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Title: The Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Branden ISBN: 0-385-24388-X Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 18 August, 1987 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89 (35 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Ayn Rand: Genius and Tragedy
Comment: Despite some reviewers' claims of this book's unreliability, I found it to be extremely believable. I have read most of Rand's books, including her posthumously-published journals, and the kinds of contradictions I detected appear to arise from point of view rather than dishonesty. Barbara Branden does not attempt to hide the fact that she is writing from her own point of view, and of course the reader should take this into account.
This book is not about destroying Rand, as some reviewers seem to think. Quite to the contrary, it celebrates her genius and her achievements. But it also shows the pitfalls of a philosophy that forces a man (or woman) to put himself on a pedestal and does not permit fallibility.
As Branden points out, Rand failed to look inward. Perhaps she was afraid of what she would find, or perhaps in her fervor to avoid subjective thinking she went too far into stubbornness. Whatever the reason, Branden's telling of this story reveals how she apparently shunned the introspection that is essential in order to live one's life objectively.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys Rand's work. Those who truly understand not only Rand's philosophy, but also her personality (as revealed in the characters of Howard Roark and Dagny Taggart), will empathize with her in her struggle to be understood, and will feel sorrow at her failure to live up to her own high standards. Perceptive readers will come away with a clearer understanding of who she was and how to apply her ideas to their lives in a productive way.
Rating: 4
Summary: Ayn Rand from the inner circle...
Comment: For years I had heard of ATLAS SHRUGGED and Ayn Rand without knowing anything about the book or its controversial author. In college I had the opportunity to take a course in biography and this was one of the books we were required to read. It started a fascination with Rand that continues today.
It is amazing that Barbara Branden could provide such an objective look at Ayn Rand, considering the circumstances and history of their friendship and professional association. Regardless of Branden's endorsement of the Objectivist movement, her personal history with Rand was certainly not one filled with enjoyable moments, especially toward the latter stages of Rand's association with Branden's husband Nathaniel.
Be that as it may, Branden provides a look at Ayn Rand from the inside circle, as it were. Branden provides an investigation of the author struggling to publish and then struggling even more to parlay literary success into a philosophical revolution the likes of which have not been seen since Nietzche. The story is well written, and Branden's personal involvement with Rand is neither edited nor 'touched up,' at least from this observer's perspective.
Those who have heard of Rand's work but are unsure regarding its meaning and scope might want to try this biography as an introduction. Knowing the person behind the story will shed lightsome of the 20th century's most controversial literature.
Rating: 5
Summary: Read the book - forget the movie
Comment: I had read several of Rand's works and interestingly enough began with the non-fiction ones. I saw the movie on TV and thought it failed completely in presenting her revolutionary ideas. The movie centered (of course) on the odd affair between Rand and her first disciple, Nathaniel Brandon with both his wife's and Rand's husband knowledge and acceptance.
The book, though, goes into detail that the movie could not. It explains ideas and thoughts and though processess that no film could ever portray. We read about a young refugee from Soviet Russia escaping to the one country that offered unlimited freedom. There has always been disagreement over whether our attitudes are born with us or developed by life experiences. In Rand's case, it appears she was born this way, displaying an odd, rampant individualism from an early age.
We see her struggles, her marriage to Frank, her first failures as an author before the one great break - THE FOUNTAINHEAD which is still, in my opinion, the best. (The portrayal of Gail is simply unsurpassable.) We meet Nathaniel and the growing group of worshipers. Unlike others, I do not entirely blame Rand for this reaction - she accepted what others offered, a very human emotion.
At some point she decided that she wanted the young follower so they had an affair which degraded everyone involved. During this time she wrote THE book, ATLAS SHRUGGED, and reveled in its success. Surprisingly, despite her accent, appearance, domineering personality and rejection by the intellecutal left she became a much coveted speaker, particularly for theoretical subjects. Above all, she was a woman of ideas whose first concern was promulgating those ideas.
She has been attacked because she was demanding, for an affair, for a discrepancy between her public ideas and her private life. All are true but her popularity rests on her so-called philosophy which is, in its essence, the slogan of REASON magazine..."Free markets, free minds." She espoused freedom and attacked collectivism in all its many variants - Naziism, Communism, Socialism, tribalism and religion. It was her espousal of capitalism and individualism that set her at odds with the "progressive" artistic world and, simultaneously, made her such a hit with "ordinary" people. A remarkable book for an even more remarkable life.
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Title: My Years with Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden ISBN: 0787945137 Publisher: Jossey-Bass Pub. Date: 12 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism by Ayn Rand ISBN: 0451163931 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: July, 1989 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Letters of Ayn Rand by Ayn Rand, Michael S. Berliner, Leonard Peikoff ISBN: 0452274044 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: February, 1997 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Journals of Ayn Rand by Ayn Rand, David Harriman, Leonard Peikoff ISBN: 0452278872 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: August, 1999 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution by Ayn Rand, Peter Schwartz ISBN: 0452011841 Publisher: Meridian Books Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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