We the Living by Ayn Rand Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of We the Living
Book Review: Another Example of Rand's Petrified Opinion
Summary: 1 Stars
It's hard not to look at this book as little more than a piece of propaganda. It is not that Rand sat down with the intention to write propaganda, but that instead her own opinions have become so overbearing and all-encompassing, that it is as if they constitute a religion for her. And she is so devout a believer of her own 'religion' that her opinions end up reading like propaganda. A good majority of the book is spent bad-mouthing Communism and Socialism. If this were a critical analysis of Communism, I would not mind, as I am open to alternate views. But for Rand, there is no subtlety, to cognition, no grace, but instead, hundreds of pages of "Communism Sucks!" Like most people, she seems to have NO knowledge of Marxist theory. Like the people on this board, she confuses Communism with Socialism, and in so doing, treats them as being the same. Communism is as 'close' to Socialism as Capitalism is close to Socialism. The book is simple unreadable to anyone who has any diversified education in political theory. From a literary standpoint, there are plot holes, strange attempts at characterization, 'insults' at Communism thrown in like commercials at various parts in the book. Skip it.Book Review: Another brilliant work from a genius.
Summary: 5 Stars
Unlike other reviewers, I will not critize Miss Rand's more famous novels compared to 'We the Living'. Even though it's far from funny, when this novel was published, critics screamed that she "didn't know what she was talking about!" That this novel "wasn't a true picture of life in the Soviet Union". Well, we now know how accurate a picture she'd drawn for all to see, if they chose to look. Not only a picture of the old Soviet, but as she states in her foreword, "This is a story about Dictatorship, any dictatorship, anywhere, at any time...and that this novel might do its share in helping to prevent a socialist America." Sadly, today "the Left" still spews lies, but that's all they can do, having given up the mantle of reason long ago, and "the Right" is mired in the death throes of religion. We're closer to the precipice than you think.
Speaking for myself, I owe such an incredible debt of gratitude to her, for all her written works, that words nearly fail me. This is a brilliant novel, passionately written and beautifully told. Read it.
Book Review: Atlas Shrugged Really Happened
Summary: 4 Stars
When I read Atlas Shrugged, I could not help feeling the novel was almost science fiction in its depiction of a world where capitalism is not allowed to flourish freely because the government tries to regulate it, and consequently, the intellectuals and inventors abandon the rest of society. And then, I read Ayn Rand's first novel, We The Living, and within the first few pages realized she was not only depicting the very world that would exist if the government controlled everything, but that such a world had existed in the Soviet Union, and she had been a first hand witness to it. Atlas Shrugged was less a fantasy than a nightmare she had already lived through without as successful an ending as her greatest novel.
The novel begins at the end of the Russian Revolution and depicts the lives of several of the younger generation trying to survive in the increasingly communist world as the state squelches individual freedom more and more. Having myself grown up during the Cold War, I foudn the novel rang true to many of the stories I heard about life in the Soviet Union--people standing in line for hours for a little bit of food for example. What is amazing is that it was written by someone who actually lived through those experiences in the early 1920s in Russia.
Ayn Rand states the novel is "as near to an autobiography as I will ever write. The plot is invented, the background is not. I was born in Russia, I was educated under the Soviets; I have seen the conditions of existence that I describe." One wishes she had written more of an autobiography because she states the main character Kira's experiences are not her own, although her ideas and convictions are.
The novel follows Kira as she attends the university where true learning is replaced by learning only about the state, communism and Marxist idealogies. Kira submits to this social pressure to survive and to help her family, but she cannot come to believe these ideologies. The living conditions of the novel are intolerable as people are crammed, entire families into one or two rooms of a compartment, as people must wear worn out clothes because there are non new, and worst of all, as people are unable to think or discuss anything except the socialist ideologies.
