Atlas Shrugged
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Atlas Shrugged Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Bombastic but Rewarding
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First of all, let me say that this is a really long book...too long. I don't see any reason it should be almost 1,100 pages in just about the smallest print possible to comprehend. Having said that, it is a rewarding book, full of insight, perspective, and prescience. I never thought of how flawed a Communist/Socialist system could be until I read this book. Rand dissects the greed, deceit, and opportunism behind a deceptive government system in a way I have never seen before. She has an uncomprimising yet understandable vision that is reflected from her own horrific experiences in a Communist hell, where she barely escaped and almost starved. Her rage against such a system is justified and she channels it into a compelling story in Atlas Shrugged.
This book has transformed the way many college students think, especially in terms of how advantageous a capitalist society can be. In Rand's view, only selfish motives can ultimately bring about progress and hence, the achievements that will most benefit humanity. Her views have merit, too. Would we really be motivated to undertake as many of the grueling endeavors we do without motivations that are inherently selfish, namely money and ownership? Maybe a handful of us are innately altruistic, but the majority of us are not, and if left to depend on altruism alone, we would surely perish.
Philosophical ruminations aside, there is a lot to dislike about this book as well. While Rand's prose captures images and sensations like few other authors have, this is somewhat tempered by her absolute need to hammer home a message that is well-established within the early parts of the book. She makes it clear that she believes socialism to be the root of all evil from the beginning, yet she feels the need to keep pounding away at the reader's brain in case we missed it the first fifty times or so that she very explicitly said it. Subtlety is not this book's strength, and its hardheadedness wears on the reader. Granted this was written during a time of anti-Communist sentiment, but Rand doesn't trust her readers to make their own judgements and winds up coming off as elitist herself, not to mention condescending.
The characters, while often fascinating, frequently and irritatingly break into philosophical discourses practically every page. Some of these discussions and arguments are really thought-provoking, but too often, it's obtrusive and gets in the way of creating well-rounded and human characters. Almost none of them have layers; almost all of them are either completely virtuous or completely evil. She writes a novel that achieves greatness in many respects, especially in plotting and substance, but is severly lacking in others, namely her inability (or lack of restraint) to create characters with flaws as well as values.
Rand creates a terrifying and, for its day, timely environment where the world is on the brink of collapse because of people's unwillingly to rely on each other and their gullibility to a system of empty promises. She evokes many emotions with her writing, which is quite strong overall. If it weren't so didactic, I'd be willing to award this book the full five stars, but as it is, it's a worthwhile read. It's bloated and overlong, but there's a reason it's a seminal classic. Her philosophy is a little extreme and many certainly won't fully agree with it, but at least she's got one and isn't afraid to imbue her work with it, which is more than can be said for a lot of other books out there. |
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