Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Edition) by Ayn Rand
|
List Price: Our Price: $24.05 You Save: $15.90 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $19.94 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Edition)
Book Review: After One Chapter, You're Hooked!
Summary: 5 Stars
After hearing repeatedly for years and years about author Ayn Rand's work, centered mostly around Atlas Shrugged, I didn't quite believe the hype. For one thing, in such celebrated books, it usually takes two or three readings to gain an understanding of it's purpose let alone what the characters are talking about in a given scene (such as it is in Lord of the Rings).
To my dismay towards myself, I was utterly wrong.
Rand weaves an unbelievalbe tapestry of logic and common sense in a fictional story that actually describes her philosophy of Objectivism. In the very first chapter you learn so much about the dangers of socialism, communism, and the 'benefit of all at the expense of the one'. Much of society's ills today, related to socialism programs in the United States and abroad, are metaphorically represented in this book written so many years and years ago, to which Rand was obviously foretelling our unstable future. In just one chapter, written so long ago, our society today is summed up and it's not good, not good at all.
Ayn Rand is a superb writer, matching complexity with describing simplicity. You then realize the story, as life itself, is not so complex at all, that its up to individuals and groups that make it that way. Never before have I ever related so closely to an author. I promise you, after one chapter, you will be hooked just as I have, but unlike scientology you won't join a cult.
Book Review: How to Live as a Full Human Being?
Summary: 5 Stars
This book runs for 1080 pages, and like the greatest novels, it is the world you "enter" rather the a book you read. It is usually painted as naive, extreme and simplistic, but, the best word to describe it is that it is "uncompromising". Rand was a genuine radical who creates an ideal of humanity that is uncomfortable for most. The book may not be the most brilliant prose and there is a fair amount of repetition-but, there is a "spirit" behind the words that makes you certain your are reading something "important". Rand was a philosopher who used fiction to try to influence the masses. This book manages to get you thinking for the first time about the capitalist system and the ethical individual freedom that underpins it. The work is a treatise on the heights that human being can and should reach for. "Wealth creators be proud" is the book's cry. Fight for your freedom to innovate and produce, and never accept the guilt of the non-productive. Economic life in the 21st century is not simply a triumph of technology, but a culture of invention generated by individual imagination. The motto of the book is the dollar sign. It is a sacred symbol represented the triumph of the creative mind over the state, religion and tradition. Rand is a patron sign of the 21st century entrepreneur because her morality supports practical dreamers and visionaries. One of her disciples is Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.Book Review: The Perils of Socialism...
Summary: 5 Stars
Despite its popularity, Atlas Shrugged is more a vehicle than a novel and as such it can try a reader's patience. It can captivate, it can challenge, but one recognizes it for what it is: a literary Trojan Horse. Rand wheels in her plots only to employ them as devices to tout her well-honed objectivism, (all well and good, I might add, until the moment the ruse crosses over to redundancy).
I sympathize with Rand's views to the extent that they address the temporal, but the evils of socialism are quickly understood. By page 300 I was urging her to get on with it. Further on, however, she turns the corner and Atlas Shrugged finally begins to engage the responsive reader. There is evidence today of what Rand warns against and her didacticism is roundly welcomed.
One must ultimately decide what they value in this book - as a novel, I believe it achieves the sobriquet "ponderous". As a treatise it affected me deeply. While the core tenets of Atlas Shrugged are not unfamiliar, Rand's magnum opus provides intellectual focus. It is a reference point from which one launches assessment of the world at large.
Atlas Shrugged survives any criticism as literature because it is a clarion call for individual liberty. One may deny the relative value of its message, but one cannot doubt its influence. It's a novel one wants to rate lower, but one that inexorably demands 5 stars.
Book Review: Amazing Book...
Summary: 5 Stars
Rand considered Atlas Shrugged to be her magnum opus. Atlas Shrugged is about a railroad heiress, Dagny Taggart, as she watches society collapse around her as the government increasingly asserts control over industry. All while society's most productive citizens, led by the mysterious John Galt, continue to disappear. Galt strives to stop the motor of the world by withdrawing the minds that drive social growth and productivity. With their minds on strike Galt's group hopes to demonstrate that the economy will collapse without the profit motive and efforts of the rational and productive.
Atlas Shrugged is one of the best books I've read. The book has an amazing story and plot line. I got into the characters as they developed. Ayn Rand's writing and philosophical background culminate into a truly amazing book. Rand's views on individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism shine through as she portrays society collapsing around the growing government control in Atlas Shrugged. I portion of my enjoyment of the book centers around Rand's and my shared views on government and business controls. Overall Atlas Shrugged is great book; Rand's focus is on story development with a heavy undertone of her options on limited government control. Even if you don't care about politics or business you will still enjoy Atlas Shrugged. I'm looking forward to reading Ayn Rand's other books like The Fountainhead.
Book Review: A novel that couldn't be more spot on, she is prophetic.
Summary: 5 Stars
There are many great reviews so I will keep it short. Ayn writes extremely well, very artistic, great choices in phrasing, the words she uses are timely and impact the reader more now than probably any other time from its release in 1957. I was so wrapped up in the story at times I forgot I was here and not there. She desired a world in which her characters actually existed, but I'm afraid there aren't many men or women who I have come across that exhibit those character traits today.
The story basically shows the detriment that is placed upon a country, namely the USA when the government gets involved with its economic planning. The Producers of wealth don't take well to the government tyranny in this novel, it's not pretty to say the least and of course we (people of the USA) are deeply in the middle of this right now so it is a good time to read it if you haven't. Don't be scared by the 1168 pages it is page turning artistry.
When I was finished I felt like my friends had all left me and now I wanted to start it over again to stay in touch through a repetitive journey of creative genius. I will definitely read this again, to keep alive the dream of how great this country would be if we followed most of the ideas in this book. Start it today, you won't be sorry. Unless your a communist!