Fountainhead

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Summary: Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it!
Review: The book is an anthem to a human being and a course to the humanity that destroys the treasure of individual talent. There is Howard Roarke in many of us, we are just too weak to unearth it. One had to escape Bolshevik Russia to write THIS. Thanks Ayn! (I know this does not matter to you- and I don't care).

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Summary: Good, but will drive you nuts
Review: The Fountainhead is a good book. However, Ayn Rand goes way in too depth about what she is talking about. This book is really confusing due the fact that what she really wants to talk about, her philosophy of Objectivism, is buried so deep that you have to read it over and over again. On the other hand, she does really develop one good character. Howard Roark is someone who everyone would want to be, someone who realizes what he stands for and will not yield under any pressure. Even when he's in court, or when he is about to be put out of his apartment, Roark will not change his views. As a customer, you will either take what he gives you or he will leave. Even if its one minor detail, Roark will not let you change his work. It puts him apart from everyone else in the book, and he is the reason why this book is as good as it is. Unfortunatly, he is not enough, as Ayn Rand could not really do much with the others around Howard, and the book became slow and boring.

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Summary: Ayn Rand changed my life
Review: as you can see from this review page, people either hate this book or love it. I love it. to those who say that Ayn Rand is into communism or socialism or some other collectivist thing, let me say YOU STUPID FOOLS, READ THE BOOK AGAIN! there is no such reference in this book, in fact, there are many references against it. all of my friends told me not to read this book. if I had listened to them, I would have been deprived of the best expirience of my life. Ayn Rand says in this book that you cannot live your life for others. this is true. whether you believe her or not, you should read this book. it is a shame that they do not teach her in high school or college. we would have a better society if they did.

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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.

Rating:
Summary: Fountainhead
Review: Fountainhead is an interesting and thought provoking book. I thoroughly recommend this book.