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Jun 26, 2011

Bird Brian rated it:

How did I miss reviewing this book earlier? I must have been suppressing it.

Do you want to know who Ayn Rand is like? She’s like Rainman. Did you ever see that movie, with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman? Rainman (Hoffman) is an autistic savant, whom his brother Charlie (Cruise) wants to use to count cards in Las Vegas. And Rainman would be ideally suited to that too, if he could understand Charlie’s plan enough to cooperate effectively. But being an autistic savant, Rainman doesn’ More...

27 comments like (47 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2007

Pete rated it:

Congrats, Aynnie! You've received my first single star rating! I read this in high school when I was reading a lot of dystopian future literature and thought it was by far the worst of the lot. Granted, if I'd read it when I was younger I might have liked it more, but saying that the even younger, less mature, more pretentious version of my teenage self would have liked something is hardly a glowing endorsement.

As such I've steered /way/ clear of her door-stoppers. I don't think More...

9 comments like (35 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Zora rated it:

The real tragedy of this book is that the billions of copies that have been printed could have been more appropriately used to build homes for people in third world countries. This book could not be more self indulgent if it came with a bottle of Absynthe and a membership to MENSA. Not only is it impossibly boring to read, the characters are so one dimensional that they put V.C. Andrews to shame. Do yourself a favor: set this on fire and use the fourteen hours that it burns to read Martin's Song More...

25 comments like (22 people liked it)

Dec 04, 2007

Irina rated it:

The book is about human identity and freedom, and how one can degrade under the chains of collectivism.

A lot of reviews on this book, which are posted on this site, use the word “futuristic” events. I intentionally put the quotes around this word as I tend to totally disagree with the choice of this word. I used to live under socialist regime, a collectivistic society. So I can relate and completely understand the events described in the book, where the word “I” doesn’t exist, when i More...

3 comments like (29 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Jonathan rated it:

Of all the dystopian novels I have read, this one felt like one of the least inspired. The characters are one-dimensional, the story lacks context altogether, and is entirely made to support Rand's liberal philosophies. Sure, it's really short--so is Animal Farm, but that is a story with depth. Ironically, they both claim to be about Soviet Russia--or at least the author's experience with such. I hope I can claim that my reasoning for disliking this book has more to do with its content, and less More...

3 comments like (16 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2011

Michelle rated it:

I know it is one of her lesser works, but I feel it gave me a full impression of her: self-absorbed, capitalistic, pedantic, overbearing, ignorant, etc. The story has been told before and by better writers.

1 comment like (11 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Phyllis rated it:

ridiculous

4 comments like (13 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2008

Danny rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (18 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Conrad rated it:

Definitely the only book by Ayn Rand I will ever need to read, unless I happen to be reincarnated as an asshole. When people start modeling their book covers after Mussolini-era Italian architecture, worry.

6 comments like (15 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Mads rated it:

I never quite figured out why my highschool lit teacher made this required reading. It's something I've always wondered about. Anthem struck me as too much "anti-communist." Somewhat propaganda material for the anti-communist forces. I've always been skeptical of rabid anti-communism. In the novella, the characters have serial numbers instead of names, isn't that what's happening in the capitalist system as well, with our identity cards and employee numbers?

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2012

Gavin rated it:

First off, let me say this: SHAME ON YOU AMAZON! You have prohibited a great cover of this novel from showing here on goodreads. The cover I speak of looks like this: five ghostly apparitions stand forlornly, one is reaching toward a light that looks as if it is an exploding star; they all have chains on their wrists; the far right figure, the only woman, is tenderly reaching for the hand of the man trying to grasp the light; a pitch black background acts as a backdrop. It is the perfect cover More...

9 comments like (14 people liked it)

May 18, 2011

Jodi Lu rated it:

see i could DEAL with rand's writing this. she says what she's gotta, then ends it. she's like, "okay let's be honest, i'm not a novelist b/c i really don't write very well BUT i have this THING i really believe in and i wanna share it and gosh darnit people like parables so HERE." why ANYONE would want to read MORE about it and suffer through the out-of-her-element (yes donnie, i said it) torture of the other beasts is beyond me.

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jill rated it:

Ayn Rand was the most overrated writer (I can't even call her a philosopher) of the 20th century, and a great gaping asshole to boot. This book is yet another to support those facts.

4 comments like (10 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Edward rated it:

Witless, styleless, and self-righteous. "1984" and "A Brave New World" are far more effective books. Although I can't say I agree that individualism is more important than collectivism, especially when people come together as a whole to do things positive in this world.

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Peter rated it:

did you guys know that conformity is bad and indviduality is better?

0 comments like (14 people liked it)

Dec 26, 2007

Heather rated it:

This book really helped me get my self esteem back together. This was my mantra going into college.... I think it got me through a lot of BS. It is not bad to remind yourself of the following things every once in a while.....

"I am. I think. I will.

My hands . . . My spirit . . . My sky . . . My forest . . . This earth of mine. . . . What must I say besides? These are the words. This is the answer.

I stand here on the summit of the mountain. I lift my hea More...

