You've Had Your Time - Being The Second Part Of The Confessions of Anthony Burgess [Import] [Paperback]

Anthony Burgess (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; New Ed edition (1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140158839
• ISBN-13: 978-0140158830
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,669,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anthony Burgess (25th February 1917-22nd November 1993) was one of the UK's leading academics and most respected literary figures. A prolific author, during his writing career Burgess found success as a novelist, critic, composer, playwright, screenwriter, travel writer, essayist, poet and librettist, as well as working as a translator, broadcaster, linguist and educationalist. His fiction also includes NOTHING LIKE THE SUN, a recreation of Shakespeare's love-life, but he is perhaps most famous for the complex and controversial novel A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, exploring the nature of evil. Born in Manchester, he spent time living in Southeast Asia, the USA and Mediterranean Europe as well as in England, until his death in 1993.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still a Genius, January 17, 2011

By 

Paul Rooney "Paul Rooney" (Opotiki,New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: You've Had Your Time (Hardcover)

This second volume carries straight on from part one. He has been mistakenly diagnosed with a brain tumour and begins writing flat out to make some money for his wife. She, unfortunately is drinking herself to death something at which she manages to succeed 8 years later.

After the death of Lynne he marries his second wife Liana with whom he had a illegitimate child he did not know about from an earlier fling.

We have explained the circumstances of how his novels were written and his stage and musical work compiled.

This is all fascinating especially how he compiled his novels. Everyone of them are written on several levels - I believe to "get all" of what he was trying say you would have to have been as clever as he was.

Again there are great anecdotes regarding people he meets as his celebrity grows.

At a dinner with Groucho Marx:

......It was on this occasion that a lady was mentioned who had ten children because she loved her husband. "I love my cigar," Groucho said " but I take it out sometimes"

Burgess was elitist in his writing and his music, I don't think this is a bad thing because he was a genius but there is a sense of grievance in a lot of this writing when he doesn't get the recognition that he believes he deserves.

This is most apparent when he relates how novelist Shirley Cronan receives a million dollar advance for a novel, which is many hundreds of times more than anything he received in his life time.

There is also bitterness when Stanley Kubrick garners all the praise for " A Clockwork Orange". Burgess is forgotten as the author - and Kubrick does little to dispel peoples perception that the entire concept was his creation.

This volume still has major soul baring but nothing on the scale of volume one. This is explained by his second marriage making him happy, so we have none of the infidelities and behaviour that were quite striking in part one.

Again, highly recommended , get both volumes together and read as one would be my suggestion and then you could happily start again and be just as happy.