Rating: 
Summary: This is an exceptional book introducing a unique philosophy
Review: The Fountainhead is an intriguing story about an amazing man whose individualistic ideas are unheard of. His struggles are well deserved due to his unmoving philosophy. However, I found myself sympathising with him. I recommend reading this novel because once you start you won't stop.
Rating: 
Summary: Shameless joy and self-interest
Review: It has been many years since I read The Fountainhead, yet it sticks with me. I read it when I was a young and impressionable teenager. I fell in love with the ideas, but time and experience has taught me that humans are infinitely more complex than Ms. Rand ever acknowledged in her text. I love the hero archetype, but disagree with "hero worship" as this tends to imply inequality. Now, I take her ideas with a grain of salt. I realize that there is a huge gulf between literature and reality and sometimes a writer must stress this difference to make her point. However, I am more fascinated with how Howard Roark was formed and reached his perfection. The psychology of Dominique and Ellsworth would garner some investigation as well. Truthfully, the book subsides into a philosophical preaching that should have been couched in the characters. Ms. Rand did an incredible job of illustrating her ideas in the persona of the hero, but it seems that she thought readers were too insipid to gather the information from that alone. In conclusion, the novel is a a life altering and life affirming one. Keep the joyous portrayal of an existence without shame close to your heart but leave the author's disdainful view of the intellectual weaklings behind.
Rating:
Summary: Damn the critics, full speed ahead!
Review: Ayn Rand saw art, including literature, as "a selective re-creation of reality according to an artists metaphysical value judgements". She was incapable of writing a "day in the life" story, warts and all. She wrote about "how man ought to be", not how they are. She chose to highlight the contrast between good and evil, so that the reader would not be left guessing which character trait she endorsed. She was an eternal optimist, although one often wonders why. "The Fountainhead" achieves all of this in spades. Howard Roark is the most uncompromising Rand character IMHO. Through him, the message of Objectivism is in all honesty, rammed down the readers throat. It is difficult to escape, short of putting down the book. It is not a gentle introduction, but I'll wager her message was not lost on anyone who bothered to read the book in its entirety. To make a point, she gets in your face regardless of how you squirm, and lets you have it from several angles, just so there is no doubt. This book is not charming, it will not make you feel all warm and fuzzy, it does not attempt to boost your self esteem. Do we really need any more of those kinds of books? What it will do, if you read it through, is dare you to justify any actions you undertake other than for the sake of rational self interest. And before you write her off as a greedy ***** who couldn't give a damn about anyone but herself, ask yourself why she chose to publish her work in the face of a world conditioned to view such ideas as poison. I think she saw people as naturally rational, and refused to treat them as idiots, incapable of understanding her ideas. Ask yourself how many philosophers you can say that of today. Ayn Rand communicated her ideas in a second language ( English ) better than most do in there native tongue. Certainly better than any of her whiny collectivist critics. Give this book a read. It's definately worth the effort.
Rating: 
Summary: understanding and living... a new view
Review: I'll tell you, reading this book made me laugh several times and shake my head just as many. I loved it... for the first time I realized why so many people hated me... it was for being confident and self-fullfilled. Though I do not agree with much of what she says, this book truly did open my eyes to that fact. Though, to many people this book can be a life saver and a great help, it also has the potential of being a book who inspires a mad man. What I feel Rand did not understand was that njot everyone has the mental ability to grasp what she says, and these "individuals" need to be accepted and helped (altruism). She would rather leave them in the gutter than teach them to do their best (God forbid it is not THE best). Her views on male dominence are shocking to say the least (she is a woman?!?!). Though I am sure you will love her book and be persuaded by it, try to realize that it was written like the bible, with that purpose in mind and must be tak! en that way (though I believe so should the bible, atleast saying this about Rand is acceptable). Go out, buy the book... you will enjoy it, if not the philosophy and the message, than the story. It is also a great love story.
Rating:
Summary: the most life-changing book i have ever read
Review: few things in life have had as profound an impact on my life, personality and philosophy as this book. after reading ten pages, i was so amazed by the sheer brilliance of rand that i continued to read for two straight days with a stupid grin on my face until the final page had been turned. for anyone who has not read the book, words just don't help--you really need to experience it first hand. it is not just a simple story of individual versus society, not just a theme of different versus the same--it is much more. doors will open up to you, and even if you do not agree with all she says, your life will probably be fuller just by virtue of reading it. i know mine is.
