Helpful Score: 8
The Fountainhead has become an enduring piece of literature, more popular now than when published in 1943. On the surface, it is a story of one man, Howard Roark, and his struggles as an architect in the face of a successful rival, Peter Keating, and a newspaper columnist, Ellsworth Toohey. But the book addresses a number of universal themes: the strength of the individual, the tug between good and evil, the threat of fascism. The confrontation of those themes, along with the amazing stroke of Rand's writing, combine to give this book its enduring influence.
Helpful Score: 7
Story of the individual versus the group. You root for the little guy. You boo and hiss the "Man" and those who attempt to squash the dream. Classic book.
Helpful Score: 4
* * * *. Literature. A student of architecture is expelled from school for clinging to his beliefs regarding innovative architecture. He then begins amassing his own clientele who are aligned with his beliefs, while others are determined to ruin his career and livelihood. It's the independent thinker versus the comformist. There are no guns used here, but it is a war as idealists on one extreme hold their beliefs against those on the other end.
Intelligent, thought-provoking, and allegorical.
Intelligent, thought-provoking, and allegorical.
Helpful Score: 3
One of my favorite books about staying true to yourself and the beauty of capitalism
Helpful Score: 2
The worst novel in the English language by the worst writer who ever tried to write a novel. Trivial detail upon trivial detail; predictable story; interruptive expostulations of poorly-thought-out "philosophizing"; characters who finally become quite boring in the length of 700 pages. Praised mostly by corporate capitalist centrists for its selfish, arrogant, insulting philosophy of "look-out-for-yourself-and-screw-the-rest" -- the only reason to read it is to be reassured in the reason to resist.
