On Reading Burgess

What’s it going to be then, eh?

On the nochy I was given six books to read, I wondered which one I would go with first, now that I had a malenky biblio of my own. As I made my choice, I saw a book with a glass of moloko on the cover, and visions of a droog recommending the book highly, came to my gulliver. As I thanked my other droog for the books, I made a note to read A Clockwork Orange. Here I was, a devotchka of sufficient reading knowledge behind me and a tingling curiosity ahead of me. I thought it would be real horrorshow to read, what the preface described as, a book that haunted Burgess until the end of his life. Little did I know I was in for a raz of my jenny.

What’s it going to be then, eh?

When I started reading, the solovos were nothing I had ever viddied in my life! It was real hard work, O my brothers. I couldn’t read more than a chapter a day because of the ultra-violence messed with my gulliver. It was so dampening that I reckoned I could only take so much. Whenever Alex went around the town in the nochy and pulled out his britva or when I finally understood what his actions meant, it scared Your Humble Narrator. It was so repulsive and jaded that it made reading a chore. I knew that getting to the end would be difficult, but I did not fathom it impossible. The solovos were coarse, Alex was a grahzny bratchny and I wished someone would put a stop to it all. Then, one nochy, it happened, Alex was caught and thrown into the Staja. That was when, it became easier to read, O my brothers. That was when I thought there was interception, but I knew not what it would be.

What’s it going to be then, eh?

How they messed with Alex’s gulliver in the Staja further plummeted my mood. I wasn’t sure which part of this book I was supposed to like. Although it had become easier to viddy the slovos and read, but why were they doing this? What was it finally going to be? I could not sneety up this character, ever, and Burgess wrote about him with such conviction. Why the ultra-violence, and then, why the reformation making him into a clockwork orange? It has been hard reading, O my brothers, and I know that although, it hasn’t been pleasant, I will not broadcast this book as a goner. Burgess’ piece of work can be admired, but from afar. I doubt it if anyone can clutch it close to the heart. It’s tough, O my brothers. It is.