The plot of the story is battle between the pure intellectuals and pure socialists. It describes at length about dispute between two extremes: socialism and objectivism. I found this hard to believe because if individuality is one aspect, then social responsibility is another. These two concepts do overlap at a certain point. Otherwise, without objective, you cannot earn a livelihood and still contribute to society.
Another problem I had reading this book is its enormous length; I felt it was overdone. Rand has used her power of vocabulary to describe same things again and again with different lines, different passages with different sub-plots which makes the chapters redundant. Hence it took me more than an year to finish reading it. From the beginning, all the chapters inch towards the climax: "This is John Galt Speaking"; this chapter could have been a hundred page novel all by itself. It doesn't strike the right chord just by repeatedly intensifying to same issue and drag it to this point. I was tired and almost ready to give up. The work could have been more engaging by being more concise. Yes; the major problem of this novel is its length. With all this criticism, I acknowledge that there are some notable quotes, eye catching lines and passages that really nudges your soul.
It would have been worth your time if the book was cut short to explain its principles, not otherwise. If you really want to enjoy reading Ayn Rand's work on objectivism, try The Fountainhead.
I feel the problem with length and redundant theme belongs to the books Editor.
ReplyDeleteI wish the "notable quotes, eye catching lines and soul nudging passages could have been shared in this review. I don't want to spend a "year" looking for them.
I have this book in my library here at home. I bought it several yeas ago and only picked it up once, but put it back down because I could tell it would take a long time to read it and at the time, I had so much going on in my life I didn't want to start a long drawn out book. I may give it another try soon. Thanks for the review.
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