Done is Done

I finally finished Atlas Shrugged and I want to say right out of the gate that I liked this book.

Why do I mention that now? Apparently, there was some confusion as to whether I liked Jane Eyre or not based on what I wrote a while back. Both of these books were recommended to me by my sister and, although I enjoyed them both immensely, I hope she recommends a Foxtrot collection or something like that next 'cuz I need a break from the deep stuff.

I swear my Kindle used to be a lot lighter...

I also need to say that, although I vote, I am as apolitical as someone can get. I am not interested in anyone's political ideology other than my own. Oh, it's not because I think my ever-evolving hodge-podge of tenets I currently live my life by is any better than anyone else's... it's because I know what is right and what works for me (in the context of “now” and with all the logical caveats that statement implies). When I say “I don't care if you qualify yourself as a Republican or Democrat or Libertarian or Whatever,” I mean it. I find discussing categories like that as tiresome as... well... as you are probably finding it reading this paragraph. I just don't care.

So enough of the preamble. Here's my spoiler-free “review” of this... sigh... 1,200 page book. (As Arlo Guthrie would say, “I'm not proud... or tired”.)

In my opinion, this novel can be separated into three sections:

The first section (which was my favorite and which takes up the first 85% of this book) can be summarized like this (wear headphones if you are at work):

The second section (the next 10%) is a looooooooonnnnnnggggg speech. Once you get to this part, you can safely skim it or skip it without missing anything or feeling the least bit guilty. Dude, seriously, a three-hour speech with no breaks? On all channels? During prime-time? FCOL, somebody throw a pie or something!

The third section (the final 5% of the book) is a description of the most unlikely rescue mission ever conceived. Picture the gang from Ocean's Eleven replaced with a rag-tag band of life-long industrialists who rely more on “the element of surprise”, “suicidal audacity”, and a “can-do attitude” rather than “military skill”, “planning”, or “firepower” to extract a comrade from an extremely well-defended torture chamber. This whole portion of the book made me feel like Ayn Rand looked at the huge pile of pages next to her typewriter and said “Holy crap! I better finish this up! This is getting way out of hand!” then quickly tacked on this Mack Bolan-esque ending. Frankly, I am surprised there wasn't a car chase complete with a description of watermelon crates or chickens or plate-glass windows being smashed apart in a wacky, mayhem-filled closing scene.

Overall, I thought this book was awesome and I am looking forward to the next recommendation from my sister.... Just not right away :).