Rebecca's review
We the Living: 60th Anniversary Edition by Ayn Rand
Instantly as visceral as her more popular later work, Rand's first novel set in early 20th-century communist Russia can really stir you up -- that is, if you support her views on individualism and passion for life, which I do. Like her other novels, the characters are boldly drawn archetypes, strong and obvious, minus extraneous detail that could be distracting from the philosophical ideal overlaying the plot. While Rand experienced first-hand much of the life in Russia she portrays in We the Living, Rand smartly understood that often fantasy can be more effective than reality. Hence we have incredible co-incidences, master manipulators, tragic love triangles (c'mon, what girl doesn't dream of being loved by two dynamic men?), valiant death scenes, all these sort of super-life scenarios not totally believable, but intended to entrall the reader, likely just as Rand was enthralled by writing it. Where her human characters lack in detail, the city of St. Petersburg, also a sort of su...more
