A review by iris_taylorr
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

challenging dark slow-paced

4.75

This book was a culture shock for me. It was unlike anything I had ever read before. My 9th grade English teacher once said, "Some books are like mirrors and other books are like windows." A Clockwork Orange was a window that gave me a headache to look through. To say I was unprepared for the language is an understatement. On the first page alone: "droogs", "rassoodocks", "mesto", "skorry", "prodding" "veshches", "moloko", "peet", "vellocet", "synthemesc", "drencrom", "horrowshow" all jumped out at me, with daggers aimed for my underprepared eyes. The dialect thought up by Anthony Burgess is commendable, to say the least. It challenges readers to stay engaged while simultaneously understanding the text in front of them. The words he uses further paint the reader a picture of his dystopian world. In addition to his vivid language, he included graphic violence throughout his novel. The violence was by far the hardest part of reading his novel. He never hesitated to visit the darkest places in the minds and lives of his characters. Overall, the language and visual violence in his novel made this a challenging read for me.