Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is a complex and multi-layered novel. It tells the story of Dagny Taggert, a young woman who is the vice-president of operations for Taggert Transcontinental which is the family train company. She is an efficient and capable person in a world that seems to be run by inefficient and incapable people. Her main ally is Hank Rearden, a man who owns Rearden Steel and has spent years creating his own metal alloy that is much stronger and lighter than regular steel. Together they work on fighting back against a world that no longer cares about how things are done or who does them as long as they actually get done. Pushing back against their efforts are a myriad of people who seem to promote the philosophy of not thinking, not wanting, not caring about oneself but only about others. By doing so they are draining the world of people who are intelligent and capable of enough independent thought to be able to innovate and push forward new ideas. This group is led by Dagny’s own brother, Jim, who wholeheartedly believes this philosophy and gets angry and defensive when confronted about it.
I like this book as it is just the right kind of complex multi-layered narrative that grabs my attention and makes me pay attention the entire time I am reading it. There is no reading this while doing something else as it will require all of your capability to understand this book at its core. The story can be incredibly dense at times which does make it difficult to get through. It is isn’t helped by the fact that the story is also rather long, my copy is a paperback which is almost 1,100 pages long. While all of this didn’t bother me it did mean I had to slow down and really take my time to read it. The story itself is breathtaking in its scope as it covers a significant portion of time for the characters over the course of the story. Due to this we really get to know our main protagonists, Dagny and Hank, over the course of the story and watch as they exhibit tremendous growth and understanding over the course of their continual struggle. What was interesting about that is that their struggle was on many levels as they struggled to fight back against a society that doesn’t care about anything while they also struggled to understand how people can live like that as it is beyond their understanding for much of the novel. Even when they do understand they do not accept it as a valid premise for a way to live. These elements work together to create an incredible novel even if it is slightly difficult to read and get through let alone properly understand. My only concern about the book was how wordy it can get at times. There is one section towards the end where someone is giving a radio speech explaining something. In my version of the text that speech takes 50 pages to get all the way through. It is a good speech and it does explain a lot of things but that is also really long which is mildly discouraging. Overall, a good book that I am giving 4.5 out of 5 stars.
This is a book that is probably best considered a modern classic but also a book that in many ways delves into philosophy in its own unique way. If it sounds interesting than I encourage you to try it but don’t be discouraged if it takes you a while to read it. I know I took a while the first time I read it. It may not be for everyone but I would encourage everyone to at least consider it and be willing to try it as it puts forth a lot of interesting ideas about modern society and schools of thought that we should probably consider. Due to how complex this novel is I would definitely agree with the intended age range for the audience being adults. There is very little in terms of content that would make it unsuitable for younger readers the book is dense which may make it difficult for them. It is still a good book and I hope you will consider it anyway. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments if you do.