Book 1: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Summary:
The book is about a teenager named Alex who is depraved. His gang of friends or "droogs" runs around and commits various crimes including robbery and rape. Eventually this all turns on him and he gets betrayed by his gang and captured by the police. While in jail another unlucky accident occurs and Alex is selected to be the first prisoner to undergo the Ludovico treatment. This rehabilitation method forces the person to watch graphic videos of violent crimes and at the same time uses an injection that will make them sick as they watch it. Eventually, like Pavlov's dogs, they begin to associate any violence or criminal behavior with getting sick even without the drug. After he is "fixed", Alex is set free. He returns home to find a lot of things have changed, but he is still recognized by several people including his previous victims and he has to deal with the repercussions of those acts. At the same time, he gets too ill to defend himself when attacked.

My Thoughts:
Of course I had seen the movie, but it never really occurred to me to read the novel. The movie is one of those things that make me feel dirty after seeing it. The book, on the other hand, didn't give the same feeling. It is actually a difficult read. Burgess has filled it with a made up slang that is a combination of Russian and nonsense words. And he uses them extensively which gets to be difficult after awhile. Mostly you can pick up the gist of what the characters are saying, but luckily the edition I read had a useful glossary. I'm not one for reading into books or movies a lot, but it's clear what Burgess is trying to say. Today's society is turning people into Clockwork Oranges, which are almost robotic versions of themselves. We are made to feel bad for having certain feelings and most of our lives are constrained to what the world considers normal. If you don't conform to these notions, you are an outcast. Of course, Alex is the extreme in this view. His actions are criminal and can't be condoned, but Burgess writes him as the protagonist so you eventually see him as being wronged by the government who takes away his right to decide how to act in certain situations. Anyways, it was an interesting book. Short enough to recommend, but if it was much longer, I probably wouldn't. If you get turned off when reading difficult texts, you probably wouldn't want to try this one.

Trivia:
An interesting fact is that the third section of the book originally had a seventh chapter which makes it match the same number that the first two sections had. For some reason, the American publisher decided to omit that final chapter. I believe it was eventually restored, but the version I read was still missing it. Stanley Kubrick was not even aware of the missing chapter until he was filming the movie and so he didn't include it in the film.

Links:
Amazon
A Clockwork Orange at Wikipedia
SparkNotes on A Clockwork Orange

Bibliography of the edition I read:
Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. New York: Ballantine Books, 1982.