Started February 17th, finished February 21st.
I'll state right away that this won't be a comparison with the film. Even though I'm a huge Kubrick fan I have only seen the film once, in strange viewing circumstances and my memories are corrupt to say the least. Mr Meks and I watched the film when we awoke in the middle of the night due to 'Jet Lag'. We then went back to bed and both had horrid nightmares once we got back to sleep. So, though this is a rare instance of me watching the film before I read the book. I can safely say it didn't flavour my interpretation in anything other than visually. Alex looks like McDowell and the setting is 60's futuristic.
This has been hanging around my bookshelves for far too long. A local author and a cult classic, I should be ashamed to have left it this long. The copy I read had a nice long introduction by Blake Morrison . I'm never sure about introductions to novels. I'm not sure if background knowledge enhances the book or if it should be read 'blind' with any explanations left until afterwards. Well I read the intro first and found it quite an interesting background to the novel. I really should have left it to the end though. I want to see the author's vision alone.
I found the slang in the book made it slow progress to read. For a short book it took a lot of concentration and longer than I expected to read. The use of 'like' was like really irritating. I think this is due to its common usage now rather than Burgess' fault though.
The book takes a look at violence in the individual and the state but doesn't really delve deep. It provokes thought but not too much of it. I found it quite simplistic. I can't say I enjoyed reading it. It was more a 'ticking off the list' experience. The use of slang gave you more to figure out than the actual characters themselves.
It's a book I will read again and see how I feel when I'm more familiar with the language used. I am going to read another of his books and see how I find them as the language use in this makes me think it can't be typical of his work. Any suggestions on which of his books?
3 out of 5 pawprints
Total so far, Books - 10, Pages - 2,760
Next - Story of the Scene by Roger Clarke
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1 comments:
I read this book a long time ago when I was at college. It is good but can be a bit heavy going with the Nadsat language it is primarily written in.
Stanley Kubrick's film version is also worth a watch, but is quite different to the original novel.
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