A Clockwork Orange

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Burgess, Anthony	4-week checkout	Due 04-23-2024

Told through a central character, Alex, the disturbing novel creates an alarming futuristic vision of violence, high technology, and authoritarianism. A modern classic of youthful violence and social redemption set in a dismal dystopia whereby a juvenile deliquent undergoes state-sponsored psychological rehabilitation for his aberrant behavior.

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Surreal submitted by kittenkat101 on June 24, 2011, 7:03pm This book was a bit of a challenge to follow at times due to its non-linearness, however I enjoyed it.

Challenging Read submitted by Sara W on July 1, 2011, 7:18pm This book is a challenge to read because of its subject matter and because of the use of dialect and made-up slang for the characters. Once you are into the language of this book, it's hard to break out of it. That makes it a more intense experience overall for what I already consider a pretty intense storyline.

I enjoyed and admired this book as I was reading it, though at times it is extremely discomfiting, it's a very worthwhile experience.

Don't think you know what this novel is about just because you've seen the Stanley Kubrick film. They are both brilliant works, but should be considered very separate from one another.

Wow submitted by ashflowtuff on June 29, 2012, 9:54am Out of the ordinary and a bit challenging to read, but wow, it's a story that will stick with you. Very interesting and I highly recommend it.

Brilliant - one of my favorite books submitted by chowcy on July 16, 2012, 9:19am Interesting language, interesting storyline, interesting moral questions. Highly recommended for those who love reading (and are fairly good at it) and those who aren't afraid to read some violence and mature content.

Had to Learn Nadsat First submitted by KaileyH20 on July 9, 2014, 2:58pm This book kind of scared me at first, but it's a classic as well as a dystopian work, so I was determined to read it. I did some background research before starting and looked through some online dictionaries of Nadsat, the slang language used in the book. This made it much easier to read through and actually understand what was going on in the story.

At its core, "A Clockwork Orange" is a coming-of-age story, but with a lot of shock elements that can kind of distract you from the main character's journey. It was an uncomfortable read at times, but there are parallels to our world even at present that make it worthwhile to read the book.

worth it submitted by airgood on August 4, 2014, 1:54pm It takes a while to get used to the language Burgess uses throughout this book and some parts of it are deeply uncomfortable/unsettling. Well worth a read since it is a classic and consists of several themes that will really make you think. A good dystopian novel if you're in to that sort of thing.

Intresting submitted by . on June 17, 2015, 1:24pm At first it was slow especially with Nadsat and unrelatable characters, but it sped up by the second part and started to pose some interesting questions.

Very compelling submitted by Avliss on July 10, 2015, 12:53am Definitely a compelling look at humanity's predilection for violence. I think the most interesting aspect of this book (for me at least) is the way it plays havoc with your emotions - in the beginning, you are horrified and disgusted with the protagonist, Alex, as he beats up random pedestrians and sexually assaults a woman. Immersed as you are in Alex's point of view, the brutality becomes so matter of fact that you have to catch yourself and reread passages to understand just how heinous Alex and his pals are.

However, the second portion of the book flips how one feels. When Alex takes part in the reform program, you find yourself feeling horrified on Alex's behalf, even eventually considering him with pity. At that point I had to stop reading and put down the book - why did I feel so bad for someone I would've gladly seen locked up for life just a few chapters ago? I think that is one of the main questions Anthony Burgess is posing to the reader: how far should your empathy go?

(Fair warning, you will need a glossary to read this book since Alex speaks in a convoluted slang called Nadsat - which seems to be based mainly on Russian).