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Summary: Anthem
Review: Anthem's language and style are the reasons for its very real narration, but I was left unsatisfied with the conclusion. Although it wasn't meant to be a book read for its plot, it left too much undone. I felt like too much was being crammed into the last two chapters, like it was just an effort to make the book end sooner.
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Summary: Don't buy this edition
Review: Leonard Peikoff doesn't want you to know this, but the U.S. version of this novella has been in the public domain since 1974 - that's why he padded this edition with a marked-up version of the British text (so he could copyright it). You can read ANTHEM online for free if you know where to look.
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Summary: A slim read, a fat philosophy!
Review: If you were to consinder Atlas Shrugged an obese glutton, with each flab of flesh an anthropomorphic representation of the philosophy that lies beneath, Anthem should be considered its cousin the anorexic, with its understated build, suggestive of what it could be with a more voracious appetite. I found this book sweet and quick to the point, its curtness underlying the dreadful society it describes. However, I do not think this book should be used to understand Ayn Rand, as if in a nut shell, there is too much in her philosophy to fit in to any shell be it nut, snail or otherwise. This book is best read after a good understanding of Objectivism is obtained, as that will aid in feeling out some of the nuances in the story. The absense of self-reflexive pronouns although at first unsettling and a little confusing is very effective at getting the point across of loss of individuality. The substitution of the word "We" for "I" is eerily familiar with todays word substitutions brought on through political correctness. This book is quasi-prophetic and a good read for anyone who has felt at odds with societal fads and trends.
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Summary: I liked it enough..
Review: Anthem was good enough to be great, but i think it could've used a little help. Equality 7-2521 really needs help in the mind, but should be okay after a while. I can understand the people in the story, but the confusion i got from the differency of 'we' and 'i' and the swap of the two words really threw me off track. in all, Anthem needs a little boost, but is okay.
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Summary: The very beginning
Review: The very end of this book is also the beginning for a new and much better life for this person. Everyone is the same, they are known as numbers not by name. Each person is the same as the next and totally equal. The main character got in a quarrel with his elders and decided to leave the place where he was living. This is where the story actually begins. What he learns is phenomenal and very intruiging to learn as well. This book is much like the Giver by Lois Lowry but gives more insite to what is happening to the person in his time period.
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Summary: A Child's Garden Of Objectivism
Review: Like all of Rand's books, "Anthem" is loaded down with her self-created "philosophy." Fortunately for those of us not suffering from insomnia, you can actually read this book without falling stone cold asleep in the middle of chapter two. This isn't because it's such a great book; it's because it's so painfully simple and transparent you could almost have written it yourself. If you will, this is her "Cat In The Hat," but where Dr. Seuss wanted to get kids to read, Rand here wants to get people who are ignorant of her "philosophy" to agree with it. It's less a work of science fiction than it is a religious tract for her cult. There is nothing in this book that is new, original, or particularly interesting. It stands mostly as a classic example of Cold War paranoia, comparable to J. Edgar Hoover's books on how to fight those dirty godless Reds at home or McCarthy's radio and TV interviews about how the "Communist menace" has infiltrated society. The best thing that can be said about this is that unlike "The Fountainhead" or "Atlas Shrugged," it is blessedly brief, and Rand's sentences, paragraphs, and plotlines don't become as ridiculously murky as in her other works. But that's pretty much all you can say about this book. I find it interesting that the only people who seem to take this book seriously are Rand cultists and heavy metal band drummers who write bad concept albums about the book (see Rush's "2112" for details). In the final analysis, "Anthem" is a quaint artifact of Cold War paranoia, and nothing more.
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Summary: Very well written
Review: This book was very well written and moving. It's difficult not to relate to an individual person amidst a society that does things differently than he/she does; that's fairly common in literature, but no less enjoyable therefore. Obviously pride and individualism are important qualities, and, having already believed this, I was surprised that the book hit me as hard as it did; Rand writes with such intense emotion that it's hard not to believe that she doesn't think society has already gotten to the point that the book depicts, which is something I have wondered about since kindergarten! At the end of the story, however, Rand starts preaching. You can tell that it's not the character, but Rand herself. There is no reason for the character to start preaching after he falls in love. Rand says that she loves those who are worthy of it, that she honors people with her love. How does she decide if a person's worthy of her love? I don't think I would want her "love." She speaks of love as something you earn. I wouldn't even describe it as a gift. It is a feeling, a powerful feeling, the one feeling, perhaps, that we should not attempt to control, for it is a good feeling whether it's returned or not. One could argue that loving feels better than being loved. And we love each other BECAUSE of the individual differences which Rand so adamantly upholds, not in defiance of them! I would describe Ayn Rand as insane: unable to function in society. That's not the same as unwilling; a person unwilling to function in society is a leader, a person willing to change society. Ayn Rand has effectively done that...for the worse.
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Summary: Better if not an assignment
Review: This book is a treatise on induvidualism. It reminds me of the historic conflict with science and church pertaining to cosmology. I first read this book as a high school reading assignment 11 years ago. It can easily be digested in one sitting. Worth reading. As are most of Ayn Rand's works.
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Summary: An anthem to individualism
Review: Although this book can be read in a matter of hours the impressions left will last a lifetime. Unfortunately the message is less important today than it may have been when socialism and communism were still thought as viable models of government. Ayn Rand loves the individual spirit and her writings show the passion and fears associated with a movement that would take this away. She had left Russia at an early age to come to America. Only a person that has lived in an oppressive society could write such moving books about the strength of individualism, competitive industry, the terror of collectivism. This short book is written as no other. The words and ideas are expressed so beautifully. If one needs a boost to their individual spirit, this work will definitely help
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Summary: My Favorite Book
Review: I was first introduced to Ayn Rand by reading We the Living, however Anthem enlightened me on individualism and stimulated me to question my morals and values to which I base my life on. Despite its lack of a plot, I found this to be the most intriguing and exciting book I have ever read. From the very first gripping sentence to the last word, I felt as if Ayn Rand knew exactly what I was thinking. I am only in 9th grade, but I feel confident that I understand the whole spectrum of individualism and Objectivism, which is beautifully illustrated in this prophetic novella; an anthem; an ode to man, not men. I urge anyone, specifically teenagers who feel secluded from groups, cliques, etc. to read this book, because it is the source of my individualistic confidence and it outlines my potential to which I must live up to as a human being.
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