0 comments like (13 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Kamyar rated it:

Neither a science-fiction masterpiece, nor a futuristic predicament, ANTHEM is a personal reaction to the collectivist system, dominant in Soviet Union and its modernized colonies for more than seven decades. Assumed too much reactionary by leftist intellectuals for rather a long time, it depicts the apocalyptic chaos in a world ruled by collectivist thoughts in the same way that Orwell’s 1984 builds it (for instance, you can think of a world after a nuclear crisis and then come to the meaning o More...

0 comments like (17 people liked it)

Aug 29, 2007

Jae rated it:

I’d been meaning to read some more Ayn Rand ever since I finished Sewer, Gas, and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy, which includes a 6-page synopsis of Atlas Shrugged. Oh, and one of the characters is a virtual Ayn Rand that exists inside an electronic lantern. Anthem trumpets a familiar Randian theme: Everything good about the world derives from individuality and personal freedom. There is nothing particularly noteworthy about Anthem, but it does smell a bit like Corporate America. And it can More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 25, 2008

Kat rated it:

Futuristic society that doesn't recognize individuals -- everyone's name is "Equality" followed by a number. Cute, huh? One day, Equality-some-number-or-another stumbles across a cave with books in it and discovers the word "I" and immediately realizes what it means even though his cultural and linguistic backgrounds have in no way equipped him to understand but whatever, it's a novella and Rand doesn't have time. Anyway, now Equality-### has an "I" and so he liv More...

26 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Aerin rated it:

What was Ayn Rand smoking, seriously? Can I have some? No, nevermind, then I might start spouting off about rational self-interest and the evils of altruism and the knock-down drag-out world of architecture. Whatever, Ayn Rand. WHAT-ever.

This is my favorite of her books. It is also the shortest. There may or may not be a causal relationship between those two statements.

3 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Katie rated it:

Ayn Rand should have put down her pencil during the time she made novella notes or just named this thing "Ego".

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Emu rated it:

Possibly the most pretentious writing I've ever experienced.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2012

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

Ayn Rand is I think deserving of the appellation "an odd duck". One of her dearest ideas (and I would suppose ideals) is the the right, willingness and ability to think for ones self. But she functioned in her life with the approach, "my way or the high-way".

This book is worth reading and I think there are valuable things to take away from this little novella. But you need to be able to think. Ms. Rand is a classic case of "throwing the baby out with the bat More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2008

Amy rated it:

A truly interesting read, Ayn Rand's book holds a captivating narrative. But as I watched the character swerve from the absolute collective to an absolute, egocentric conclusion, I ended up pitying the hero and his hapless companion for stumbling upon the wrong conclusion upon which they would base the rest of their existence. And what happened to "The Golden One" (his much less assertive true love)? All I could see was that for all the hero's self realization, his mate was merely a More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 20, 2007

Kati rated it:

Like many other reviews pointed out, the characters lacked depth, and have no personality. It's obviously anti-Communism, which is why I put it on my "politics" shelf. This novel seems to be the opposite of most sci-fi/dystopia novels, in that it is pro-progress and pro-technology. I tried not to be biased while I was reading this, but knowing Ayn Rand was a capitalist made it hard.

The reason I read this book is because it's required in my English class right now. We'll ha More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 28, 2011

Amanda rated it:

"If that which we have found is the corruption of solitude, then what can men wish for save corruption?" (p. 85)

I have very mixed feelings about "Anthem." At first, after reading an unforgivably haughty introduction by Leonard Peikoff, I truly expected to dislike this short novel. However, Ayn Rand's writing style is nothing short of captivating. The voice of Anthem is simple, using only a few words, but only needing those few words to thoroughly capture the feeli More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 20, 2008

Matt rated it:

Quick read with a lasting impression. Released over a decade before George Orwell's '1984', this is Rand's objection to the idea of Socialist unity and embraces the idea of the human ego and individualism.

Rand herself described this story as a poem, and is able to enforce her philosophy of 'objectivism' without the long winded novel (Atlas Shrugged, anyone?)

Although her writing in 'Anthem' is more transparent then her norm, the book still captivates and makes it's point.

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jun 03, 2011

Martin rated it:

I read this short book in one night after a friend lent it as a curiosity. He is reading Ayn Rand's novels and thought I'd find "Anthem" intellectually stimulating, as it is one of the super-famous Rand's first works and lays the foundation for her later writings on her philosophy of Objectivism. For a brief explanation of Objectivism by Rand herself, check out this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ukJiBZ8_4k

I had never read a word Rand wrote (and didn't know much about her More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 23, 2011

Lee rated it:

I remember reading this in high school and loving it! So what made me ruin my memories for reading it now, some 15 years later?? I'm not sure, but I found the book to be annoyingly pretentious. I wish I could put into words the bad taste it left in my mouth, but I'm at a loss. I'm thankful for it being a quick, short read, or I might actually be upset with the amount of my life wasted re-reading this.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 04, 2007

Kate rated it:

ayn rand is the most ridiculous author i have ever read. i hate her. and her philosophies. she takes hyperbole to a hyperbolic extreme in this book. i hate how she makes the main characters these perfect beings whose only flaw is that society won't accept their superiority. i wonder how ayn rand would have thought if she had been unattractive, unsuccessful and poor. absolute rubbish.

5 comments like (6 people liked it)