A Clockwork Orange.

I decided to take on A Clockwork Orange as my next novel. I am barely knee deep in chapter two and I have no idea what is going on. This confusion is mainly brought on by the slang in which the author made up. Words like "moodge" and "veck" are peppered among the pages, and words like "smecked" and "viddied" only add to the confusion. This language is called "NADSAT" and it is Anthony Burgess' creation with a basis of English and Russian. Anthony Burgess had a deep love for linguistics, therefore in many of his novels he lets this love shine through, creating words that take up more than half of the writing. It is hard to understand but you still definitely get a feel for the characters, and the language puts the reader's imagination to work.

Some expressions:
-grahzny bratchny = dirty bastard
-lubbilubbing = making love
-gullywuts = guts
-Pooshka= pistol
-Cancer = cigarette
Alex and his 'droogs' are addicted to drugs named drencom, synthemesc, vellocet



I really have high hopes for this novel, the demonic story of an after-dark criminal takeover intrigues me.

Ugh, men.

Dominican Republic, 1964.
It seems as if women all over the world, in any time period, no matter how different they are, have one thing in common...they hate men. It's the tell-tale "can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em" story. I am more than half way through this novel and these women are MORE than fed up with their men... all of them, even El Jefe himself, and they are certainly not keeping their opinions under wraps. Though the three sisters have different men in their lives to hate on, the one man they do have in common is their father. The father is responsible for their cynical view of men and relationships, it seems it all comes back to him. Good work Pops, you harbored a second family and got caught. There's nothing like having your eldest daughter drive your prized Jeep into your mistresses' porch, nevertheless scaring the crap out of your love-children. From that point on the girls have defied the men around them left and right. Minerva, the spunky one, even took it to the level of slapping the blessed cheek of Trujillo when he made a pass at her on the dance floor....surprisingly a bad idea. I guess even the national leader hasn't realized that women do not like to be fondled, stalked, groped, heckled, or "chosen". Strike one for the Mirabal Sisters.

Note: Most men you meet in an illegal revolutionary underground meeting are NOT boyfriend material. Poor Minerva & Dede, they will never learn. Lio, Minerva's first love interest, was one of the elite minds behind the Revolution. His numerous letters to Minerva discussing his plans were discovered, thrusting Minerva into the arms of the government to fend for herself. Dede who is completely blinded by her love for Palomino, allows him to hide his revolutionary weapons under the floorboards in her dorm room closet. He comes around so often with other revolutionaries that her neighbors even think she is running some kind of whorehouse. Though their relationship is new I can see that it will going somewhere in the next few chapters, however poor Dede is left with the new reputation of a loose woman...what women do for men.
and as for Patricia's loveless marriage, it is precisely that...loveless.

The Mirabal Sisters.

I'm a few more chapters in and the novel has definetly picked up. One of my favorite aspects of this novel is the profound realism of the characters. The four main characters, the Mirabal Sisters (which consists of Patria, Minerva, Maria Teresa, and Dedé), are so abstract I feel as if I were there, in the story and that I know them. I guess the lengthy tedious descriptions in the first chapter amounted to something. The four sisters take turns narrating the story chapter by chapter, some stories better than others. My favorite character is Minerva, if I were in the Dominican at the time of the Revolution I would have the same thoughts and "rebel" just as she does. Even as a young girl she has no problem speaking out against Trujillo, a rare and admirable quality. In an interview with Julia Alvarez the author, she talks about her inspiration behind the four sisters. What she had to say was very interesting and definately gives them more depth. She says that "Sometimes you have the story and you don't have the voice. A novel is truth according to character, so if there's no voice, there's no story." Julia Alvarez certainly gives voice to her characters on many different levels.