Book Review: Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged
Written by Ayn Rand

Weighing in at a hefty 1069 pages, with inscrutably small font packed tightly onto each page, Atlas Shrugged may be the longest work of fiction I have ever read. I would like to think that the ridiculous amount of time that I read this novel was well spent, but I cannot. Instead I find myself wishing for a time machine so that I could go back and stop myself from even picking this book off the store shelf. While I would love to speak of only this book and not touch any of Ayn Rand’s objectivist philosophies, the two are so intertwined that I have no choice but to discuss both, which makes it all the easier for me to find fault with this novel. While the Atlas Shrugged was not entirely mindless elitist schlock, I consider myself lucky that upon completing this review will never have to touch it again.

In case you have not already figured it out, I am going to give this book a terrible review. For those of you who are interested solely in my rating, you can skip the rest of the review, I’ll tell it to you now: Do not pick up this book! With that out of the way, let me tell you why you should never read Ayn Rand’s classic American novel.

One-dimensional does not even begin to describe the flatness of the personalities of all characters in the story. Their lack of realism knows no bounds. The villains in the novel are made to possess every single characteristic that Ayn Rand hates, while her heroes and heroines are perfect beyond conception. The perfection of her protagonists is to hammer in the belief that those who follow objectivism can do no wrong. Consequently, the protagonists’ inhumane stupidity serves to illustrate Ayn Rand’s inability to produce coherent challenges to her philosophies. She knows that if she were to give her opposition any foundation in reality that there would be no valid arguments to defend her beliefs.

The main focus of the plot is outlined within the first few chapters, and does not change throughout the entire book. Time and time again, you see the same plight affecting the protectors of objectivism, but they persevere through, and come out afloat. A few pages later, once they’ve finished celebrating their victory, an almost identical problem arises that threatens their happiness. Lather, rinse, repeat fifty times. The climax of the book is a fifty-six page monologue rehashing all of the ideas of objectivism that Rand has spoke of throughout the book. Fifty-six pages of nothing but one character speaking on and on about the problems with the world, which he of course claims can all be solved by objectivism. These fifty-six pages were so boring that it took me an entire week of forced reading before I completed them.

Ironically, I did not find fault with Ayn Rand’s writing style. I thought her actual writing to be interesting, and frequently had a sort of fake-stiffness lilt to it that I would assume to be intentional to emphasize her plot. Despite the intricate details and minutiae her book covered, I never found fault with her vocabulary. She wrote in a way that was easy to understand, but still possessed poise enough to be considered writing. If it weren’t for her actual writing finesse, I would have put this book down after the second chapter. It is a shame that the content of the novel does not match the quality of her writing.

Objectivism is a philosophy that Ayn Rand created and is the focal point of all her writing. Its primary tenant is that greed is good. Ayn Rand felt that if everyone worked only for his or her own benefit, the world would be a perfect utopia. Let us assume, for the moment, that all people who worked for themselves and only themselves greatly benefited as a result of following objectivism. Since Ayn Rand refuses to allow for any people incapable of fending for themselves, it would mean that people with mental or physical handicaps would have no place in society. People incapable of sustaining themselves, even through no fault of their own, would die off. Ayn Rand’s philosophies ignore the potential for crime, act of nature, act of god, and random luck. She makes no exceptions for power corrupting, exploitive monopolies, or people with any personality faults. If you wish to live in an objectivist world you can make no mistake, for it would damn you to the hell of insolvency. Rand’s objectivism does not even make sense on paper, be thankful you don’t have see it fail in the real world.

I am giving Atlas Shrugged an Avoid like the plague rating. If, for some reason, you feel the need to explore objectivism, I recommend you read another one of her books; one that is shorter. I’ve heard that The Fountainhead contains all of the information you could ever need to know about objectivism and is a much more sensibly sized book. I cannot promise you this is true, however, as I will never read anything written by Ayn Rand again.

Atlas Shrugged gets 42 thumbs up, my worst rating ever!