'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess

A quick read of the introduction to the edition which I read tells me that the title was nicked from an old cockney expression meaning something along the lines of 'queer'.

Indeed, it is a queer novel.

When I perused the first page, I was welcomed by little additions in soft pencil (no doubt appended by some near or distant previous reader) to help make sense of the 'nadsat' language Burgess decided to inculcate in the book. 'Nadsat' is a slavic-based (Russian, to be precise) futuristic dystopian slang spoken by the teenagers, the malchicks and devotchkas of that time. Mingle that with 'oh my brothers', the frequent use of the second person singular pronoun 'thou' and the rhythmically prophetic insertions of 'like', then you get something strange and distasteful.

Nevertheless, I must say it's catchy.

But in no way does it mitigate through ambiguity the brutality and depravity perpetuated by the narrator, Alex. It's quite sickening. I don't agree that violence makes his exit through maturation, either.

Watch out for the ending. I felt duped.