We the Living by Ayn Rand
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Book Reviews of We the Living
Book Review: Heartwrenching look at not just effect of collectivism, but the massacre of idealism
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an amazing and completely heart wrenching first novel of Ayn Rand and to me, her best, as it not only captured the destructive effects of collectivism but also the emergence of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Set in post-Russian Revolution, We the Living portrayed the chaotic uncertainty and political changes that robbed many Russians of their rights as individuals.
As Ayn Rand experienced life under communist tyranny firsthand, she breathed life into the three main characters and slowly unraveled a moving story as their lives became intertwined. Kira was an independent spirit as she refused to succumb to the brutal regime and its suffocation of her individuality. She represented the epitome of all young innocent idealists. Leo, her one true love, another character we all have ran into our life, handsome, dashing, and yet completely unreconciled. He took Kira's unconditional love for granted as she helplessly trying to save his spiraling descent into bitterness and anger. He was targeted as an enemy of the state due to his post-status of Bourgeoisie as the new regime completely pummeled his rational consciousness. Finally, Andrei, an officer of the Soviet Secret police whose idealism was also completely shattered when he questioned the underlying fallacy of Communism. The love triangle of Kira, Andrei and Leo was completely entrenched with a sadness that paralleled the realities of an affair, in this case, not just of the heart but of the battle of "the individual against the state" also. However, I do find Kira hiding behind her convictions, and somehow justified her abuse and maltreatment to Andrei disturbing. I suppose if you totally believe in objectivism, for her it is justified. My heart definitely goes out to Andrei, the only decent characters who was true to his heart until the end, even if his beliefs change over the time period, he still stayed true to his moral ethics.
This novel was not well received at first due to its controversial nature and had a hard time getting published in the 30's. It wasn't until after the success of "Atlas Shrugged" that Ayn Rand managed to get this book more widely accepted. We the Living successfully denounced not just Communism, but of every entity that claims the right to sacrifice the supreme value of an individual human right or life. There is no book out there that fully captures how bad it was when communism massacred the spirits of the people. She managed to portrayed "the absolute concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." (Objectivism) in a novel form. Indeed, this book will resonate and haunt for the rest of the reader's life
Book Review: An Ode to Human Spirit
Summary: 5 Stars
Ayn Rand is a controversial author, whose Objectivist philosophy has ardent followers and a significant number of haters. This book is not a push for Objectivism. It does not denounce religion. It does not glorify an industrialist or a banker. It simply shows that all that most of us want is to just live our lives, enjoy them, and not have the will of majorities, minorities, ideologies, religions, dogmas, individuals, established truths, scientific agreements or any other BS forced upon us.
"I don't want to fight for the people, I don't want to fight against the people, I don't want to hear of the people. I want to be left alone--to live." says Kira Argounova, the heroine of the book. Kira's character is based loosely on Ayn Rand herself. Ayn (Alisa Rosenbaum) came of age in Soviet Union during Bolshevik revolution. While the world proclaimed the greatness of Soviets and how all the people are free and equal, Ayn was forced to experience the freedom and equality of communism, and escaped to US as soon as possible. Millions were not so lucky. This book is a tribute to those millions, to people who braved cold Russian winters and armed guards to escape in snow storms, across mountain paths, through rivers out of the Worker's Paradise.
Read this book if you want to know what life is under communism. Read it to learn about Russia of 1920's. Read it to see what human spirit is capable of.
Some will draw parallels between today's political climate in US and Soviet Russia. We should not look for them even if they are easy to spot: whether it's public worker's unions in Wisconsin or crony capitalism of "stimulus\bail-out". Much more relevant is to listen to ideologues of 1917 and of today.
They sound the same. The method of communication may have changed (tweeter and facebook rather than speeches from atop of a tank), but the message is the same as it has been for ages: "Equality". Yet it is today same as it was always - Equality comes at a price.
Andrei Taganov starts out as a villain in "We The Living". He ends his life as a villain who saw the error of his way, committing suicide to help the woman he loves and unable to deal with the hell he helped create.
Andrei wanted to bring everyone up to his level, make everyone equal. He killed for that idea. And he found that you can't bring people up. You can only achieve equality down in the mud, by removing the best and brightest among us.
We the Living is very different from Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead. It's a book that can hold it's own. I've read it many times and I still feel with the characters, experience their emotions. Read it so that ideologues shouting for Equality can never again create the hell that was worker's paradise.
Book Review: "You cannot enslave man's mind. You can only destroy it."
