A Clockwork Orange

I recently started reading A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, and this is what I think so far. The use of language is very interesting. It is mildly difficult to understand at first, but it becomes surprisingly easy. It was an interesting decision to make the main character also the narrator, and although he is very clearly a bad person, he doesn't go out of his way to paint himself in a better light. In fact, he is surprisingly objective when it comes to narration. I get the feeling that he is speaking to the reader as if he is one of the main character's, "droogs." When he says something like, "O my brothers" It seems as if he is speaking directly to the reader. It is for this reason that I don't feel a large amount of hate for him. It is also possible that I just can't experience a book as strongly as I can experience real life. Perhaps if this were happening in real life, I would hate him more. There is no way to know.

He also does some very cool things with time. There are moments when I read and I found myself feeling almost rushed, while other moments felt dragged out and savored. In these savored moments, the narrator went as far as to even go back in time and replay what was happening to someone else. One example of this was during a fight scene and instead of continuing on, what was occurring to the wife during the scene was recounted, this contrasts with a brief scene a short time before when the group was driving around and very little detail was given, but it was clear that time passed.