"Greed is good." Gordon Geckko in the movie Wall Street

Atlas Shrugged is easily one of the best, most fascinating books I've ever read which is surprising considering I don't think there's more then one character in the entire novel I really liked. In Atlas Shrugged all of the world's capitalist, entrepreneurs and creative thinkers withdraw from civilization to form their own libertarian society because of their coldly fanatical belief that altruism is a bad thing only implemented by wooly headed liberals who care more about theories then about people. They also believe that big business is the salvation of mankind and is struggling along, barely making ends meet, due to the machinations of the government, liberals and a public who doesn't know what's good for it. As a result of this withdrawal civilization grinds to a slow and deadly halt resulting in the loss of thousands, perhaps millions, of lives. While Atlas Shrugged is wildly unbalanced in its support of pure capitalism, almost to the point of being ludicrous in places, there is just enough truth in it's complaints to keep it from completely crossing the line. For example, as I was reading Atlas Shrugged the federal government announced its intention to follow the lead of several states and sue the tobacco industry to recover money it has spent on health care for people with smoking related illnesses. This is something that would have fitted seamlessly and justifiably into Atlas Shrugged's hatred of government interference in big business. Nonsense such as this is what lends Atlas Shrugged some credence but to completely deny altruism the way Ayn Rand does in Atlas Shrugged is to reject the beliefs of the Bible, Mother Teresa, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Red Cross and others. I don't believe I'd care to live in a world that completely rejected people and orgnizations such as those. And this lack of balance is only one of the things that detract from Atlas Shrugged. Another is the seemingly endless speeches provided by the book's characters advocating Ms. Rand's conservative philosophy. Some of these speeches literally go on for pages saying the same thing over and over in only slightly different ways. Had most of these speeches been cut by Ms. Rand or her editor, Atlas Shrugged would have been a third shorter, but twice as good.

Ultimately though the writing, which has an almost palpable sense of power, is what not only saves Atlas Shrugged, but makes it great. Atlas Shrugged's characters were another of the book's redeeming features though Dagny was the only one I liked since she was the only one who seemed able to combine some sense of altruism with the attributes of a tough, uncompromising business person. The rest of the characters were all too sharply divided into the bad guys, who were obviously selfish, and the good guys, who seemed noble on the surface, but were equally, if more subtly selfish.

Despite its flaws this is a powerful book that deserves its status as a modern classic. Certainly if Atlas ever did shrug it wouldn't be with indifference at the book bearing his name.


Average Grade: A+

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