Book Review #43: The Fountainhead By Ayn Rand

There are books that are hard to read. There are also few books that are hard to review. And, there are books, which fall under both of these categories. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand is one of such important books to the mankind. I may be exaggerating a bit here, but, let’s give it to the author for writing this magnum opus. It is a treat to read this book. It can be easily declared as a must read book before you die!!

The summary as given in the back page of the book goes like this:

“This instant classic is the story of an intransigent young architect, his violent battle against conventional standards, and his explosive love affair with a beautiful woman who struggles to defeat him.”

What I really liked about this book? Is it the philosophical thoughts? Or is it the fight of a relentless stubborn architect? Or is it the unusual romance between the protagonists? Or is it the life lessons? It is extremely difficult to come up with the answers. I liked all these thoughts that bundled up in this book. It seems very difficult to understand it at the beginning, but, as the book flows through the pages, it is overwhelmingly awesome. It covers everything. The Architect, The Press, The Love story, The betrayals, The deceiving characters, The forgiving characters, etc…

At times you may feel like you are not able to continue to read. But, reading this book requires a lot of patience according to me. It takes at least 2 weeks to finish reading it, if you are reading few pages a day.

The book mainly talks about 4 main characters. Peter Keating (A confused Architect), Ellsworth M. Toohey (Guy who wants to control everything but wants to remain as a shadow), Gail Waynand (A conglomerate tycoon) and our hero of the novel Howard Roark. 

The book starts very slowly and takes time to sync in the readers mind. Slowly it occupies your mind and crumbles up into your dreams when you read it. The ideology presented in this book requires a great deal of concentration to read it and understand it. Each dialogue, each prose, each verse is heavily loaded with philosophical thoughts. Every character seems like a mountain of philosophical aspects.

The Fountainhead is written with great eloquence. It is lucid and engaging. It is loaded with the power of wisdom. It you can read it carefully, you will slowly realize the meaning of the all those 4 different characters, developing them with the intense clarity, so much so that, you are left feeling pity for everyone but the hero.

Howard Roark is an unbelievable character. His ruthless yet calm nature fascinates anyone. His tranquilizing demeanor and the aura which he carries around himself is seldom unnoticed. Even after fighting for his existence, he never allowed himself to be robbed by anyone intellectually. He constantly reminds us of the nature “My way or Highway”. He is adamant, fickle minded yet he is a hero. He takes his fight against the world that is still not out of conservative orthodox thinking. When the whole world is against his modern viewpoints, he stood for his convictions and proved what he is capable off. It is such a joy to read the dialogues of Howard Roark. He reminds every one of us on how to live life on own terms. If we all look back into our lives, we lived all of our life living for others, working for others, satisfying others. Howard Roark conveys his message clearly that, live your life that way you want it to be. “Those who mind, don't matter and those who matter, don't mind” kind of attitude is the take away from the book.

Overall, The Fountainhead speaks of one main thing throughout the novel. It is “Individualism”. No matter what happens tomorrow, if you can prove your individualism then it’s the greatest achievement one can achieve in his lifetime. I recommend this book to everyone. It is once in a life time opportunity to get lost in the philosophical thoughts. You would certainly enjoy each page.

Rating this book is beyond my abilities. Anyways, 

My Rating:

5/5