AYN RAND
My Rating: Had to Stop Reading
So much criticism has been leveled at this book, it’s hardly necessary for me to point out that it sucks. However, since I read it before knowing much about it I figured it would be worthwhile to record my reaction to it as a novel.
Had Rand simply stopped after seventy five pages we’d have a novela long enough to evoke the atmosphere and sensibility she meant to convey, yet short enough not to derail any ssympathy or interest readers might have begun to develop for Rand’s point of view by boring them to death.
The writing itself isn’t bad at all when compared to the average pulp novel; it’s quite effective at first. As Rand begins to interleave plot development – very slowly – with side trips to lay the groundwork to argue for her philosophy, the book becomes unreadable. While not directly engaging in too much exposition, the author employs cartoonishly unlikely villans and lengthy speechs by the heros of the story to make her case for Objectivism. The speechs are painful and the characterizations of the antagonists an insult to the intelligence of anyone over twelve years old. The argument would have been much more convincing never having been made so directly, and the book would have been at least moderately readable.
After reading a third of the book I stopped.