Fountainhead

Rating:
Summary: Read Rand
Review: It is very difficult to review Any Rand: many people despise her work and ideas, and others are bouncing off the walls and joining the Ayn Rand institute. I have a lot of questions for her but I still bounce off the walls. This is not of book of "real" characters and it isn't supposed to be--this is a dramatization, almost cartoon-like, but still full of deep, totally new and differing people. Reading this was a roadtrip for my mind and I appreciate the unapologetic, straight-foward and well thought-out logic that says that altruism retards society. On this note, I oftentimes don't agree with Rand or can't see how her ideas can implemented well in "real" life, but she makes some excellent ponts and raises interesting questions that serve as scrumptious brain-food. She sides on the extreme and lets the responsible reader look elsewhere for a differing point of view.

I love it, just love it.

Rating:
Summary: Barmy, preposterous, and surprisingly enjoyable
Review: A surprisingly easy read for 700-odd pages, and a surprisingly easy read considering Rand's unique mixture of sexual and philosophical babble. This book is of course the manifesto for ultimate license of the 'artist',love song to the ego of the superman etc etc. so there isn't so much dialogue as rhetoric throughout. Plenty feisty ladies dislike Dominique ("I wish I'd never seen your skyscraper!") Francon's rape scene, but it doesn't bother me because the overall mood is, well, camp.
The themes are uncomfortably neo-Nietzchean and right-wing for me, but I like the work of Lloyd Wright and Rand basically took him as inspiration. This preposterous novel is required reading nonetheless.
* Check out the wonderful dramatic & oversexy 1940s movie version with Gary Cooper in it and phallic imagery the likes of which has never been seen since.

Rating:
Summary: Tough as nails and twice as smart
Review: This is how Mickey Spillane might have written if he'd been a man.

Rating:
Summary: Actually, a Great Work of Naturalism
Review: I first read "The Fountainhead" when I was 17. I have re-read it many times in my late teens and early twenties, but did not return to it again until last year, in Berlin, at the age of 36. Well, a lot has changed in my life since. I guess in that sense, my own story is somewhat different than many reviewers here: Although I considered myself an Objectivist until my mid-20s, I fortunately took Rand at her word, and made up my own mind on issues Randist. So, even when the revelations came out in the 1980s of what a maniacal and cult-like figure she was, I never felt the sense of betrayal so many others did. Actually, I kind of felt sorry for her, and for the people she manipulated and duped. Life is too short to give and demand blind worship and obedience to some celebrity.

Sum it up to say, if you're looking for "I read 'The Fountainhead' as a teenager, but now -- ouch, I can't believe what an awful piece of turgid nonsense this is," look elsewhere, not here. On the other hand, those people are welcome to their opinions. Neither am I a dyed-in-the-wool Objectivist Randroid, who will tell you that "The Fountainhead" is the greatest novel ever written. When I was 17, I fervently believe it was; I don't now. People read more, they develop new tastes. So, for me the greatest novel ever is Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." But, that doesn't mean that I'm going to swing to the other extreme and deride it into the ash can.

I agree with many reviewers that "The Fountainhead" is adolescent. But, it is not adolescent in the same sense that "Beavis and Butt-Head" or "American Pie" is. "The Fountainhead" captures that confused yet clear-headed sense of anticipation, loneliness, grandeur and fear of failure that make up the contradictory state of our teenage years, rather much like J.D. Salinger's writing did for some, Daniel Clowes' "Ghost World" does today, and Hunter S. Thompson's "The Rum Diary" did for me later on. It is rather revealing that many reviewers recoil from their adolescent fervor for "The Fountainhead," because adolescence is an awkward, confusing and often embarassing time. It is fraught with heartbreak, social faux-pas and immaturity. But I have never felt the need to disassociate from my adolescent self, and this is why I can reflect upon this book more objectively (no pun intended), yet still appreciate it for its strengths.

One of the hallmarks of this book's adolescent spirit is that it is a paean to individualism and never selling out. Of course, reality gives us all a swift kick in the rear, but I stopped confusing "The Fountainhead" with reality around the same time I started having to shave daily. There is no sadder a scene than seeing Rand's acolytes and detractors waging life-or-death battle over this book and her philosophy. It reminds me of all the rather more rabid history buffs reliving and refighting the American Civil War. Come on, "The Fountainhead" is fiction, Rand died 20 years ago, and no-one is scared any longer of Leonard Peikoff's excommunicating temper tantrums, so lighten up out there!

The old cliche goes 'No-one has yet written the great American novel.' Well, in the sense that it must encompass all things American, no. To me, if a novel catches the _essence_ of America, that qualifies it. Sinclair Lewis' "Elmer Gantry," Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises," Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage," Mario Puzo's "The Godfather," all these qualify in my mind for that elusive title. And so does Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" captures the spirit of America. I loved it thoroughly. Her characters are larger than life, the message of being true to one's self, and not selling out, sorely needed today. Rand expertly contrasts the novel's hero, Howard Roark - an uncompromising architect - with the tragic Gail Wynand, a newspaper baron who, like Othello, is a flawed hero, and whose quest for power and domination leads him to almost destroy that which he loves most. Actually, I DID find Roark a bit wooden (but not as wooden as Gary Cooper's portrayal of him in the 1949 movie). Really, Gail Wynand is the most believable main character in this book, because he's torn by dillemma. His is a character of tragic dimensions, rather like Orson Welles' Charles Foster Kane (who, like Wynand, was also based on William Randolph Hearst). When Wynand sells out Roark, it isn't a betrayal so much of Roark, but of Wynand's own soul, and this is why I cry for Wynand. Because of his basic fatal flaw. Wynand chose damnation over redemption, rather much like Michael Corleone did in "The Godfather Part II" when he ordered and watched his brother Fredo's execution. I can't countenance THAT being labelled "two-dimensional" or "cardboard" at all. It is the great tragedy of the story.

