Nothing about The Fountainhead rings true or real or believable, and after slogging through about 60% of it I tossed it into the trash, where it will be in suitable company.Like our changing climate and its many impacts on our communities, economy and environment like the collapse of critical infrastructure like the humanitarian homelessness crisis on our streets and the housing shortage driving it like so many other slow-motion disasters that have befallen us, the warning signs have been unmistakably clear.Īnd just as often, we have ignored them, denied them and been slow to act.

In the Fountainhead, Rand cannot conceal Nietzschian admiration for such soulless “heroic” characters. At least in DL, Glenn Close comes to a well deserved train-wreck end. The prose becomes turgid, and the dialog consists of esoteric double-edged repartee by supposedly heroic characters playing mind games with each other in a manner that reminded me of the chess move exchanges between Glenn Close and John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons, in which those two beauties leave a path strewn with wreckage of other characters’ lives. Unfortunately, as I got farther along, I concluded that this book (supposedly Rand’s best) is nothing but a hopeless pile sludge. The book’s first one tenth wasn’t too bad at least Rand seemed to begin a coherent, linear plot, and her prose, while undistinguished, was straightforward and understandable. How Bad Can Bad Writing Be (quote: Sunset Blvd)

I will not read her 'Atlas Shrugged' as I think it would bring me to suicide. I watched a documentary about the author and was reminded of the 'fame' regarding this book. Sadly the most frustrating was the constant parade of conflicting dialog from her characters, the multi analogies given to useless points and the most insane of all was the continious use of a kind of bait and switch gadget in her writing style. 300 pages would have got the point across.

The book is 700 pages long and there was no need for it. I think she lacked any understanding of psychology and that leaves a lot to be desired in the motivations and actions of her characters. First I must say that I did not live in the 1930's when this book was written and my understanding of life at that time is not extensive, that said, I find her characters to be quite unrealistic. I am very confused about all the hype surrounding this novel. I have found this book to be one of the most frustrating books I have ever read.

The fountainhead centennial edition