I had read this book a few months back. Please point out the differences that may creep in, however the characters of the book are still fresh in my mind and I’ll try not to mess up… This is Ayn’s second book after ’We the living’, however I feel that the style dominates all of the others. Perhaps, being an engineer I was able to relate…
As in all her books she has tried to prove her point on the philosophy of objectivism and the threat of fascism. It has a lesson disguised as a tool for entertainment- a novel. Underneath it all, it is a tale of a hero. It is a story to discover the perfect man.
In the book, Ayn examines four type of men (in fact the 4chapters of the book are named after them): Peter Keating, Ellsworth Toohey, Wynand and Howard Roark, each wanting to succeed. The beauty of the book is that from the start, the readers know which one is the hero; the perfect man, but it takes the whole book to understand why. When all other three men have fallen, he is the only one left standing. Embroiled in this whole study of man as he should be, is a woman; a sole woman: Dominique. No, don’t misunderstand me, this is not ‘the best man gets the girl’ type of story. It tells the story of a intransigent young architect, his violent battle against conventional standards, and his explosive love affair with a beautiful woman who struggles to defeat him. Roark and Keating are rival architects, while Toohey and Wynand compete in the newspaper business. Dominique is the daughter of a prominent architect, is an associate of Toohey’s and works for Wynand’s newspaper.
Throughout the book, these characters work to topple each other. When the book is done, the reader will have found a new meaning for the words “ego” and “egotist”, and he will have learned what is meant to be “selfless”, and that he should try to avoid it. It may even succeed in causing you to reevaluate everything in your life, and to reevaluate society. I’m not making the book clear enough for you; that’s because I want you to read it. It would take more than a review to describe it, so I’ll just leave that to the author.
The novel itself is amazing. The language Ayn has used is precise and vivid as always. You can feel the scenes taking place in front of your eyes. Sometimes you can even know, what the other character is thinking. The story may have been set in the 30’s, when ’modernism’ was just breaking out, but in essence, the tale is timeless. The nice thing, I liked about this novel is that whereas in other books the reader knows something that the characters do not (dramatic irony), in Ayn’s novel, there are instances where the characters know some things that the reader doesn’t. So it keeps you guessing, and it keeps you reading! Simply, a wonderful book….