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Anthem
by Ayn Rand
This book is a great example of my theory that there just weren't as many authors decades / centuries ago, so any writer who actually completed a halfway solid book was published. For readers, there wasn't a lot of variety. I'm not sure a book of this caliber would make it past a literary agent today. There are too many other great books to choose from. There is much more competition among authors in the present.
With that said, considering the time in which it was written (Depression Era / years leading to World War II / growth of communism), I could see why this book had an audience in its era. It is a dystopian tale of a society in which everyone speaks and thinks in first person plural. This was very distracting and confusing to read, as no one in the story is a "he" or a "she," but everyone is a "we" even though each "we" is actually only an individual... and therein lies the plot to this short book. There is no individualism condoned by the state or even imagined by each member of society. Each person is given a job by the state at age 15 and retired at age 40, with the state being responsible for every aspect of a person's training and care from birth until death.
The names of the characters in the story reinforce this idea, such as the narrator, Equality 7-2521, and his love interest, Liberty 5-3000. After realizing that they care for each other in a way outside of the boundaries set by the state, they adopt new names for each other, and they eventually run away after Equality 7-2521's invention of a lightbulb is rejected by the World Council and he has to flee for his life.
The book has an element of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village" in its delivery, in that as a reader, it seems like Equality 7-2521's invention seems to be a new technology. Later, the reader discovers, along with Equality 7-2521, that someone else in the "Unmentionable Times" has previously made this same discovery.
The theme of the book is the importance of individualism both to society and each respective individual, and given the era in which is written, it is a strong statement against socialism / communism. However, other authors have tackled the same theme with more depth and emotion, and I prefer George Orwell's "1984" as a better-quality book in this particular genre.
With that said, considering the time in which it was written (Depression Era / years leading to World War II / growth of communism), I could see why this book had an audience in its era. It is a dystopian tale of a society in which everyone speaks and thinks in first person plural. This was very distracting and confusing to read, as no one in the story is a "he" or a "she," but everyone is a "we" even though each "we" is actually only an individual... and therein lies the plot to this short book. There is no individualism condoned by the state or even imagined by each member of society. Each person is given a job by the state at age 15 and retired at age 40, with the state being responsible for every aspect of a person's training and care from birth until death.
The names of the characters in the story reinforce this idea, such as the narrator, Equality 7-2521, and his love interest, Liberty 5-3000. After realizing that they care for each other in a way outside of the boundaries set by the state, they adopt new names for each other, and they eventually run away after Equality 7-2521's invention of a lightbulb is rejected by the World Council and he has to flee for his life.
The book has an element of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village" in its delivery, in that as a reader, it seems like Equality 7-2521's invention seems to be a new technology. Later, the reader discovers, along with Equality 7-2521, that someone else in the "Unmentionable Times" has previously made this same discovery.
The theme of the book is the importance of individualism both to society and each respective individual, and given the era in which is written, it is a strong statement against socialism / communism. However, other authors have tackled the same theme with more depth and emotion, and I prefer George Orwell's "1984" as a better-quality book in this particular genre.