Last week, I officially finished reading "A Clockwork Orange." I loved it. It's with my distinct pleasure to award it the title of "First novel in years to actually hold my interest from cover to cover." Kind of an awkwardly long title for an award. But that's exactly what "A Clockwork Orange" did. It held my interest and that's quite a triumph for any book.

The plot is beautifully constructed and provides plenty of twists to keep the reader not wanting to blink. Yes, an excellent plot and chilling twists. This is all wonderful, but what truly kept me interested is the graphic and uncensored nature of this book. Burgess leaves nothing out, and the only thing that mildly hinders one’s understanding of exactly what’s going on is the nadsat-ridden dialogue. Still, you get used to nadsat and catch on what’s what real quick. So when Burgess wants to tell the reader that Alex and his “droogs” are beating up on a hobo, he says something like, “So we cracked into him lovely, grinning all over our litsos, but he still went on singing. Then we tripped him so he lay down flat and heavy and a bucketload of beer-vomit came whooshing out. That was disgusting so we gave him the boot, one go each, and then it was blood, not song nor vomit, that came out of his filthy old rot. Then we went on our way.” Horrifying. Absolutely horrifying, but you just can’t put the book down. You’re so shocked that you just keep reading.

Anyway, I’ve begun reading this new book called “Things Fall Apart,” by Chinua Achebe. Clockwork’s a tough act to follow but this one seems to be holding its own. From what I’ve read so far, it really goes into depth about human emotion and how fear acts as a driving force for humans. A majority of the plot is about missionaries and colonial influence trying to reshape the tribes of Africa. Hence, the title came from this poem about a sphinx-like beast coming to destroy civilization. The European colonizers are related to this beast in the novel. So far, I’m not liking it as much as “A Clockwork Orange,” but it’s really too soon to tell. I'm sure the book picks up with the coming of the colonizers.

Oh well, goodbye Clockwork =( , hello new book. =)