Product Description

Atlas Shrugged is the astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged stretches the boundaries further than any book you have ever read. It is a mystery, not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder--and rebirth--of man's spirit.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2087 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 1184 pages

About the Author
Ayn Rand (1905-1982) is best known for her philosophy of Objectivism and her novels We the Living, Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged.

Customer Reviews

Interesting, but better to wait for the movie.
Atlas Shrugged is a 1100 page(small print!) novel in which 4 or 5 people stride about like nationalistic heroes building railroads, inventing things, and being proud of it; while the rest of the world mooches off them and complain that the industrialists have too much money.

Even though I'm a liberal, I have to admit this book was interesting. It's like a dystopian novel for capitalists (God knows how many there are for socialists). The ideas are challenging and thought-provoking whoever you are, and the writing is pretty nice, Rand obviously put a lot of energy into the book.

But it's pretty clunky, the plot goes on so many boring tangents, the love scenes are ridiculous, the characters are uninteresting, and most of all it's too repetitive. A quarter of the way through the book I was already familiar with all aspects of Rand's philosophy, and I could tell precisely where the book was going, so reading it felt like a bit of a chore, especially since I never skim pages.

If you're an anti-union, hardcore capitalist then buy the book and revel in it, but if you're not, then wait for the expected movie, with Angelina Jolie coming out in 2008.

I gave this a 4 because the people who would like this would love it, and it's quite a novelty to read a writer who isn't a liberal/socialist/hedonist/romantic/bum.

you haven't lived if you haven't read this book
movie-schmovie. Read Atlas Shrugged when you're in college, when you're starting your first firm, when you're escaping the corporate world later in life... you'll get a very different experience each time. But read it you must.. sure it's long and, at times, very heavy handed. Many of the characters seem to be charachtiures to me, 30 years since my first exposure. But you haven't lived, or exercised your brain in sufficient dimenions, unless you've read Atlas Shrugged. THEN hate it or love it or simply respect it--great compelling reading, interesting philosophy and ultimately as bedrock classic 20th century literature as it comes.

Good, but a bit lopsided
Ayn Rand does make you think and she definately makes some points worth reading. There are lessons to be drawn about the importance of individual achievement and the potential of waste and stagnation arising from an overpowering state. But the philosophy is too simplistic to be life changing (wasn't america founded on looters stealing the land from the native population, remember Enron anyone?).
This is not what I'd call great literature either, there are moments of powerful prose and the plot is a grabber. However the speaches get repetative and long winded and the characters are a bit one dimensional.

In summary worth ploughing through, thought provoking, but try and keep a sense of perspective, neither pure right or left has been proven to work effectively.