by Ayn Rand

isbn: 0451191145
subject: Fiction and Literature
finished: 11/3/1997

Like two other books I've read recently (Ishmael and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), Atlas Shrugged is about deciding what's important in life. Whatever the merits of her ideas, it is unfortunate that with her writing style Rand seems to be trying to alienate exactly those readers that she wants to reach. Atlas Shrugged is more than a thousand pages long, and contains scene after scene that contribute little to the plot or to our understanding of the characters. The good guys are hilariously stoic, and the bad guys are all bumbling incompetents with communist tendencies. People who disagree with this should read the hilarious summary/parody starting at p. 254 (of the paperback edition) of Matt Ruff's Public Works Trilogy.

Despite the fact that I couldn't always take it seriously, I enjoyed Atlas Shrugged and agree with a good bit of it. It's a compelling book that says a lot of things that make sense, but that are not often said aloud in our culture.