Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ayn RandEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-08-01
ISBN: 0452011876
Number of pages: 1200
Publisher: Plume
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780452011878
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Book Reviews of Atlas Shrugged
Book Review: Ayn Rand forgets the 2nd Amendment.
Summary: 3 Stars
This mammoth novel is many flashes of brilliance broken up by many flaws. There will probably be some spoilers to follow.
Obviously, you're not going to agree with Ayn Rand completely. I didn't and hopefully I won't ever buy into one source of opinions completely. Bill Maher might be the smuggest p.o.s. to grace my television, but that doesn't mean he's never hit the nail on the head. Ayn Rand has plenty of things worth listening too. She recognizes that all things are pleasure motivated; an obivious fact of life that people are scared of. Rand fails to realize that some people fully happy through philanthropy, altruism or basic sacrifice, but does realize that a person should put nothing higher than their own happiness. She shows off some great libertarian ideals, such as the idea that capitalism really just needs the government to protect honesty and it will pay dividends. With "Atlas Shrugged", Rand also shows how selfishness has nothing to do with being a good person. She shows off things that should be obvious. Nothing is free. Unconditional love is rediculous; love/relationships is/are a partnership. The truth is sacred. The most fufilling high comes from getting high on life. Rand holds reason highly, advocating logical choice. She also reminds us that there is nothing wrong with a little greed, so long as it's an honest buck you're trying to make which means trading the fair value of your honest labor for the fair value of anothers. Who decides what is right? We all do. Each individual does. One of the most important things Rand does with the book is just remind us of the importance of having some standards. I'm pretty sure Anton LaVey ripped off the idea of everyone being their own God from Rand.
As far as quality writing in "Atlas Shrugged", Ayn Rand does create some unwavering heros in about 4 characters (Dagny and the three guys she has relations with). They are memorable heros because they are tirless, and became successful by never claiming that which they had no right to and by never once having to compromise themselves. Ayn Rand also creates tension well by showing these Gods among men go head to head against (a few) genuinely scary communist zealots who are bound to turn the USA into the People's States of America. Ayn Rand brilliantly shows the two ideals of capitalism and communism sabotaging each other and clashing with great rhetoric, but by the end the ugly truth of communism is exposed and the world where everyone lives for everyone else collapses because there is no one left to mooch off of.
I read that Rand did not advocate violence as a first option for action. If "Atlas Shrugged" is any indicator, she didn't believe in violent revolution as a 2nd, 3rd or probably even 10th option. No one that needs to get shot does until the last 30 pages. This is the major problem I have the book. The 2nd Amendment was designed so that any sort of illegitimate government could not come to be in the United States. Ayn Rand wholly ignores the inherent solution provided in the constitution to her world's problems. She takes selfishness too far by having otherwise infallible characters get their own heaven on earth while everyone else is doomed to rot in a communist distopia. The common man is left with only futile violence acted out of frustration. Here or there a low level lackey gets murdered or a town hall gets burned down. The main antagonists never get so much as a death threat and they are never shown having to come face to face with Joe Public.
Yes, she created her own, I'll admit, interesting philosphy, but other problems also involve how Any Rand doesn't delve into hard political science or offer much in the way of solutions to the problems. Of course, maybe her solution - protect honesty and roll back the powers of the government - is that simple, but generally she sticks to the basics, and you don't need to read a 1000 page book with tiny print to know that the 16th Amendment is a joke. The book is also unpolished from my amatuer writer's standpoint. It seems like Rand could've benefitted from a good editor. There are dozens upon dozens of scenes of inflections by characters. Once in a while she gives us a good scence of inflection that engages, moves the plot and develops a character. Most of the time these inflection scenes are unnecesarily long, pointless because they beat one point into the ground repeatedly. These are passages of big words for the sake of big words; a problem stemming from the facts that English was not Ayn Rand's first language and that she was unwilling to murder her darlings.
Yes, there is a lot wrong with Atlas Shrugged, and I know I gave it 3 stars, but check it out anyway because there is a lot worth at least a read here.
Summary of Atlas Shrugged
At last, Ayn Rand's masterpiece is available to her millions of loyal readers in trade paperback.With this acclaimed work and its immortal query, "Who is John Galt?", Ayn Rand found the perfect artistic form to express her vision of existence. Atlas Shrugged made Rand not only one of the most popular novelists of the century, but one of its most influential thinkers.
Atlas Shrugged is the astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged stretches the boundaries further than any book you have ever read. It is a mystery, not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder--and rebirth--of man's spirit.
* Atlas Shrugged is the "second most influential book for Americans today" after the Bible, according to a joint survey conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club
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