A wonderful novel about a not-so-wonderful time.

I had committed a supposed flaw before reading this book; I had seen the infamous film prior to reading the book. However, I don't feel this worry really concern this particular. Coming first from Kubrick's masterpiece does not distract not the enormity of the novel. It is a hugely ambitious triumph of a novel.

The book cleverly offers a worrying picture of the future where old people are scared of 'youths' for extreme violence. Yet, in Burgess' novel, the central gang of youths commit hyper-violent acts. The hysteria is justified at times and this leads to the imprisonment of the central protagonist.

Once in jail the protagonist volunteers for 'corrective treatment', which is basically association of violence with the urge to be vomit and want to die. Burgess here is offering a wonderfully explicit critique of psychological behaviourism, which was extremely popular in 1960's Britain.

The main triumph of the novel is Burgess' use of language. New vocabulary is added and understood via its context. It shows language to be a fickle, beautiful flurry and a game we all partake in with no fixed meaning. This can be seen to relate to Wittgenstein's theory of language as games
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To conclude, me and my wife love reading and my only annoyance with the novel is that I have not come to it sooner. A truly interesting piece of fiction that still feels fresh today.