Review: A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A classic, but one where I saw the movie first. And then listened to the BBC4 audio adaptation, with multiple actors and embedded musical numbers. Still haven’t read it, but a comment on the story and the audio production. This is one of those stories built around some interesting moral quandaries. While many stories provide nuanced studies of such quandries, I’ve always thought of this as an example of the sledgehammer method of storytelling, one very willing to tell you exactly what each quandary is and what the options are. The best part about this book is that Burgess tells the story so well even with those almost academic constraints.

On the BBC4 production: This becomes something of a musical with this audio play rendition. There are four or five times where music comes up during the story, and there is not so much singing as rhythmic speaking and group chanting along with the music. It is very interesting, but it didn’t work for me. The other thing that set this audio production apart was the number of grunts and heavy breathing. Given there is a lot of violence in this book, this was expected, and the BBC used some of the best grunters and heavy breathers on radio. Overall, this was an interesting production, okay but not great. I believe I would rate the book higher.


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