We the Living
by Ayn Rand

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Book Reviews of We the Living

Book Review: Kira Argounova - A Heroine For the Ages!
Summary: 5 Stars

There is much truth in other reviewers comments here that this book seems to be written so differently than Rand's later novels. I will not disagree with anyone on that. Along with ANTHEM and a play titled THE NIGHT OF JANUARY 16th, Rand used WTL as a laboratory to express her anti-totalitarian ideas in English and in novel form. It should be remembered that Rand came here as a penniless Russian immigrant. She initially lived with relatives in Chicago and then made her way to Los Angeles where she earned her way (and began to write).

Rand herself said that this book was the closest she would ever come to writing an autobiography. Obviously, Kira is an idealized fictional symbol of all that Rand held to be virtuous and worth aspiring to. She conflicts good and evil and in the process, we see that even though Kira idolizes freedom (both political and economic), she cannot accept contradictions in the man she has chosen to love.

This novel portrays the impact of the Bolshevik Revolution on the lives of three people. Three people who meant very little to the totalitarian Soviet state and the Communist Party but as individual Russians, living through that dark midnight that almost extinguished hope in the hearts of the Russian people, Kira, Leo and Andrei are as alive as any of the classic characters found elsewhere in important literature.

Kira comes to the story as part of an affluent Russian family that loses everything after the Bolsheviks seize power during "kraznaya Oktobriana." After the Bolsheviks expropriate all of their property for the "good of the proletariat," their lives change dramatically. Kira, who wanted to be a builder loses her chance for continued education and position because she will not conform to the new "Soviet ideal."

Eventually, she meets Leo Kovalensky, a Russian aristocrat who stands unbowed before the altar of Soviet justice. He refuses to recognize the hegemony of the new system over any aspect of his life. Kira, admiring this fierce individuality, falls for Leo and comes to stand by his side. She knows that she has met her "Viking god."

Andrei Taganov is the ultimate instrument of the Soviet state. He wears a leather jacket and carries all the authority of the new dictatorship. In ages past, he would have worn the helmet of a Roman Centurion or the armor of a crusading knight. But always, he would have been the symbol of some governmental oppression. He is a born secret policeman in a system that required men all too willing to torture and imprison their fellow men.

As Rand writes about the early Soviet system, it is obvious that this novel could have been set in any system that denied individual freedom. Rand chose to write about Soviet Russia because it was what she knew. Similar stories could have come out of Fascist Italy or Nazi Germany. Rand chose Russia.

This is a story of what happens to people when all freedom is lost. It is a marvelous tale of people who struggle valiantly against insurmountable odds to maintain their individuality, dignity and freedom. It is a moral allegory of just what happens to the human spirit when the individual is subjugated to the mind-numbing and degrading indignities imposed from above by second-handers who created nothing but only denied everything.

This is one of the finest novels of its type that you will ever read. It is worth reading, especially if the reader has already read THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED if for no other reason than to discover Rand's starting point. If you have not read any of Rand's other works then, this is a great place to start. WTL is where she began to formulate her ideas on the ultimate value of the individual and the worth of the reasoning human intellect.

To be sure, this is an indictment on the danger to mankind everywhere on the depredations of any collective system. This is an unapologetic damnation of Communism as it was then and what it eventually became. Rand has no mercy and shows no compassion or willingness to understand why men and women would give up themselves to be part of a system that denies basic rights and degrades the individual.

Read this book and you will come to understand why Communism was ultimately destined to fail. It failed because it collapsed under the weight of its own inherent internal contradictions. We are all the more fortunate that Rand saw all of this so clearly early on. We are even more fortunate that her predictions for the ultimate demise of Communist tyranny came true and that individual ploitical and economic freedom have taken root throughout countries that once denied even the slightest scintilla of personal liberty.

Read WE THE LIVING and discover one of the most original minds in the 20th Century.

Summary of We the Living

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