Ayn Rand

I'm reading Atlas Shrugged right now.




It keeps me from smiling at night.

 

Atlas Shrugged is an interesting literary case, not least because of its blending of American and Russian style. While Rand claimed to hate Russia, she certainly held on to parts of its literary tradition, to the point that the book seems preposterous to a lot of western readers due to its length and overt philosophical themes. This is, of course, the way writing was done in Russia for a long time (see Dostoevsky especially).

John Galt's seventy-odd page radio speech toward the end is seen as simply unforgivable by a lot of readers, and a lot of people just skip over it. Its main flaw is that it provides no new exposition, simply rehashing what's been discussed throughout the entire book. I assume she inserted it mostly because she wanted to have a concise manifesto of her philosophy included in the book. I myself did plough through it -- I felt like skipping it would be a cop-out. But it does drag when you already 'get it,' so to speak.

That said, I don't think the novel's totally worthless. Rand's greatest talent was in her plotlines. She had an amazing ability to weave dozens of plots together into a homogeneous whole. Nothing seems juxtaposed -- they all build on, rely on, and influence each other. Her stories really are all of a piece, and with such complex stories, that's certainly no easy task.