We the Living
by Ayn Rand
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ayn RandEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-05-05
ISBN: 0451226852
Number of pages: 464
Publisher: NAL Trade
Book Reviews of We the Living
Book Review: The Dark Side of Social Justice
Summary: 5 Stars
The background of We the Living is the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution and the ensuing White-Red civil war. Set in the years 1922 to 1925, it describes the hardships of living in Petrograd under the Communists. The story is told through the lives of Kira Argounova, who is 17 at the beginning, and her two lovers, Leo Kovalensky, the son of an Admiral in the Czar's navy, and Andrei Taganov, a Party member who is an officer in the G.P.U. (forerunner to the KGB). Kira's father owned a textile factory before the revolution; Leo's family was considered aristocracy. This puts them on the wrong side of the revolution: they are not part of the workers' proletariat; they belong to the hated bourgeoisie class who "exploited the masses" before the revolution.
Rand's cold, stark descriptions of life in Petrograd illustrate the desperate hopelessness of life in the Communist system. Not being proletarians caused even greater hardships for the bourgeoisie. They were locked out of trade unions, and party membership was very difficult to attain without a significant transcendence into revolutionary thinking. They were the last hired and the first fired in the many purges that took place. Kira falls in love with Leo and they live together in Leo's father's house. They originally have three large rooms but eventually have to give two of them to other comrades because of the housing shortage. Their diet consists of millet and stale bread, and there is barely enough of that to stay alive. Being former exploiters of workers, they are assessed 50 times as much as proletarians for repairs on the building that Leo's father owned. Leo's father, by the way, was executed for "counter-revolutionary activity."
Kira maintains a dominant spirit of independence throughout the story. She pays lip service to the Party dogma to keep a job and to get a ration card, but she never buys into it. Leo does not even go that far: being openly hostile to the revolution eventually causes him to lose his job and they have to live on Kira's meager salary and rations. Kira begins a dangerous double life: she becomes a lover to Leo and Andrei at the same time. Leo enters into an even more dangerous profiteering business with a bureaucrat and a Party member. Through his affair with Kira and listening to her desire to live an independent life, Andrei begins to question his own commitment to the ideals of Communism. These are the elements that drive the story to its poignant and tragic conclusion.
Once I reached the halfway point of this book the rising action became so intense that I couldn't put it down. I developed strong feelings either for or against the major characters. Rand is not the least bit preachy in this book; the story is told through the characters, and it is a great illustration of life under a repressive regime. The characters are fictional but the background is true: Any Rand lived through it. Americans should read this book to see the dark side of so-called "social justice" once it is put into place by the ruling class. It could happen here.
Summary of We the Living
The first literary work of one of the most influential philosophers and novelists of the twentieth century-available for the first time in trade paperback.
Ayn Rand wrote of her first novel, We the Living, "It is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write. The plot is invented, the background is not...The specific events of Kira's life were not mine: her ideas, her convictions, her values, were and are." We the Living depicts the struggle of the individual against the state, and the impact of the Russian Revolution on three human beings who demand the right to live their own lives and pursue their own happiness. It tells of a young woman's passionate love, held like a fortress against the corrupting evil of a totalitarian state.
This classic novel is not a story of politics, but of the men and women who have to struggle for existence behind the banners and slogans.
Ayn Rand wrote of her first novel, We the Living, "It is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write. The plot is invented, the background is not...The specific events of Kira's life were not mine: her ideas, her convictions, her values, were and are." We the Living depicts the struggle of the individual against the state, and the impact of the Russian Revolution on three human beings who demand the right to live their own lives and pursue their own happiness. It tells of a young woman's passionate love, held like a fortress against the corrupting evil of a totalitarian state.
This classic novel is not a story of politics, but of the men and women who have to struggle for existence behind the banners and slogans.
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