A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

This amazing book documents the life of a juvenile delinquent, caught by the law before being changed into a person incapable of committing crime. While showing the transformation of a person, it also shows the limits of human freedom in a futuristic society.

The story starts with Alex and his gang tormenting a city with rape, burglary, violence and murder. Alex, a young man, has been doing these things for years and is caught when his friend who are scared of his power purposefully leave him where the police will find him. The entirety of the speech in this part of the book is in a sort of slang which is confusing enough to entice the reader but at the same time easy enough to follow. It is clear from the beginning that Alex commits his crimes out of a sense of pleasure; he enjoys the violence, the bloodshed and the risk-taking and has no plans to curb his offending. When the government is made aware of a new method which will render criminals incapable of committing or even considering committing violent crime, an innocent Alex is persuaded into being a test subject with the promise of freedom. The trial resembles some method of hypnosis and Alex is released to a world where even thinking about consensual sex is totally impossible.

The book is written with great thought put into the dialect of Alex and his gang. The meeting of Alex with the author of a book forces Alex to think about what he has done. I am told the original of the book is missing one chapter, so the book in this case ends with hope that Alex will change his ways.

Overall, this book explores the limits of human freedom and forces the reader to consider whether being 'evil' deserves the sterilisation of the brain that Alex receives. I would highly recommend it.

Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins

This author is genius, the one thing you can be sure of in his books is that they will never ever be predictable. The twists and turns of the book come out of nowhere and seem completely unlikely but they contribute something to the plot as well. The underlying theme of religion was what kept this book going, and it did so very well.

The book details the lives firstly of Amanda and John Paul Ziller, a young couple living in the sixties in the USA. Several other characters are introduced throughout but mainly Marx Marvelous, a scientist gone astray and Plucky Purcell, an ex-athlete joining in on the spectacular.

There's not much to say about this book that won't give it away. It deals primarily with the concepts of spirituality and philosophy and each character contributes in his/her own way. There is a convergence of ideas showing the similarities between religion and science collecting an interesting philosophy throughout the entire book that not so much combines the two as it debates and settles with neither one nor the other. And when I say debates, it is not debating...

Definitely more scandalous than The Da Vinci Code but less read. Mainly because a lot of people just can't see where the hell Tom Robbins is coming from but personally I can and I think his writing borders on excellent.