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Summary: Potential for the greatest evils
Review: Everyone is affected by political culture. Every level of regulation, from anarchy to fascist dictatorships, is comparatively some amount of government. Ayn Rand shows the dismal struggles surrounding Kira Argounov in her communist environment. Through maginificent language, _We the Living_ forces empathy for starving masses; in a way that no news article can. As the book progresses, an awareness is awakened that every aspect of each person's life is painful, yet each person fights to keep on living. Ayn Rand presents a dieing city, and develops human characters who force themselves to live through it. Although, what these characters go through on a daily basis is not quite the same as living. Their USSR regulates the distribution of food, clothing, and shelter; a corrupt hierarchy with ambiguous goals and morals regulates every physical human necessity. The suffering is deadly, but the struggles for life are sifting through the propaganda and government denials, staking out some form of existence.
Ayn Rand analyzes a multitude of varied relationships, between deluges of personalities. Throughout the story, people grow and change as they try with all human strength to adapt to their new world. This novel is about character development in an environment created by Soviet mismanagement. It shows how people cope with the stresses of staying alive, when that in itself becomes the primary concern. Things taken for granted by the rest of the world are denied to a population of millions. A home, a job, and even one's own free time are all the concerns of an ever present government. Human nature is captured in the interactions of characters, and sometimes it can be a terrible thing. Power struggles created by the voids left by a revolution have to be settled, and some people will go to far to fill those voids. This is a fast read about politics and humanity that will leaves questions about all governments, and if this could ever happen again.
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Summary: An important reminder of what communism really is
Review: One thing always there but often not noticed in Ayn Rand's other works is an amazing sense of the environment. One really feels like one is living in the worlds Rand creates. This is particularly noticeable in this book, and it gives the reader a great awareness of what it is like to live under communism. Not only are the results of communism evident, but so are clear links to the cause (the absence of human rights). On top of all this, We the Living has great characters whom we get to observe as they change (or not, in Kira's case) under the brutal regime.
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Summary: A reader from Chicago, IL
Review: This book is a genuine portrayal of humanity and is beautifully written. I was worried at certain points that real humanity would be betrayed by the reaction of a character, but it never was.
I have an idea in my imagination of what it might mean to the human character to live in times like these and the novel followed this --but, even when the story took an unexpected turn, it still made sense that a character could react in the way he/she did to the situation at hand.
Although this review is quite vague, the basic idea is give this novel a whole-hearted chance - it is a fascinating backdrop of an historic, traditional Russia shattered by political idealism taken to the extreme and an amazingly realistic and addictive character study in reaction to it.
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Summary: Alice Rosenbaum's best work
Review: Unquestionably this is the best piece of work by Alice Rosenbaum - before she mutated into Ayn Rand.She presents a story with interesting events and page-turning descriptions. Most importantly, Alice gives the _reader_ the responsibility of judging actions, sympathies and morality. Examples: - Leo seems to have taken a cowardly escape but given the circumstance are his actions justifiable? Is he entitled to go a little insane?
- Kira seems to be more motivated by her love/lust than her mind. Should she be condemned because she did not have the strength to fight her own biology?
- There are numerous examples of people helping one another - sometimes strangers. Is Alice saying that socially, we're inherently "communistic" but as a political system, there are too many opportunities for misuse and corruption?
- Kira's mother converts to the new communist society. Is this a smart decision? Did she do this out of self preservation? In fact, was Kira's father a fool that endangered his own family? Leaving out all these socio-moral issues makes the book an intellectual exercise even after completion. I am fully aware of Ayn Rand's interpretation of events and had this been written later, those "perfect" views would have dominated the story. Had she done that, this novel would have been choked with contradictions and questionable arguments. However, in its present state, the character contradictions and vices only add to the believability and humanity of the story. Sadly, there is a certain tragedy in the novel. The harsh realities of Soviet communism induced Ms. Rand to forsake not only her culture but every emotion and feeling that had the potential of leaving her vulnerable.
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