I'm going to go out on a limb and say the book ending is, while artistically inferior and awful in every way from the perspective of the value of the fictive work, ultimately more realistic. Real people like Alex, or close to him, who have that level of unbridled intellect at their disposal, mellow as they age and conform. You have to be both savage and stupid to remain that leevl of sociopath as you age, and most of the impulses would likely have tapered off as the brain finishes development in the early twenties. I'm sorry that this isn't as sexy or moving or fun or memorable as the movie ending, and again as a piece of art I am immeasurably glad Kubrick went the other way, but it's more realistic, IMHO, from a neurocognitive perspective.

It makes me want to drink milk.

Burgess's own stage adaptation of the novel, A Clockwork Orange: A Play with Music (1984), contains a direct reference to Kubrick. In the final moment of the play Alex joins in a song with the other characters. In the script's stage directions it states that while this happens: "A man bearded like Stanley Kubrick comes on playing, in exquisite counterpoint, 'Singin' in the Rain' on the trumpet. He is kicked off the stage."

I think you missed the point of the final chapter a little bit. It's not supposed to say that troubled kids will grow into sensible adults. It insinuates that change can only come from within.

This is my take too. I like that both versions exist, because where the ending lands truly shapes the ultimate theme of the story. That film and novel have wildly different things to say is a real strength for me.

During the blackout, his pregnant wife Lynne was raped and assaulted by four American deserters; perhaps as a result, she lost the child