Ellsworth Toohey is the story's Iago, a small, cunning manipulator who himself tries to use Wynand's greatness to destroy Roark. Because of Wynand's own fatal flaw, he refuses to acknowledge Toohey's ability to influence and control.

I especially love the book's Roaring '20s and Depression-Era feel. Rand may have painted her heroes in romantic, Nietzshean brushstrokes, but her characterisations of her villains and non-heroes is sardonic and small, and owe's much to the naturalistic novels of Sinclair Lewis and the newspaper columns and book reviews of H.L. Mencken. Her desciption of Stanton, Mass. -- tight, manicured, exhibitionist lawns in front of crackerbox houses -- is right out of Lewis' "Main Street" or "Babbitt."

And, close your eyes - you'll see a Hell's Kitchen as painted by Edward Hopper and Roark's skyscrapers as photographed by Alfred Stieglitz.

"The Fountainhead" may not be the greatest novel ever written, but it IS great.

Rating:
Summary: Can you say "bloated?"
Review: When I first read this book in my younger years, I thought that it was magnificient.

Looking back, I realize that it has taught me that it is indeed possible to say a great deal and simultaneously assert nothing. If you want a first class example of that, here it is.

Rating:
Summary: one of my favorite novels
Review: When Ayn Rand wrote, her primary purpose was to depict her vision of the perfect human. She wanted to show a man who exhibited the ideals of her philosophy, Objectivism. In her beliefs, Ayn Rand stresses the importance of individualism, reason, integrity, and selfishness. To exemplify these traits, she created Howard Roark, her projection of the ideal man, in her novel The Fountainhead.
Roark represents man as he should and ought to be. His depiction is something toward which I will strive every day. Fully independent, needing no reason other than his own, Howard is perfection incarnate. He lives his life exactly as he sees fit; he will not sacrifice himself for the cause of another, nor will he live by any moral code or standard other than his own. He does not compromise with evil, because it is only evil that can benefit from the sacrifice of the good. He is a man with ability, and uses it to produce great work in architecture. He does so with integrity; he refuses to build when customers demand that he change his design for the sake of pleasing traditionalists. I found myself excited as I read about this intransigent man who refuses to compromise, and I silently cheered as he won a trial with the world against him by using his own reason as his only defense. The novel itself illustrates man as a heroic being, and ends with Roark standing alone atop the world's tallest building, a building that he built. His triumph was mine, and I strive to live that life every day, a life where humanity exists as it was meant to exist.
Read this book. If nothing else, it will at least present you with another view on how life ought to be. Rand's words and views are more popular today than they were more than fifty years ago when The Fountainhead was published. Politically, I am a libertarian. Nearly every other libertarian that I know finds a lot in common with Objectivism. I will end with my favorite quotation from the novel. The primary villain, Toohey, asks Howard one night for an honest opinion of him; he wants to know what Roark thinks of him. Howard simply says, "I don't think of you," and walks away.

Rating:
Summary: Immature and misogynistic: angry philosophy of a teenage boy
Review: Let's begin with the fatal flaw of the book: the protagonist, Roark, RAPES a woman, who then becomes his willing lover. This is akin to a Holocaust survivor marrying a member of the Nazi S.S. All fans of this book (mostly young White men) need to address the deep sexism and misogyny here.

The plot is hackneyed and boring: a man pursues his dreams and ideals despite a world of cartoonish idiots around him. It's how teenage boys often feel. There is a hatefulness of weakness, gentleness, and calm: no wonder many right-wingers celebrate Rand.

The goal is admirable: to think for oneself and be creative, but the novel is truly a piece of junk. Why not read true artists who urge you to think for yourself? Jack Kerouac, Emma Goldman, Ken Kesey, and John Steinbeck are some wonderful alternatives.

After all, you don't have to hate the world, and hate women, to live a creative, independent life. You can love your society, community, and your lover, and be true to yourself... All at the same time.

Rating:
Summary: A book to change your view on life
Review: This was the first Ayn Rand book I read and it changed many of my point of views on life and my creativity. The suspence and storytelling capabilites of Rand are amazing. If you love to create, read this book. And if you love living an independent life read the rest of Ayn Rand's books.

Rating:
Summary: one of the best books i have ever read.
Review: its not a matter of style, or how rand writes her stories through and through again, its just the emotion. when you read this book you feel like you are a part of it.

rand is definately a timeless artist, a writer with untouchable skill.

Rating:
Summary: this book was great!
Review: this book was captivating, i just picked up my friend's copy and got sucked into it from just reading the first page. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, losing sleep to read this book. It became a small obsession until i finished it. Then afterward it changes how you think. You really appreciate the finer points of honesty, ideals, happiness, the human psyche, and the spirit of humanity. I enjoyed reading this and it made an impact on my life.