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Summary: reevaluate...
Review: you know those college essays that ask you to name the book/person/event that changed your life? i would honestly write that essay about this book. It forced me to reevaluate everything i knew: about me, my strength and worth as a person, my society, my values, and on and on. After reading the Fountainhead I felt i had a better sense of who i am and what's important- i strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in self discovery or just a thought provoking novel. in addition, it is superbly and cleverly written, and the least astute of readers will understand Rand's cry to take up the standard of independence and shun the falseness of society. read this book, it conveys the message so much better than i can.
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Summary: Can't stand Ayn Rand
Review: Sorry to be the lone philistine. I believe there was a black hole at the center of Ayn Rands's soul and it eventually consumed her. Reading her fiction is more despair than hope, more heat than light. There are heroes and villains in good novels-there are plenty of good novels out there. Wading through this one was a joyless enterprise. Ayn "the Supreme Being" Rand died old and alone, still hating. Want a superb novel, one that will actually do the reader some good as well as entertain? Try a modern author with a future vision, Jerry Furland "Transfer-the end of the beginning".
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Summary: Fountainhead takes on the challenge of our times
Review: "The Fountainhead" is the story of Howard Roark, an ideal man of perfect virtue in world full of men that want nothing extreme and follow those who do know what they want, so long as the leaders help them mask their emptiness. Roark is an architect who only works his way, asking no one to like or accept his work, demanding nothing from others. His buildings are highly efficient and a tribute to the best within man, and he deals only with those who approach him ready to accept his terms. Ultimately "Fountainhead" is not the story of his struggle against his antagonists, but the story of their struggle to stifle the good in men so that Roark can never work, which would destroy him. This is about the broadest synopsis of the book's conflict that I can make. I read the book at a time (at 18) when I was fighting off the growing realization that my religion and my country were intellectually and morally bankrupt. This is terrifying when you aren't aware of *why* they are and what alternate thinking this implies. I was looking carefully for some new ideas. I found "The Fountainhead" and some very challenging questions of mine got answered. If you haven't read the book I hope you will.
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Summary: A Magnificent Story Of A Magnificent Man
Review: This is the story of the struggle of an individual against the collective mindset that demands that all things be done for the good of society rather than the rewards and pleasure that the individual enjoys based on the merits of his own work. The main character, Howard Roark, fights an unending battle for the freedom to live and work according to the dictates of his own conscience and integrity. As the plot unfolds, questions are asked that beg an answer from every thinking viewer. In American society today, we are regimented, "bell-curved", homogenized, and forced to fit the demands and whims of those who consistently tell us "egoism is bad", "selflessness is the only way to live", etc. It is refreshing to see this film's character state so eloquently that he "lives life for his own sake" and that the existence of his ideas are the sole domain of his own mind and not the property of others to take as their own in the name of "society's good." You can't come away from this film not changed in one way or another. Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal play their parts to perfection. This is a classic in every sense of the word. Don't take my word for it though, get it for yourself and enjoy some true "food for thought."
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Summary: To those who are stirred by a powerful soul
Review: Many of those who read the Fountainhead have tried to classify it -- the shallow saw it as a book about architecture, the cynical, a book about extremism, and the more respectful and intelligent majority saw it as a book about identity and not falling to the will of the consensus. But I think this last statement is as trivializing the work as the formal two. Many lost, seeking individuals these days try to "find oneself", and seek identity for its sake. There is nothign noble or great about this. What makes this work then so noble and heroic is the unbreaking integrity of the main character, Howard Roark. Roark was not so lost or so unsure of himself. He had no identity to find. Instead, throughout this 700 page work, all he tries to do is bring out the thing in himself to the world without making it impure by inteference or unwelcome influences. The idea seems to simple, but Ayn Rand writes in such a way as to move you through Roark's single-minded integrity. In the end, one gets the feeling that this "integrity" for one's work was not unreasonable obsession, or stupid extremism, seeking identity, or just about building pretty buildings. It was integrity. In short, what the author says is this: In our lives we are forced to make so many compromises which conflict with out basic beliefs. But in soem things there shoudl be no compromises at all, no matter what society will say or do, because in the end your integrity is more important then the judgement of strangers. Read this work. It will stir you like no other..
