Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Atlas Shrugged
Book Review: A Dangerous Book
Summary: 5 Stars
It will change forever how you think about yourself and the world around you.Ayn Rand was a product of the industrial age - of frontiers and unlimited resources -and, though Atlas Shrugged is beginning to suffer from the advances of time and science, her philosophy remains unimpeachable.
A must read guide for the road to mental freedom - as well as an engrossing novel.
Book Review: A European perspective:Compare Ayn Rand with Charles Dickens
Summary: 3 Stars
Yes I understand Ayn Rand's ideas: he who works harder should earn more than the lazybones - and that this necessary for an efficient economy. Yes, I also believe freedom and the dignity of the individual to be more important than the repressive, suffocating collectivism that you can find in communist or in islamic societies. In so far, Ayn Rand is right.On the other hand this radical egoism Ayn Rand propagates makes me shiver sometimes. I always have to think about the "Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens and the main character of this story, Ebenezer Scrooge when reading Ayn Rand's philosophical ideas.
So this is my suggestion to all objectivists: Read "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens every christmas and think about what Ebenezer Scrooge was shown by the three ghosts, the ghost of the past, the ghost of the present and the ghost of the future, in order not to become too fanatical in the philosophy of objectivism.
Book Review: A Feat of Integration
Summary: 5 Stars
"Atlas Shrugged" is stunningly direct and wonderfully complete. One of the most impressive aspects of the book is its amazing conceptual integration...not only does the entire book proceed logically from the philosophical premises, but the premises are woven so deftly into the plot that the reader is left with a sense of wonder. How many other books can successfully combine a story of epic proportions with the presentation of the fundamentals of an entire philosophical system?Probably the most common criticisms of the book attack its length and its characters. As for the length, what else does anyone expect from a book dealing with so much material? At least "Atlas Shrugged" has its phenomenal complexity as the reason behind its length...so many other books are just long for the sake of being long. I hate to even mention it in the same review, but Melville's story "Billy Budd" is only seventy-something pages long, and should have been about ten. "Waiting for Godot", which is something like the literary antithesis of "Atlas Shrugged", would have done the world a favor by not being written at all. These are far worse crimes against literary art than the few extraneous speeches found in "Atlas Shrugged". I see the length as a non-issue, unless you are one of those people for whom the value of a book is determined by the number of pages.
As for the characters, it always amazes me when people complain about all of Ayn Rand's characters being "one-dimensional". She writes some of the best minor characters in literary history, and I honestly don't think that's an overstatement. She is at her best when dramatizing a concept by painting it in details. It's amazing how many analogues of real-life people I can find in the more minor characters - Lillian Rearden, Eddie Willers, Cherryl Brooks, Dave Mitchum, Dr. Stadler, the men and women in the train...I could go on and on. These are the characters that really flesh out the book as a whole, and add meaning to the activities of the protagonists.
This point has been made many times before, but just for good measure: The main characters are not supposed to be real people! They are philosophical abstractions, not the neighbors next door. They are meant to dramatize philosophical perspectives and concepts. Those who like extremely naturalistic writing will probably find them unidimensional, but extremely naturalistic writing gets old fast. How many times can we read about the couple next door or the old man down the street? How many times must we be subjected to the same overdone plot of boy-meets-girl, with the same overused characters? "Atlas Shrugged" is a refreshing change from the relentless redundancy with which literary naturalism assails the modern reader.
I will admit, the book can get a little preachy at times. The dissertations on philosophical concepts, such as the meaning of money, are incredible essays in their own right, and I highly recommend them - they just interrupt the flow of the novel. I think Rand was at her best as a fiction writer, so I would have preferred it if she had stuck to fiction in this book, and saved the philosophy for separate publication. The events of the book are all the examples she needed to communicate her philosophy...the essays could have been published separately. But in my opinion, that's really the only major flaw in the novel's structure. And I'll add that the first thing I thought when I was this book was, "That's a great title!"
Love it or hate it, "Atlas Shrugged" is a stunning literary and philosophical achievement. Whether or not you agree with it, it will make you think long and hard, and hopefully you'll follow Fransisco d'Anconia's advice: Check your premises. You never know what hidden assumptions you'll find lurking in the recesses of your mind.
Book Review: A Few Holes!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of my favorite books. It's one of my favorite rituals to settle down with this mammoth lollipop at least twice a year and lose myself into this world of philosophical literature. However, Rand left a few intriguing holes in her plot. Why, for instance, would Hank Reardon, fierce, an extreme individualist and achiever, marry such a female king cobra as Lillian Reardon? Rand portrays her as a repulsive, sinister serpent with dead eyes and a frozen smile, the very antithesis of what Reardon was all about. Also, how could such an man-made-of-steel come from such lowlifes as his mother, who is described as a drooling lap dog? And the brother, another miscreant. I would have the same question about the parents of the cool, collected and courageous Dagney Taggart whose brother is such a gutless marshmallow. Rand portrays these same unlikely familial groupings in We the Living, where Kira Argounova's mother is a twittering little canary, and her sister, Lydia, is a simple-minded religious fanatic. In The Fountainhead, Dominique Francon has as father whose such a mental retardate it's difficult to imagine he sired this blazing beauty of Objectivism (her mother in this book, and the parents of Howard Roark, are nowhere to be found). Would be interesting for someone to do a study on Rand's family background.Book Review: A Glimpse of the Future
Summary: 4 Stars
"Atlas Shrugged" is one of the best examples of what our future might bring. This book is about the struggles of fightinng for your ideals, fighting for what is just, and fighting for what the world needs. Tha main characters in this book allhave one thing in common: they believe this world is corrupt and evil, so they leave it behind. The main woman, Dagny, doesn't know where they're going, but is frustrated because she is losing her battle against the greedy business tycoons who are scrambling to "save" the economy. Dagny needs the assistance of these couragous men and women, but when they disappear, she begins to be crushed. Not only is she pushed away, but she is almost "taken care of" because of her quest for the truth. There is only one man who can save her:John Galt. The whole world knows the name, but none know who he is. Dagny, however, knows he is the key to all this, and she will go to the end of the world and back to find his secret.