Summary: 5 Stars
"What's a citizen? Only a brick and of no use unless cemented to other bricks just like it"? As one character lectures another herein: "why do you think you are entitled to your own thoughts...against those of the majority of the Collective?" After all, as a Bolshevik explains, "...no external enemy...is as dangerous to us as the internal enemy of dissension within our own ranks. Hence we read this on the book's jacket: "We the Living demonstrates the supreme value of a human life and the evil of those who claim the right to sacrifice it." There's your life. You begin it feeling that it's something so precious & rare, so beautiful that it's like a sacred treasure." But "one man means nothing in the face of the mighty Proletarian Collective," the Bolsheviks counter. In such an environment, Kira, the heroine of this 1936 novel (Ayn Rand's first) subsequently concludes: "Nothing matters. We mustn't think. We mustn't think at all." To a Bolshevik she charges, "you came and forbade life [as in freedom of choice] to the living." "You took their every hour, every minute, every nerve, every thought in the farthest corners of their souls---and you told them what it had to be;" "telling men "what they must live for." This after we see how a number of characters lose their jobs, or get thrown out of university "for trying to think" for themselves. This is life in the Soviet Union as personally experienced by Ayn Rand (a nom de plume the Russian author invented to protect family members still living in Leningrad at the time). She saw firsthand how Bolshevism went about putting down new rules, fashioning a state that took "your honor, your life and your freedom." And while this isn't Ms. Rand's life story, it is, as the author states in the introduction, a sort of autobiography, in the intellectual sense; having instilled Kira with the author's "ideas, her convictions, her values." And while the "plot is invented," the author admits, "the background is not." And the "Sovietness" of said background is not the paramount issue herein either, but the notion that, notwithstanding any utopian rhetoric, "you cannot enslave man's mind. "You can only destroy it." In a collectivist society, "what are your masses but millions of dull, shrivelled, stagnant souls that have no thoughts of their own, no dreams of their own, no will of their own." Ms. Rand's work is, in short, a powerfully written expose of collectivist mentalities; a warning that "you cannot castigate life "in order to perpetuate it." PS: There's an Italian-made film, very faithfull to this book---the only film ever made based on this novel---which is well worth viewing. It's available from Amazon (or perhaps through your local library). (06May) Cheers!Book Review: The First and most lyrical work by a Wonderful Writer!
Summary: 5 Stars
Ms. Rand states in the foreward of her debut novel, We the Living, that it's the closest thing to an autobiography she's ever written, and it also marked her beginning as a novelist in the Romantic Realist school using a new language(English), since she left the Soviet Union. Anyone who claims that Rand is not really a novelist should read this book. The character development is without a doubt the most professional and urbane of any of her works, and the imagery she uses to immerse the reader into the dark, cruel, and depressing soul of Petrograd in the early to mid 1920's is downright impressive. It's obvious that she used a tremendous of time and effort to translate her thoughts onto the page while still trying to master the English language. Perhaps this is why the book is so well crafted and never varies in its painstaking realism from start to finish. There are no long speeches or oratories in this wonderful work, it is a rather plodding, brooding, and sensual piece of continual development from start to finish. Only a self-made author as Ms. Rand calls herself, and I might add one who is very gifted and able, could have written such a great piece of historical literature, which is still a very relavant and vibrant read to this day. Yes, it provokes thought as any work of her's does, however, she does not hammer the reader over the head with her beliefs, but rather lets it meld into the storyline. I would love to hear somebody say that Ms. Rand cannot write well and isn't a real novelist after reading this marvelous and steady piece of prose, for I would say that it's far better than anything done by Pasternak or many of the other modern Russian novelists of "acclaim," and of course it's of much more value. Only a fool would doubt that Rand's work does not reveal a person of pure genius and unadulterated greatness. After reading We the Living, only a very stupid fool, can honestly say that she's not a skilled novelist or very talented writer. Another triumph for this unique and precious literary visionary. We probably won't see one like her ever again, but I'm hoping that we don't quit trying to surpass her acheivements. I know she wouldn't want us to! Live and think brothers and sisters. Ignorance is not bliss, it's only a shallow disguise for those who are afraid to really try. This is a work of art by a person who was in progress. Even her most ardent critics would have to agree that this work has substantial merit as a living historical document alone. The Soviet Union, and other totalitarian states, never had or will have a chance to live (sic) for very long.Book Review: The First and most lyrical work by a Wonderful Writer!
Summary: 5 Stars
Ms. Rand states in the foreward of her debut novel, We the Living, that it's the closest thing to an autobiography she's ever written, and it also marked her beginning as a novelist in the Romantic Realist school using a new language(English), since she left the Soviet Union. Anyone who claims that Rand is not really a novelist should read this book. The character development is without a doubt the most professional and urbane of any of her works, and the imagery she uses to immerse the reader into the dark, cruel, and depressing soul of Petrograd in the early to mid 1920's is downright impressive. It's obvious that she used a tremendous of time and effort to translate her thoughts onto the page while still trying to master the English language. Perhaps this is why the book is so well crafted and never varies in its painstaking realism from start to finish. There are no long speeches or oratories in this wonderful work, it is a rather plodding, brooding, and sensual piece of continual development from start to finish. Only a self-made author as Ms. Rand calls herself, and I might one who is very gifted and able, could have written such a great piece of historical literature, which is still a very relavant and vibrant read to this day. Yes, it provokes thought as any work of her's does, however, she does not hammer the reader over the head with her beliefs, but rather lets it meld into the storyline. I would love to hear somebody say that Ms. Rand cannot write well and isn't a real novelist after reading this marvelous and steady piece of prose, for I would say that it's far better than anything done by Pasternak or many of the other modern Russian novelists of "acclaim," and of course it's of much more value. Only a fool would doubt that Rand's work does not reveal a person of pure genius and unadulterated greatness. After reading We the Living, only a very stupid fool, can honestly say that she's not a skilled novelist or very talented writer. Another triumph for this unique and precious literary visionary. We probably won't see one like her ever again, but I'm hoping that we don't quit trying to surpass her acheivements. I know she wouldn't want us to! Live and think brothers and sisters. Ignorance is not bliss, it's only a shallow disguise for those who are afraid to really try. This is a work of art by a person who was in progress. Even her most ardent critics would have to agree that this work has substantial merit as a living historical document alone. The Soviet Union, and other totalitarian states, never had or will have a chance to live (sic) for very long.