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AlunWeaver t1_iu06e07 wrote

>Does it perhaps start to make sense as I continue to read the book?

Yes.

It's an invented lingo that Burgess created for the characters and not something that is all that much easier for a British reader to understand. The expectation is that you will eventually come to understand more and more of it as you read.

Burgess was a strange guy, completely obsessed with language, with etymologies, with slang. He was slightly resentful, I think, of what people made of him and his education, and so he made a point (way too big of one, if you ask me) of showing off his erudition when it came to words.

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vibraltu t1_iu0aehc wrote

He's an interesting cat, and definitely a big-show-off of his vocabulary in his many books. It's true that English intellectuals from not-posh backgrounds can sometimes be pretty touchy about it (Orwell is another example).

His memoirs are worth a look.

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chinawcswing OP t1_iu6cu49 wrote

I'm 3 chapters in. I suppose it is getting somewhat easier to read. I know "viddy" means to see for example.

But is the entire book just going to be about these kids committing violence? Is there any sort of character development, climax, plot twist?

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