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Rating: 
Summary: Genius Comprehended
Review: An utterly engrossing, engaging memoir, presented in interview format, by two of Ayn Rand's closest (and genuine) friends. Both interviewees were psychologically perceptive and intelligent enough to understand and fully appreciate the actual "woman behind the genius". Any reader who is capable of admiring Ayn Rand's achievements will probably read this (as I did) in a single sitting; the food for thought it affords, though, will last a lifetime.
Rating: 
Summary: See what Ayn Rand was really like
Review: Facets of Ayn Rand is an enjoyable behind-the-scenes look at Ayn Rand, the person. For those familiar with Ayn Rand's philosophy (which holds integrity as one of seven virtues), it will come as no surprise that her personal life was consistent with her philosophy. Reading this book is probably as close as one can get to actually spending time with Ayn Rand these days.
Rating:
Summary: See what Ayn Rand was really like
Review: Facets of Ayn Rand is an enjoyable behind-the-scenes look at Ayn Rand, the person. For those familiar with Ayn Rand's philosophy (which holds integrity as one of seven virtues), it will come as no surprise that her personal life was consistent with her philosophy. Reading this book is probably as close as one can get to actually spending time with Ayn Rand these days.
Rating:
Summary: "Must" reading for her many admirers
Review: Facets Of Ayn Rand is an impressive and informative memoir that collects 48 hours of interviews from two people who remember Ayn Rand as their friend and as a person who was totally unafraid to voice her convictions, no matter how unpopular or controversial they were at the time. Facets Of Ayn Rand offers moving testimony filled with personal touches, rendering a closer and more intimate understanding of the life and thought of a truly great and influential woman. Facets Of Ayn Rand is "must" reading for her many admirers and students of her work.
Rating:
Summary: Revealing Portrait of Ayn Rand
Review: Finally a look at Ayn Rand by someone who knew her. One of the co-authors--Mary Ann Sures--was a typist for the *Atlas Shrugged* manuscript. The book documents information about Ayn Rand that you will not find anywhere else.
Rating: 
Summary: THEY PLUMP WHEN YOU COOK THEM
Review: Here is a book about Ayn Rand that contains no drama and no philosophy. What we get instead are vignettes mostly of work and life in her small apartment in the 1950s, and two or three funny one-liners cracked by her husband (quoted by the authors).An inconsequential book about an important person. There is mention of such interesting things as AR's two trips (by invitation) to see President Ford, her sojourns to stamp collecting conventions, and her husband's painting career. There is a strikingly reasonable explanation of her dislike of surprise parties (while reading this part, I realized that I dislike them too). There are sections where the authors respond to criticism of AR's "anger." All of this is effective and valuable, but unfortunately the bulk of the book is typified by the following scene (pp. 43-44): "One day, she was in the kitchen getting lunch, and I was at my typing table. She called to me, asking if I could come in and help her. I didn't know what I could do to help the author of _Atlas Shrugged_, but I was pleased by the request. I went in and saw that she was holding a hot dog, and she asked me if I thought it was edible. When I asked why, she said that it had been in the refrigerator for a while and it was shriveled. So I examined it; it was wrinkled but I pointed out that the color was good and it didn't have a bad odor. So, I told her that if it were immersed in boiling water, it would plump up. I asked her if she wanted me to do it, and she said, 'Oh, no. You have work to do.' That amused me, because my work consisted of typing up *her* brilliant thoughts while *she* was going to cook a hot dog! Some minutes later, she came out of the kitchen, holding up a plump hot dog speared by a fork. 'You were right,' she said, and thanked me for the suggestion." I'm not making that up. Frankly, I too would be thrilled to have worked for AR and given her advice on hot dogs, but people unaware of AR's greatness are sure as hell not going to learn about it from passages like the above. (Haven't we all cooked a hot dog?) The book is worth maybe $5, and then only a fan should buy it. The current price is too high.
Rating: 
Summary: Bright and sincere but very cautiously edited
Review: Judged against most oral histories or memoirs by friends of the famous, this is an above-average work. Mary Ann Sures wrote about art for Ayn Rand's publication, The Objectivist, back in the 1960s. In between anecdotes about stamp collecting or watching "The African Queen" in Ms. Rand's living room, both Charles and Mary Ann Sures discuss the reasons for their lifelong intellectual engagement with Rand and her philosophy.
Where the book disappoints is in its excessively careful avoidance of controversy and negatives.
The Sures both refer to insightful remarks Ms. Rand made about their individual values or character, that had an enormous positive personal impact on them. I see this as the main theme of the book, in fact: it is a personal memoir of how she enriched their lives. I know many readers of Ayn Rand who have had a similar experience just from reading her, myself included. To read Ayn Rand is, for many people, to feel engaged and understood on a very deep level. That is why when surveys ask, "What book has most influenced your life?", Atlas Shrugged routinely ranks second only to the Bible. (For example, when the Library of Congress did such a survey in 1991, about two percent of all respondents picked Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead -- while about 20 percent chose the Bible. Atlas Shrugged outpolled its nearest competitor by about 3 to 1, suggesting it has a unique place in American culture.)
However, throughout the book and particularly in the chapter entitled "On Negatives" -- discussing Ayn Rand's tendency to public fits of temper, in which she sometimes responded harshly to questions from students -- the Sures seem to engage in special pleading. In effect, if Ms. Rand boosted their confidence with an insightful bit of praise, that was a measure of her genius. But if she denounced some student she had just met as evasive, irrational, or anti-life, based on the way a question was put, all the same she was "not angry at anyone personally," she was just being polemical. This distinction was lost on the people being shouted at, some of whom were devastated to be denounced in front of friends and family by their hero. The Objectivist movement went through years of denunciations and purges, and remains divided even today between orthodox loyalists and more tolerant dissidents. Where the movement wound up was at least in part a consequence of Rand's own harshly confrontational public persona.
The Sures say early in the book that their goal is to preserve Ms. Rand's "larger than life" reputation. The problem is that by failing to acknowledge the more difficult and less praiseworthy facets of Ayn Rand when they come up, the book hurts its own credibility. Too much of her life and the movement she inspired necessarily goes unmentioned as a result.
Perhaps this is inevitable in such a memoir, by friends who loved her. She was a genius, and the positive side of her story is admittedly far more interesting and important than the negatives. However, it would have been much better if the Sures or their editor could have acknowledged a little more ungrudgingly, as other writers have done, that personal involvement with Ayn Rand occasionally led to pain. A memoir that managed to capture the impact of her brilliance on the Sures, AND deal honestly with life in her circle in the 1960s, would deserve five stars. This book, though well-intentioned, does not.
Note: I previously reviewed this book for The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, Volume 5, Number 1.
Rating:
Summary: A Delightful Read
Review: To put it simply, this is is a touching memoir of Ayn Rand by those who shared her friendship. The accounts of daily conversations and habits of Miss Rand add a depth of humanity to her image and give new insight into what an incredible human being she was. I couldn't put the book down once I started reading and often found myself laughing or smiling from the sheer pleasure of contemplating such an incredible individual.
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