and scarily plausible. The book as a whole really reminds me of 1984. And it really does a phenomenal job of presenting unanswerable questions to the reader. If you're looking for an engaging, shocking world to dive into as a way to reflect on our own, then I reccomend this book.

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masihludmila's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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kingspite618's review

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challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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emilyyyhillsss's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

“You’ve sinned, I suppose, but your punishment has been out of all proportion. They have turned you into something other than a human being. You have no power or choice any longer. You are committed to socially acceptable acts, a little machine capable only of good. And I see that clearly— that business about the marginal conditionings. Music and the sexual act, literature and art, must be a source now not of pleasure but of pain”

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krmreads2024's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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deathmetalheron's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

If I were more clever + had more time I'd write this in Nadsat, but I'm not and I don't.

A Clockwork Orange is brilliant to say the least, and I think a firm example of where the book is just so clearly a superior format for the storytelling than the film will ever be. Narration in films is often a crutch, but in books it's one of the best tools for establishing character and tone of your story. Alex, the protagonist of the story, is so clearly in his own head that he cannot and will not divulge the details of his misgivings and his deeds. He is clearly a bad person and does horrible things but ultimately the narration is so supremely done because it distances the viewer from these actions--there is no voyeurism here, Alex is evil but so clearly inhuman that I found myself able to read about disgusting or awful occurrences with virtually no misgivings. It's an incredible feat to have been pulled off by Burgess to weave into the text such obtuse vocabulary to build Nadsat, not to mention it was done in three weeks.

Beyond the narration, the commentary being society's obsession with "rooting out" evil and social distortion while at the same time CAUSING said distortion is very palpable. Alex is certainly an evil figure but by the time the story has finished Alex's story feels tragic, but not in a sad way due to the fact it's Alex. ACO sort of feels like a litmus test for authoritarian punishment--do you wish a fate worse than death on the biggest dregs of society?

And it's the final chapter that throws me for a loop and prevents me from going 5/5. On the one hand,

yes, the fact it's so quick and is effectively another story plot line feels very rushed. To be fair I completely sympathize with the American publisher's instinct to get rid of it. At the same time, isn't it incredible how ultimately society's perceived social issues are solved not with intervention but with time? Alex's instincts towards criminal acts disappear the older he gets--while the crimes he commits are heinous, it didn't take the Ludovico technique to fix him--just time. Perhaps the real conspirator of societal evil is not the individual that commits the crime, but the society that enables the method of evil?

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