Just finished reading
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. It’s one of the most disturbing, thought-provoking yet gripping novels I’ve read. The novel is divided into three parts (seven chapters each). The first part follows the main protagonist (and narrator), Alex, fifteen years old, and his gang as they run amok and "ultra-violent" (robbing, beating, raping, etc.). The second part follows Alex’s time in prison. And the third and final part focuses on Alex’s acclimation back into society, ending with the final controversial chapter that changes everything.
A Clockwork Orange is not an easy novel to read by any means. It’s laborious. And all due to the Nadsat (“teenage") argot, which much of the novel is narrated in. For example: “Horroshow” means good, “viddy/viddied" is see/saw, “millicent” means police, "appy-polly loggies" apparently means apologies and so on. It seemed gibberish and got me all confused at first, especially the first few chapters, I was like what the heck am I reading?? I almost gave up on it but then as I progressed and have come across the words in different context I figured it out and got the hang of it and started to enjoy the story more. But even then, I did have to stop and remind myself what a certain word meant. To give examples of Nadsat language in the novel:
"There was a doddery starry schoolmaster type veck, glasses on and his rot open to the cold nochy air.”
Starry: old
Veck: guy
Rot: mouth
Nochy: night
(much more comprehensible now, huh)
“I thought of all those kots and koshkas mewing for moloko and getting none, not any more from their starry forella of a mistress.”
Kots: cats
Koshkas: kittens
Moloko: milk
Forella: lady
It's a very good novel, if you have the patience and you don't really mind reading explicitly violent scenes, that is.
Just for fun, in the spoiler tag I posted my iPhone; it's relevant to the novel. Check it out
