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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
The story of a woman living through the rise of communism in St. Petersburg. As someone who knows pitifully little about communism or history in general, not having been much of a history buff back when they were teaching it to me, I found it educational and a good story at the same time.
Read this book a few years back. Couldn't relate to any of the motivations of the lead character Kira. This book justified my personal belief felt that women characters are the weakest link in Ayn Rand's novels.
I have finally finished the Ayn Rand tomes. :-p This one may be the most interesting/least distracting of the four. I think I appreciated it more because of it's closeness to actual historical happenings. It was still a horribly depressing book of people trying and trying and failing. Of the danger of Communism and the battle between The Party and of man's personal ambition. It's all there, and it was riveting in parts, but as with all of her books, there is no light. There's not a sense of redemption, of triumph, of happiness, of anything positive or hopeful. They just make me more or less sad and like she's come close but missed the mark, somehow.
Actually a 3.5 stars book. Many times I though "this is great" and then I would get to a section that just dragged. Overall, I'm glad I read it.
At some point I lost sympathy for the main character. While her moral choices left much to be desired for me, they were justified to some extent. What we do for love, right? Well, love. I couldn't understand Kira's unwavering affection for a boy who had no respect for her at all.
Ayn Rand is known to hate communists. For her, individualism was the biggest value and it shows in this book, especially in the portrayal of the main character, Kira.
Kira didn't care about politics. She only did what she really wanted and wasn't afraid to fight for it. Unlike most of women, she wanted to be an engineer. She lived with her lover without marriage, against her parents will. She wasn't afraid to approach communists to ask for mercy for her loved one.
Andrej Taganov was a supporting character and he was a contrast to Kira. With a working class background, he deeply believed in the Red Revolution. Although he was a communist, his attitude and motivation were well-founded without taking away from his human nature. Like Kira, he only did what he believed in, but his beliefs were different because of his life experiences. He was my favorite character.
I read the ending in one breath and I must say that I was overthinking it for 2 days. When I picked this book, I knew that it was not an easy rom-com, but I felt disturbed.
Ayn Rand is known to hate communists. For her, individualism was the biggest value and it shows in this book, especially in the portrayal of the main character, Kira.
Kira didn't care about politics. She only did what she really wanted and wasn't afraid to fight for it. Unlike most of women, she wanted to be an engineer. She lived with her lover without marriage, against her parents will. She wasn't afraid to approach communists to ask for mercy for her loved one.
Andrej Taganov was a supporting character and he was a contrast to Kira. With a working class background, he deeply believed in the Red Revolution. Although he was a communist, his attitude and motivation were well-founded without taking away from his human nature. Like Kira, he only did what he believed in, but his beliefs were different because of his life experiences. He was my favorite character.
I read the ending in one breath and I must say that I was overthinking it for 2 days. When I picked this book, I knew that it was not an easy rom-com, but I felt disturbed.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I love this book. I love how it is written and the message. Powerful and empowering.
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
This is a very intense book, one that drew me in even though I found most of the characters to be unpleasant. I did not know anything about Rand and her philosophy before reading this book, and I don’t really know what I think of it - certainly this book poses questions that are difficult to answer, and as such the characters and atmosphere haunted me even while I was not reading it.
It is not my first introduction to life in Soviet Russia, but imagining how it would have been perceived when it was first published is a powerful thought. I do think the questions Rand asks are as important today as they were when this was written nearly 100 years ago, whether or not you agree with Rand’s answers.
It is not my first introduction to life in Soviet Russia, but imagining how it would have been perceived when it was first published is a powerful thought. I do think the questions Rand asks are as important today as they were when this was written nearly 100 years ago, whether or not you agree with Rand’s answers.
It has been 17 years since I first read this novel. I lost all my notes and highlights from my first read, but I do recall it had a big impact on me, so I decided it was time to read it again and capture some notes and thoughts.
First and foremost, this novel depicts the impacts that totalitarian regimes have on societies and individuals. It has a ton of historical insight into policies, living conditions, and morale, taking place in post revolutionary Russia in the 1920's. As someone who has read a lot of Rand, I was a bit surprised in how much of this historic detail she wrote about here. It is no secret Rand was a huge critic of communism and statism, but her later novels and nonfiction make political arguments at a philosophical level, where-as in We the Living, a big goal was to show people what it was actually like living in Russia during this time. That is not to say that this work is not philosophical, because it is: it shows different types of people who rise in such conditions, those who fall, and those who are just stuck.
The style and substance is not quite Rand yet, in my opinion, and that is part of why I give it 4 stars. Although Kira is a very "romantic" character, she is not given enough context for the reader to quite get it. Her actions are very Dagny-esque (Atlas Shrugged) or Roak-esque (the Fountainhead) without the intellectual firepower to back it up. This same problem applies to a communist protagonist also, Andrei, and makes this character difficult to connect with early on. I can also very clearly see the Victor Hugo influence in multiple passages and in the overall story type, which is not bad (I love Hugo) but it’s too Hugo and not enough Rand for me (no one can out Hugo, Hugo). In her later work she keeps the romantic flair but makes a style of her own.
Overall, the novel was daring for it’s time and is unique among the anit-communism literature in that it has a focus on the impact to individuals who otherwise know how to live, if they are not suffocated by dictatorship. I find this very different from popular dystopians like 1984, Fahrenheit 451, or a Brave New World, which start with a society and characters already destroyed, and don’t focus as much on the individuality aspect. Rand’s ability to write beautiful, scathing, and influential dialogue (even if it’s too long or opinionated for some readers), probably most famously with Galt’s speech, exists in this book too. I highlighted a ton of powerful passages. It is definitely worth the read (and re-read).
First and foremost, this novel depicts the impacts that totalitarian regimes have on societies and individuals. It has a ton of historical insight into policies, living conditions, and morale, taking place in post revolutionary Russia in the 1920's. As someone who has read a lot of Rand, I was a bit surprised in how much of this historic detail she wrote about here. It is no secret Rand was a huge critic of communism and statism, but her later novels and nonfiction make political arguments at a philosophical level, where-as in We the Living, a big goal was to show people what it was actually like living in Russia during this time. That is not to say that this work is not philosophical, because it is: it shows different types of people who rise in such conditions, those who fall, and those who are just stuck.
The style and substance is not quite Rand yet, in my opinion, and that is part of why I give it 4 stars. Although Kira is a very "romantic" character, she is not given enough context for the reader to quite get it. Her actions are very Dagny-esque (Atlas Shrugged) or Roak-esque (the Fountainhead) without the intellectual firepower to back it up. This same problem applies to a communist protagonist also, Andrei, and makes this character difficult to connect with early on. I can also very clearly see the Victor Hugo influence in multiple passages and in the overall story type, which is not bad (I love Hugo) but it’s too Hugo and not enough Rand for me (no one can out Hugo, Hugo). In her later work she keeps the romantic flair but makes a style of her own.
Overall, the novel was daring for it’s time and is unique among the anit-communism literature in that it has a focus on the impact to individuals who otherwise know how to live, if they are not suffocated by dictatorship. I find this very different from popular dystopians like 1984, Fahrenheit 451, or a Brave New World, which start with a society and characters already destroyed, and don’t focus as much on the individuality aspect. Rand’s ability to write beautiful, scathing, and influential dialogue (even if it’s too long or opinionated for some readers), probably most famously with Galt’s speech, exists in this book too. I highlighted a ton of powerful passages. It is definitely worth the read (and re-read).