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Summary: Long live the independents; there's damn few left
Review: I read this book before I knew anything about Ayn Rand or her philosophy and I absolutely loved it. Roark earns his self-esteem through excellent work. Therefore, he rightly refuses to compromise his work for those who are less talented or have less integrity. These ideas may be difficult for some readers raised in our current culture where self-esteem is bestowed, rather than earned, and cooperation is valued over results. But if you've ever seen your work watered down with the input of your less talented colleagues or if you've been passed over for advancement despite high ratings because you're "hard to work with," this book may be for you.
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Summary: Fountainhead
Review: Fountainhead is an interesting and thought provoking book. I thoroughly recommend this book.
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Summary: Individuality vs Collectivism
Review: Many people dislike Ayn Rand's writings solely for her Objectivist philosophies, but these are the people who can't disassociate Objectivism from narcissism. Taken as a novel, The Fountainhead is stunning. It uses a powerful story with clear but masterful writing to make the book engrossing and pull you along. Howard Roard, Rand's uncompromising hero, is a strong model for her Objectivist philosophies. He lives his life as an ideal, for himself and for no one else. He doesn't want to live off anyone else; he makes his own life. He is far from narcissistic; rather, he doesn't even take credit for his greatest acheivements. Instead, he takes personal pride and satisfaction in the things he has created without relying on others' praise for said things. How is this a bad thing? One should not want to live vicariously through anyone except for themselves. The Fountainhead is an amazing book, both as a novel and as a philosophical work, so long as one doesn't forget the basic tenet: that one lives his *own* life. That means that while Objectivism may be a guide, it is only the man (or woman) himself who decides how to live his life.
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Summary: inspiring? yes. nonsense? no. unpractical? maybe
Review: There have been many questions beaming around in my mind about the architectural profession, me being a student of the course. This book did not give me answers, but it did give me inspiration and hope, even if it makes one indulge in impractical dreaming. Howard Roark is not a concept i wasn't already familiar with because a fair number of other out there like me, were and are now still battling with the concept of expressing individuality and the yearning to be different in all aspects of so called acceptable society. The fountainhead isn't just about architecture, for the plot lends itself to the characters with whom we (in our social "categories") should be able to identify with to some extent. The downside, or perhaps Rand was attempting to make her characters more intense, is the fact that Roark seems abit too extreme, but not to the point of disbelief. After scrolling down the exhausting of reviews on this page there is one review which i can vividly remember, and that is if you were never seeking individuality in the first place, it was best to leave this book alone. Nevertheless it is an interesting read and gives new insight to those who are starting out in the architectural field (they will probably find this more useful since the book uses alot of archi jargon) There won't be much point trying to analyze the characters in the book here for you, its a review after all and YOU should be making your own interpretations about it. so go read
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Summary: A Tremendous 500 Page Book . . . That Lasted 700 Pages
Review: From the first pages of the Fountainhead, I was captivated by the struggle between Keating and Roark, not onlyas they battled as professionals, but even more importantly as they waged a less public war for their souls. Ultimately, the important question that Rand posed to me was whether a person can ever justify a compromise of their intellectual or artistic integrity to achieve a purely utilitarian goal. Rand, through Roark, answers this question in the negative, but her characters' ultimate fates leaves the question unresolved. I was immediately impressed by how well Rand developed her characters and made me care about how their lives would progress, especially in the first half of the book when Keating and Roark are defining themselves and their artistic visions. The book bogged down a bit in its later stages, particularly when developing the relationship between Roark, Dominique Francon, and Keating. Because of its extraordinary length and the fact that it lost some steam towards the end, I cannot recommend it to everyone, but I can recommend it wholeheartedly to those people who may feel disenchanted with a society that often values the material and superficial over the enduring.
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