Rating:
Summary: A salute to the human spirit at its functional best
Review: This book is a must for anyone who agrees or disagrees with tenants of capitalism. But this book goes much farther than that. This novel is an eye-opener today despite the fact that it was written decades ago. This is a book for the spirited realists among us who are rare yet crucial to our society. Some will hate this novel, but that is part of the greatness of it. This novel does not compromise or sell its soul.
Rating:
Summary: This is close to the most perfect piece of lit ever written
Review: I first read this novel when I was 16 and wassn't able to put it down. I would try to read as a drove to school, during Physics class, and just about everywhere else. Rand has the ability to tell a story in such stark beauty, persision, and deatil, that one wants to not only read but become one with the novel. In the next four years I have read The Fountainhead numerous times. It has not only chnaged the way that I view literature, but the way that I view life, writing, and society. This is a book that all of society should be required to read, that is if there is a society.....
Rating:
Summary: Stop reading this book half way through it.
Review: The first half of the book (as far as the Stoddard Temple episde) I'd have given five stars. Three reasons: Firstly you save yourself 300 pages of well below par material. It's unnecessary, rambles on and contradicts some aspects of the hero that were excellent in the first half. For example he goes from being completely innocent / naive / disinterested in what motivates others, to being somehow able to read people like a book. Secondly the philosophy of Objectivism is largely absent in the first half except as it appears through the characters. If you want to read the philosophical bit in plain words skip right to the end where there are two speaches (part 4 ch. 14 & part 4 ch.18) about it. I warn you that after reading them you probably won't want to bother reading the book. I would suggest reading the first half and then stopping. If you should feel the pressure to finish the book, skipping ahead to the speaches should cure you of it. Objectivism, in my view! , and from only this book, is best appreciated when it is thought about least. Examining it in any detail you see it as absurd. Thirdly - and this is difficult to say clearly without giving away the ending/s - the book has so much more "integrity" if you stop at the end of part 2. Integrity is what the hero is about, and the book is about the hero.
Rating: 
Summary: THE FOUNTAINHEAD as pop literature
Review: In recent years Ayn Rand's THE FOUNTAINHEAD has skyrocketed to the top of Favorite Book lists among young people everywhere, which to discerning readers is almost as frustrating as reading the book itself. As a novel, THE FOUNTAINHEAD manages to fail so abysmally that it makes a very readable spectacle of itself; it's the equivalent of a twelve-car pileup on the freeway, a beautifully obscene attraction for literary gawkers and rubbernecks. No other author comes to mind capable of producing a landscape tortuously drawn out over 700 pages absolutely devoid of human characters; only Rand could have conjured up such elegant stick-figures as Howard Roark, Ellsworth Toohey, and Gail Wynand. The mind's eye pictures them as Art Deco cartoons much like the characters of the TV show BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES. That is, these people are not even archetypes or caricatures; they neither echo nor mock anything within the boundaries of life or literature as they are really expe! rienced. Rand plunges so far into her aborted brain-children's illusory depths, however, that the reader cannot help applauding--say, the way one would applaud for a monkey doing backflips. Despite its seeming cold precision, Rand makes her style just as plaintive and purple as the worst of 19th-century English romances. Thematic messages in literature are not heard, but overheard--a point that is rather lost on Rand, who obstinately bludgeons the reader over the top of the head with her self-serving, almost childish rants. Her prose is brilliant but not beautiful, her ideas jarring but not substantive, her rhetorical progressions subtle and devious but failing to convince us of anything we will believe; in short, THE FOUNTAINHEAD is like a sleek shining limo without an engine. What makes plodding through THE FOUNTAINHEAD such an ugly ordeal is Rand's insistent allegorizing of her half-wit philosophy, which denies altruism is a virtue and advocates rational self-interes! t as the fundamental principle to govern the lives of "! ;men of intellect." At times her indictment of conformity actually manages to hit the mark and ring true, but unfortunately these times are lost amidst what amounts to hundreds of pages of poison-preaching, as Rand baldly assigns more worth to human achievement than humanity itself. Her world view is embarrassingly limited and excludes the fundamental reality of how billions of human beings actually live. Perhaps the novel's surging popularity among high-schoolers is a sign of our times--our generation is often demonized for renouncing all accountability--but one would like to think that this is not true. In the meanwhile one hopes that THE FOUNTAINHEAD will be exposed to its admirers for what it really is--pop literature at its worst.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read for the human race.
Review: Ann Rand captures the true spirit of Western Civilization. Her timeless classic holds the individual above the sightless masses. It is a celebration of the human spirit that still remains very meaningful in today's chaotic world. (The 1949 movie does the story a great disservice.)
| 
