We the Living
by Ayn Rand
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ayn RandIntroduction: Leonard Peikoff
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1996-01-01
ISBN: 0451187849
Number of pages: 464
Publisher: Signet
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780451187840
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Book Reviews of We the Living
Book Review: Beautiful and Underrated
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all, I would like to direct some harsh critiscism toward Leonard Peikoff and Signet Classics. While I enjoyed Mr. Peikoff's introduction, history, and insight to the novel, it was put into the front of the book! Why, may you ask is the problem Louis, don't introductions go in the front? Yes, but his introduction completely disclosed all of the major plot points, and the ending of the book! While I enjoyed the book, my experience was completely hindered by the fact that I kept waiting for some important events to happen when I thought that they would. That being said, I will say that this is probably the best novel of the Soviet Union that I have ever read. Most novels dealing with characters in the USSR examine a poor peasant, or a conflicted Party member. While We The Living does involve such characters, it focuses mainly on the Upper-class, the bourgeoise who the Revolution and Communism were most hostile to. Animal Farm: A Fairy Story and The Most Dangerous Game both involve such characters, but they are depicted as evil, lazy, and wicked. Ms. Rand, drawing from personal experiences, depicts the former bourgeoise as unfairly targeted, abused, and misconcieved. The novel describes the acrid conditions in which they are forced to live in, and the prejeduce that the government and society displays toward them. The main character, Kira is the daughter of a former factory owner, who, along with land owners, were the most hated members of society. She dreams of leaving the USSR (at the beginning still the RSFSR) to become an architect who builds unusually designed structures (familiar?), and becomes romantically involved with the indivdualist, but abusive drunk Leo, and the Communist, but free thinking and caring Andrei. I was astonished by the realisticness of the dialouge, and all the tension and drama that Ms. Rand managed to inject into the novel. Of course, Ms. Rand spends much time in the novel dissecting and critizizing communism and the USSR. A particularily memorable scene is that of Kira viewing an American movie. At first, she is confused by the terrible editing and story, but eventually she realizes that the government has taken most of the film, edited it, and filmed entirely new parts of it so as to make it into a tale of proletarian hardship. Along with the three main characters, there is the lovers Sasha and Irina, the treacherous Victor Dunaev, and her corrupt Syerov, the stuanch and Communist Sonia. All the the plotlines, characters, and dialouge is played out in extremelly realistic, human, and ultimately tragic fashion. Ms. Rand's We The Living is a vastly underrated book, and probably the best novel of life in the USSR.
Summary of We the Living
An exploration of the eternal human struggle between the human individual and the state offers the first installment of Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and features an introduction by the author's heir, Leonard Peikoff. Reissue.General Books
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