A house can have integrity, just like a person . . . and just as seldom.

It took me more than a week to read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand ( ok ok more than a fortnight , I misplaced my glasses , HAPPY ? )

 

The book is divided into 4 parts, in which the author describes or goes into details of the main characters.

 

•               Part One: Peter Keating

•               Part Two: Ellsworth M. Toohey

•               Part Three: Gail Wynand

•               Part Four: Howard Roark

 

When I pick a book, I like to read the “summary” , but as this came highly recommended I had no idea if this was a murder mystery or something in the lines of a Jeffery Archer book.It did take a few chapters for me to understand what Ayn was talking about , and where the story was going but I knew it would be a happy ending.

 

I’m not going to tell you about the plot and what the book is all about but I would like to point out that Howard Roark, the hero of the book, is, according to Rand the perfect man, or shall I say, he is the man who was “as a man should be”  (but will never be ).I loved the parts when the main characters meet each other : Toohey and Dominique or be it Dominique and Howard or Toohey and Gail or Howard and Gail ( sort of anticlimax). There are lines in the book which I envied and wish I had written. :(   Ayn Rand loves playing with words.       

 

Watch out for some superb passages, where Ayn, leads you astray. I liked the way she gave us the flashbacks and the chapter which described Gail’s childhood was something that I will remember for a long time. One of the things that she preaches is that “Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.”    Man is selfish???????????   I found it hard to believe that it was written in 1943, wow and its still selling like hot pancakes. I liked the twists in the plot but the conversations where just awesome. Some just went over my head and I had to re-read the passages. Like the way she talks about the word “I”, that went way over my head and out of the window. I think I liked the book because it was sarcastic to the core.

 

After reading the book, I‘ve  started  looking at buildings more closely, trying to imagine the architect slogging over the drawing board. ;)  I look at people more closely and categorize them into the 4 categories ( characters) .I confess I had not idea that Toohey would turn out to be the bad guy L shows how gullible I am ……..sigh*

 

There were times when I hated the book, because it made me think :(   and there where times I jumped in joy and got weird looks from my mom. The sarcastic replies and awesome questions …….wait a min I’m off to read the book again.

 

And thank you Myths, unfortunately I didn’t fall unconscious, but I did have 4 days of weird dreams :)