The story is narrated by Janet, in a completely dispassionate, matter-of-fact manner. She seems somewhat older than her 23 years, but that may be a British thing to which I can't relate. The style of narration is in sharp contrast to the events that unfold, making the ending all the more horrifying. I was left feeling unsettled, like after I watched Hitchcock's Psycho.
Overall, I'd recommend it, but don't expect to experience any warm fuzzies!

This is my first Burgess book. I found it very annoying.

The two main characters are a ditz named Janet and her dull, somewhat inconsiderate, but very sweet and doting husband, Howard. Life is going along blandly but steadily until Janet's sister tries to commit suicide in their house.

Soon after, Howard gets on a game show and wins a £1,000 (in 1961). He bets on the horses at ridiculous odds and turns it into £80,000 (so they're "very rich", according to the book). Then Howard takes Janet to various places around the world, trying to spend as much money as possible, while Janet worries about all the money they spend.

All this time, Janet complains that Howard never tells her anything, while keeping from him the secret that she had cheated on Howard with a scruffy, grungy poet and that she was still fantasizing about him while trotting around the world with her husband.

They get back home, and the grungy poet is there with several of his friends, charging things in Howard's name and refusing to leave when asked. Howard has to practically throw them out because they just won't leave. The Poet puts up a fuss about how Howard is planning to kill Janet, but no one believes him.

Finally, after plowing through 200 pages, we get to the dull, dreary point of the book: That life isn't worth living, so let's just kill ourselves. And for some reason, people think this is a good book. It's TERRIBLE from start to finish, with it's only redeeming point being that everything else I read this year is sure to be better.

As any Burgess book it starts off slow, but sit with it long enough and it will take you all sorts of places.

Maybe 2.5. Not unenjoyable to read, but the ending was a bit drawn out after watching it coming for so long.

1961 yılında tüketim toplumuna bir eleştiri olarak addedebilecek bu romanı yazan Burgess, mevcut durumu görse ne yapardı diye düşünmeden edemedim.

Ben romandan keyif almadım ne yazık ki, bu nedenle de fazla bir şey yazmak istemiyorum.

It's not close to A Clockwork Orange of course but still extremely enjoyable. I couldn't put it down once I started reading it and of course Anthony Burgess's narration was so warm!

Read this so long ago- written by a man in the voice of a woman- all I can remember.

başta “sarışın aptal” gibi gösterilen kişinin sonlara doğru zekâsını tam kapasite çalıştırması ilginç geldi sadece; olağanüstü durumlar olağanüstü çözümlerin üretilmesine sebep olabiliyor diye düşünmek mümkün gerçi bunu da.

This is probably the quickest reads of all of Burgess' books that I have read thus far. Great plot, interesting characters, and as always subtle social commentary.

All time favorite book of all time

Quite an interesting view of the triviality of life in 1960s Britain written by AB after returning from teaching in Malaysia and finding the country swept by TV quiz fever. You can see why he later moved to Italy.

I’ve read three of Burgess’s novels and am staggered by the flair he had for assuming different styles: the Russian-influenced ‘nadsat’ of A Clockwork Orange, the Elizabethan vocabulary and word order of A Dead Man in Deptford, and the working-class diction of an urban housewife, Janet Shirley. Janet is poorly educated in a system that doesn’t bother with ‘boring’ history or Shakespeare (as the kids ‘wouldn’t get it’. She’s married to Howard, a slightly older man (both are in their twenties) who is gifted with a photographic memory. This enables him to win a packet of money in a television quiz show, similar to ‘Master Mind’, in which he is asked increasingly abstruse questions about English literature. From this win, he branches out to betting on horses. The couple become wealthy, but don’t find happiness.

The motivation for writing the novel, I believe, was to do a send up of Dylan Thomas in a character called Redvers Glass. Thomas had had an affair with Burgess’s first wife during the Second World War. Like Thomas, Glass is a repulsive drunkard, a sponger who takes advantage of the Shirley’s hospitality and seduces Janet. The political views of Janet’s husband lead to a sad, even tragic conclusion, not, however, without its funny side. The characters in the novel voice concern over the vulgarisation of English culture with the advent of television and American influence, something whose growth I have witnessed during my many decades of contact with Britain.