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What books should everyone read before they die?Add Book
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess
Literature
James Mustich
Jul 31, 2018
Alex, the frightening narrator of this brutal and brilliant novel, is an amoral, Beethoven-loving gang leader in a near-future
dystopian Britain. Whether adolescent girls or a schoolteacher returning from the library, the gang’s victims are treated with an exuberantly vicious disregard: They might as well be faceless, inhuman targets for the random acts of violence, the gratuitous venom of Alex and his thugs (sex, unsurprisingly, is reduced to its mechanical coordinates: “the old in-out-in-out”). The linguistic bravura of the book and the unbound rebellion that is described do not hide for long the philosophical inquiry into good and evil at the core of A Clockwork Orange. Though it’s often compared to 1984 and Brave New World, Anthony Burgess’s book—in part a vision, both prescient and exaggerated, of the coming trauma of youth culture—has an extra layer of surreality and menace. Burgess is more interested in invoking questions than answering them, and he puts his considerable imaginative powers to work in the service of his inquisition. The result for the reader is a vivid tour of an unforgettable future—a journey that remains both intellectually invigorating and deeply unsettling.
Horrifying dystopia. Brilliant descriptions of psychopathy
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the language in this is incredible--the reader quickly adapts to it, which I found fascinating in itself.
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It could happen. One needs to know that even if you disagree, there are boundaries.
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I hated this book, mainly because it was prophetic. Sadly, a lot of this violence exists.
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Essential angst-ridden book of failed reform. Do find a copy with the restored ending chapters.
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I would never read this again. The hidden violence is shocking. Kids do that stuff today. I really disliked how the men who wanted to use him as a living witness to help them overthrow the government but then put him in so much pain playing that music, that he jumped out the window.
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"1,000 Books To Read Before You Die" is a registered trademark of Workman Publishing, Inc. Based on the book: 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die by James Mustich, (Workman Publishing Co., Inc.: © 2018 James Mustich)
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