Review by Choice Review
Ever since its publication in 1962, all American editions of A Clockwork Orange have omitted Burgess's crucial final chapter; Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film similarly omits the events in this final chapter. But all other editions around the world have included Burgess's defensible denouement, in which his protagonist grows up, bored with violence, and turns to creation himself (marriage, children, even the possibility of music) and completely rejects his adolescent awfulness. Burgess includes an excellent defense of his final chapter in this first US edition to include it, and both the edition and the chapter itself are necessary for proper and complete understanding of his intent in the novel. Hence, even if libraries have an earlier American edition, this one should be added. Burgess has also dropped the ``Nadsat'' glossary added to earlier American editions by the late Stanley Edgar Hyman, maintaining that the contexts make all such usages clear without such assistance. Recommended for all modern literature collections except for those containing any earlier British edition.-P. Schlueter, Warren County Community College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* It may be a sign of a great work that it can be misinterpreted by detractors and proponents alike. Contemporary readers who saw Burgess' 1962 dystopian novel as a celebration of youth violence were as far off base as the teens since then who have thrilled to the transgressive violence it or, at least, Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation depicts. But paradox is at the heart of this book, as this newly restored, fiftieth-anniversary edition makes more clear than ever. Narrated by Alex, a teenage dandy who revels in language (he speaks a slang called Nadsat), music (especially Bach and Beethoven), and violence, especially violence. When imprisoned for murder, he is offered a chance at reform and leaps at it but the reform turns out to be brainwashing, an aversion therapy that, alas, leaves him able to enjoy neither beatings nor Beethoven. Upon his release he becomes first a victim of his victims, then a cause celebre of antigovernment activists before . . . well, publishers offered different endings to British and American audiences, as readers will discover here. What makes A Clockwork Orange so challenging, besides the language ( He looked a malenky bit poogly when he viddied the four of us ), is Burgess' willingness to use an unsympathetic protagonist to make his point, which is essentially that it may be better to choose evil than to be forced to be good. (For, as it is put by two different characters: When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man. ) Readers can revisit or discover a classic that, while drawing from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Graham Greene's Brighton Rock, has in turn influenced authors from Irvine Welsh to Suzanne Collins. Extras include a thoughtful introduction by editor Andrew Biswell, reproductions of manuscript pages annotated by Burgess, and a previously unpublished chapter of a book that was to have been called The Clockwork Condition, in which Burgess intended to set the record straight about his intentions now that Kubrick's film adaptation had made him famous. Readers will learn much, including the meaning behind the book's title. All in all, a fitting publication of a book that remains just as shocking and thought provoking as ever.--Graff, Keir Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
After his youthful adventures of raping and pillaging, Alex finds himself in prison. When he volunteers for an experiment, his sentence is commuted to two weeks. The experiment leaves him physically incapable of doing wrong and releases him back into the world. However, when he repeatedly runs into people he has wronged in the past, his real suffering begins. This audiobook gives new life to Burgess's tale of recklessly violent youth, free will and true redemption. While Malcolm McDowell forever infused viewers with the look of Alex in the film, Tom Hollander performs an even more amazing feat. With a smooth, almost lyrical, crisp voice, Hollander delivers Burgess's "nadsat" dialect to readers with such rhythmic cadence that listeners will easily understand the extensive slang used throughout the book. This unabridged production also includes the 21st chapter, which was not dramatized in the film or in the book's original U.S. publication. The audiobook opens with a brief note by Burgess on living with the book's legacy. The final CD features selected readings by Burgess from a previous recorded abridged version. While it's interesting to hear the older and gruffer voice, it does not compare to Hollander's performance. A Penguin paperback. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
