Book review: “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand
January 20th, 2004 at 2:48 pmWow, what a book ! I don’t usually express a strong opinion
in the beginning of a review, but here I’ll have to make
an exception, as “The Fountainhead” is definitely one of
the best books I’ve ever read. If I’m asked what’s the best
book, in my opinion, I can never name one book, I name a group
that I think are the best. “The Fountainhead” is from now
on in this group.
I bought it from a used-books store, as it appears on that
“best books of the century” list I’m trying to follow. It is
more than 700 pages long, and with a few sections being a little
“philosophically heavy”, it’s a real task to read it. But it’s
a task every minute of which I enjoyed.
Enough praises for now, let me say in brief what the book is about…
“The Fountainhead” tells the story of a few people in New York
of the 20s-30s. There are 5 characters about whom a lot is written,
and these are the main characters of the book. The characters are, in short:
Howard Roark - a brillian architect. THE main character of the book. He
keeps faithful to his beliefs and ideology. It’s a story of his struggle
against people and opinions that oppose that ideology.
Dominique Francon - a newspaper woman. Daughter
of the most famous architect in the city. Throughout the book she gets married
with most of the main characters Keating, Wynand, Roark. Each marriage is, in my
eyes, a symbol of a different union. She magnifies the difference between the
people she marries.
Gail Wynand - one of the most influential people in the city. Owner of a huge
press empire, and in particular of “The New York Banner” - the most widely
circulated paper in the city.
Peter Keating - begins as an excellent architecture student (he finishes Uni with
Roark), rises as a famous architect. Eventually falls to pieces.
Ellsworth Toohey - a reporter, and organizer of communities in unions (which
all has quite a clear goal, as we later find out).
The main theme of “The Fountainhead” is the struggle of the
free mind, creativeness and individualism (all symbolized in Roark) against
the common opinion, “second-handers”, people who think only about what other
people think (mostly symbolized in Keating). This main theme is very important,
as it is THE philosophical main idea of the book, and most of the characters
revolve around it. Roark is the spirit itself. He is an independent architect,
caring little about the opinion of others. He builds in order to build,
to create “right” buildings. Dominique, Wynand and Toohey all “understand” the
theme, but differently.
Dominique seemingly thinks that she’s not really fit
in that world, in which “second-handers” rule. Therefore, she really tries to
make herself suffer. It’s not always clear why she is sacrificing so much, by
the way.
Wynand raises himself about all others. He is a freak of power, caused by
a difficult childhood. He despises all “second-handers” and aspires to rule
them, bending their opinions at his will.
Toohey is a wird bird, and his intentions are unclear until the very end.
He is a very smart and sleek man. He understand how to influence “second-handers”,
and builds a great supporting around himself, which isn’t really expliciltly
felt as supporting by anyone. Eventually, it becomes clear that he wants to
take over Wynand’s empire. Perhaps his intentions are also to achieve power.
He fears Roark, seeing in him everything he doesn’t want the “second-handers”
to understand, and tries to destroy him at every opportunity.
The ideas are exciting, the writing is excellent (sometimes when I read it, I
found myself as-if waking up from a trance after half an hour, remembering
nothing around me bar the printed words). The only bad thing about the book,
is IMHO a little unreal presentation of events, but that can be easily forgiven
as the main point of the book lies elsewhere, as I said before.
Howard Roark should have been a hacker. Really, had he lived in our times,
his talent, devotion to the work and excitement is what values best in
hackers.
All in all, I really enjoyed reading “The Fountainhead”. Bar a good entertainment,
it’s also very inspiring, partly in ways I find hard to express. I warmly
recommend it to everyone. (especially in our profession when people can actually
really love their jobs).
Related posts: