To the best in every one of us.. Review on Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

I never wanted to write these words.. but every review I read about this book seemed incomplete and digressing. What can you write about a near perfect work of art?

Fiction.. to me, as is to the author, is what you would like the world to be. I do not see any reason why you want to write about the trite and the undeserved, when you want the world to be otherwise. There are too many writers who depict reality in fiction which is a gross error. It is not fiction anymore then. It is another issue if you are using reality as a backdrop by recreating it as is done in Gone with the Wind (the civil war). That is another aspect of romanticism.

This book defines fiction and romantic story telling. Every character is defined to perfection. No character speaks out of his skin. The setting is make believe. You will wish it was'nt. You would like to believe that a place like Atlantis does exist. There are times when you want to reach out and talk to the characters.. to Dagny Taggart, to Francisco d'Anconia, to Hank Rearden. To me, these characters are real and living.

To many, this book is long and boring. Sometimes it does tend to get on your nerves because it sketches in detail the setting that you would not like to believe as existing, the world of James Taggart and Wesley Mouch and Orren Boyle.

But it is these detailed descriptions that make you gasp with incredulous pleasure when you reach Atlantis. Just as no part of the human body is irrelevant to it, so also it is with this book.

Every word has to be read to understand the torture it is to Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden. Every word has to be read to understand the greatness that is Fransisco d'Anconia. Every word has to be read to understand the will and the determination of Dagny Taggart to come back into a world facing disaster and collapse. Every word has to be read to salute the spirit of man, the spirit that is Fransisco d'Anconia, the spirit that is Hank Rearden, John Galt, Dagny Taggart, Ellis Wyatt, Hugh Akston, Richard Halley,...

There are so many wonderful moments in the book. Every time the principal characters (the heroes) interact, you will smile and believe that everything in the world is possible to man.

This book is inspiring. The thoughts and the beliefs presented here are what the book aims to present. A is A as X is X. Nobody stays here by faking reality. This is the premise of the book. Every character is etched on this one principle. It is such a beautiful thought that to lie is to deceive yourself and surrender reality to the person you are lying to. It is such thoughts that will instill your belief in human ability and that is the reason why I recommend you read this book.

To those who have not read this book, this is John Galt speaking.. read it to believe in life. To those who have... smile.. you understand.

To Ayn Rand, To Fransisco d'Anconia.. to the spirit that is theirs... that should be ours... To truth.. this is a salute.