Saddest of all is Kira's attempts to find love. Both men she becomes involved with are unable to stand on their own because they fear the state or try to work underground to make money to survive because they cannot feed themselves in a society that does not allow free enterprise. Kira finds herself caught between these two men as she tries to survive and help them. In the end, she can help no one except herself and she makes her decision to escape abroad. Most readers I think will be disappointed by the ending, and I think Rand could have provided a stronger one to affirm life, but the final pages are dramatic and suspenseful.
The novel is not as pointed or as much of a page turner as Atlas Shrugged, but it makes one understand better the events that led Ayn Rand to develop her philosophy of objectivism. The reader is left wanting to know more about the history of the Russian Revolution and communism. The book reminds one of the more popular Dr. Zhivago, although it is questionable if that book is any more powerful. Most of all, one wants to learn more about Ayn Rand's personal life in Russia and how she escaped to America. I intend to read an autobiography of Ayn Rand next.
- Tyler R. Tichelaar, author of Iron Pioneers and The Queen City, available on Amazon
Book Review: Awesome Book
Summary: 5 Stars
This is another incredible book by Ayn Rand. Every character is well thought out and the setting follows well with the history of the times. I have read her book Anthem and was very impressed and thought I'd try this out as well and I'm glad I did. I hate to read but this is a book I could read over and over. Each character has some agaonizing trouble but Kira is a ray of hope for each of them. Read this book...Book Review: Awesome. A great book
Summary: 5 Stars
First, a disclaimer: I am not a member of the cult of Ayn Rand. This is the first book I've read by her. I did not read it because I believe in Objectivism already, or am attracted to its tenets, with which I am completely unfamiliar. All I know of her, and that knowledge is dubious, is that she is the darling of many (what I would call) fundamentalist capitalists. I was looking for a good novel, knew that she was both reviled and adored, and figured it would be interesting reading, at least. For the record, most would call me a liberal.
I was blown away. I'm still not looking to join the cult, mind you, but I will read other books by her because this one showed evidence of a warm heart, an uncompromising intellect, and a fever for living well. Ideology was not permitted to run roughshod over plot or character. It's an astonishingly accomplished first novel, and ought to be a candidate for every serious book club and every list of great books.
Rand draws her characters clearly and with complexity. While she is a bit romantic, even her simpler characters, such as the lickspittle, Victor, are developed in such a way that the reader must ask difficult questions about who he is, why he is that way, and would we be different under the same constraints. Kira, the central figure, is sympathetic, tragic, heroic, and admirable - but also a conundrum. Given who she is, why does she do the things she does? Why the compromises? Are they compromises? What of the archetypal Party man, Andrei? Is he a tragic or romantic hero? Is he a naive tool? Is he redeemed, or is his naivete merely exposed? Rand crafts a story that raises questions that have no easy, vapid answers but that demand discussion.
For those who think of Rand as the patron saint of Gordon Gecko, of greed and looking out for number one - which is the vague impression I've had of her - the characters who are most narcissistic, most self-aggrandizing, are also the most contemptible. And the hero lives a life of selfless love, with disciplined passion and a dreams deferred. This is not a book to avoid because of preconceived notions about Rand and her ideology.
The book raises many ethical and political issues, but I didn't leave with the sense that the conclusions were foregone. She talks about the corruption of a well-intended revolution, and while it applies particularly to Soviet Communism in these pages, I take it that it could as easily apply to any ideology - political, economic, religious, whatever - that fails to serve the people it promises to serve. There is clearly a passion in favor of letting the gifted be gifted, but there are nasty aristocrats and noble peasants, both, here. There's no aristocrats good, peasants bad theme operating here. I see respect for the good, whether they be rich or poor, and derision for those without dreams or nobility. As a bumper sticker says, those who have smothered their own dreams will smother yours. It becomes their job.
In 21st century America, where ideologies are ossified, partisans are blindly simplistic, and we have few, if any, bridge-builders, We the Living is a compelling call to remember that our dreams have a claim on us that we dismiss at the cost of lives worth living. What are our dreams, and what comforts or phantasms have we traded them for? I don't think Rand wants us to sleep easily after asking these questions.