Rating: 
Summary: This is the book I live by.
Review: I read my first Ayn Rand book when I was 15 it was Anthem and it was for my english class. It stayed with me for 6 years until I read We The Living. This is the best book, and I live by it. If you like to think, if you aren't very religious and you are an individual then this book is for you. It is more than a love story, it is intellectual and thought provoking. Now 7 years from reading Anthem and 1 from reading We The Living, I am now reading Atlas Shrugged and I love it. So to all those out there who condemn Ayn Rand for her beliefs (and mine) all I have to say is you don't understand, you are the people she says are evil in her books and you prove it when you bad mouth her.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad Girl
Review: The two stars I give this book are for the extraordinary writing of Ayn Rand. I give her zero for creating such a predatory, egomaniacal heroine as Kira Argounova. Although she cloaks herself in lofty philosophical armor, she's no different than the scrungy females you see on Jerry Springer or Ricki Lake--all they want is "their man." Kira destroys the only noble character in the book: her admirer/lover Andrei. She uses him ruthlessly to help save her sleazy, hoodlum boyfriend, Leo when he needs expensive treatment at a TB sanatorium. What she really wants is Leo's majestic body. Although he's as hard and indifferent as a robot, this is the man Kira gives us everything for. What's really disturbing is that Rand harps continuously about how one should never hold up anything higher than one's ego. Yet, she becomes the common street woman who wants to get this particular man in bed. So much for Kira's noble aspirations. Andrei was the only decent person in this book--besides Irina, Kira's cousin, and Irina's lover, Sasha, both who ended up in a concentration camp to die. When Kira is killed at the end, there was no sorrow from this reader. For someone who betrayed ,leeched and destroyed Andrei, the most admirable of any of her characters, her death was deserved.
Rating:
Summary: ?
Review: Ayn Rand created a beautiful expression here. Personally, I've never known her better, than at 2:00 AM last evening when I finshed this work. I've been a big fan of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, admittedly full of obvious characters and grueling tirades. Subtlety is not always the benchmark by which I judge a book. So for that difference, I've loved these books, where many experienced readers have felt a nauseating boredom. "We the living" is just a fantastic expression of a talented and driven young woman (Ayn Rand). I think the average reader will really enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: Very Moving - the best and most realistic of the Rand books
Review: I read "We the Living" a couple of months after reading "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" in that order. I was more than pleasantly surprised that the author started her writing career with the best book of them all. The objectivists hype "Atlas Shrugged" like its a bible which must be read to understand their philosophy. They should concentrate on promoting this book instead.Some reviewers from the "Left Coast" have assailed the book for its attack on Communism and total lack of objectivity. This is totally missing the point. It is not Communism that is on trial - it is any political philosophy forced upon the masses in an attempt to subvert individual will to the will and greed of those who have but only "The deepest concern for his fellow brothers" that is under attack here. When I grew up in the 60's and 70's many on the left stated that the USSR would make Marx twirl in his grave. The point is clearly made in the book that what starts off as good ideas and good intentions are eventually corrupted by those who know how to take advantage of the system and that everyone - sincere followers, those who dare to take a stand and those who just simply try to get on with their lives, are the eventual victims. The ending of the novel left me emotionally drained, and very moved. If you are to read only one Ayn Rand novel, this should be it!
Rating:
Summary: The most readable of Rand's books
Review: For those of you who excroriate Rand for one-sided hatred of Communism, let me just point out that she was born under it, and she ought to know. The first hundred pages of this book are the best thing Rand ever wrote --complicated characters, and a vivid, chilling depiction of life under the Bolsheviks. Of course, then Rand the proselytizer elbows her way in, and it's downhill from there. One can forgive Rand for hating Communism, but to go a mile in the opposite direction and espouse such a brutal solipsism is perhaps a sign of some psychological problems on her part. What would the world be like if everyone were to declare himself a monomaniacal Dr. Doom surrounded by foolish mortals? Brilliant she may have been, but, unfortunately, also totally nuts.
Rating:
Summary: Rand's Greatest!
Review: We the Living is Ayn Rand at her greatest. Her phenomenal writing talent moves the story along at a fascinating pace. The characters are totally believable. They don't become the non-human symbols of people which populate her other two masterpieces (although they're all fascinating, you can't relate to them on a human level). She manages to interweave her philosophy in bits and pieces, rather than the page-after-page rants in Atlas Shrugged. Kira, though, is a frustrating heroine to admire. While she treats Andrei like crap, she pours her life into Leo, a fascinating but brutal hero. Also, if a basic tenent of her philosophy is self-reliance, of holding no one higher than one self, one wonders why Kira becomes dependent on Leo, and sacrifices so much for him. In re-reading this masterpiece again and again, I kept thinking of how Rand was using Greta Garbo as her heroine. Also, the Italian movie made of "We the Living" is an absolute must-see for any admirer of this book. It runs over 3 hours and is amazingly faithful to the book. To think that this film was made in Italy and not in Russia is a shock. And to think it was made right at the height of World War II, with bombs exploding all over the place, makes it even more extraordinary.
Rating: 
Summary: Emotionally and philisophically exhausting.
Review: I read this book for the first time when I was 12. I loved it then and didn't fully comprehend it. I love it now more. People seem to misunderstand the purpose of this book and Ayn Rand herself. She didn't misunderstand socialism and communism, she lived through it. We the Living was written about the time period and the events one who lived it saw and experienced. It was a dark and brooding work, but more realistic than anything else of what living under such a regime was like than anything else you can find.
Rating:
Summary: A moving story of the Russian Revolution
Review: I really enjoyed this novel becuase it dealt with something that the author never mentioned in her later two novels: war. It is a heartbreaking tale of totalitarianism and very readable. Since this is apparently a novelization of her life, it made the story even more compelling. One of the interesting things about this book that makes it different from 'Atlas Shrugged' and 'The Fountainhead' is that it seems written in a wholly different style, which is very stimulating. The reader from Los Angeles is correct in that this book does not contain a point by point refutation of Marx' dialectical materialism. Whereas that would come under the purview of theory, Rand chooses to chronicle the practice (of course, the argument is that it was not applied correctly, yet any capitalist will tell you that the United States of America has not had the ideas of the free-market applied correctly for most of this century, due to elements of socialism creeping in here and there). For a critique of the theory of dialectical Marxism I would suggest von Mises' "Theory and History."
Rating:
Summary: incredible
Review: Once I read On The beach by Nevil Shute and thought that was the most depressing novel I'd ever read then I came by this book and it beat them all by a mile. Even though despare practicly clings to this book and can feel it's strength through every page, the carecters in this book were amazing. The way rand built them up to such high standerds then tore each of the apart piece by piece fascinated me. Leo is a great example. ayn rand was a very talented writer and her styil of writing proved it. This book will stick in my heart for a long time and it true message also
Rating:
Summary: thought-provoking and a real eye opener
Review: Have read this three or four times and have never tired. 'Twas a real eye-opener to this native-born American who grew up in a shelterd home in the 40's and 50's. This should be required reading in our high schools. Reads easier than Atlas or Fountainhead.
|
