Over the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I somehow managed to squeeze in the first part of A Clockwork Orange. I have to admit I was fascinated, both by the author's invented futuristic slang and by the protagonist's (not really sure Alex can properly be called a protagonist, but I will go with it) wanton destructiveness of everything surrounding him. As I pause before delving into the next section, I'm wondering...what is it exactly that qualifies a book to be among the best?
Certainly a writer's style has something to do with it, and I'd say that a good number of books on this literary pilgrimage have been included simply for the fantastic and occasionally mind-bending feats that the authors performed with language. I doubt that is what captivates me about A Clockwork Orange.
I haven't seen the movie, nor have I read the book before, so I don't know how it ends. Perhaps my opinion will change before all is said and done. For now, I'm left wondering - can a book include a character so evil that we are completely fascinated with it? And if that's true, does that elevate it to the Best or Greatest? It seems counterintuitive to offer the lowest example of human nature as the highest example of written art, but perhaps the ability to create such fascination somehow justifies the subject matter. I'm simply not sure. I can say that I want to know what happens to Alex, just as much as I had to know whether Humbert Humbert would succeed in running away with his Lolita.
What do you think? Why do you remember A Clockwork Orange?
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I know some of these novels will incite strong opinions, but please remember to be nice. Violators may be prosecuted, persecuted, and thought to be A Mean Person.