The Fountainhead

Rating:	★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Literature & Fiction
Author:	Ayn Rand

Something weird occurred to me when I was reading this book. I began to realize that I did not like the lead character, Howard Roark. What's weirder was that I got to finish the book astonished that i did not find any redeeming value in him. Furthermore, I didn't really like the book one bit.

I purchased a paperback copy of The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand, because of the high regard one of my friends has for the author. I rarely stray outside my favorite genres of fantasy and history, but I do make exceptions if a book or author is given good reviews by people I respect. Unfortunately, as in this case, the experience of reading this book is only worth the lesson learned - i.e. not to buy any more books by Ayn Rand.

The characters in this book are severely one sided. There seems to be a stone wall in the universe of the novel that clearly divides which characters have integrity and which ones do not - with the protagonist, his love interest and some friends conveniently located in the "integrity" side, and the rest of the world in the "no integrity" side. This is a story where the lead character is incapable of making a mistake, and the antagonists seem to never have any backbone.

In a somewhat funny way, I am reminded of the animated series Pokemon, wherein Ashe and his friends do all the right things, and their opponent Team Rocket never seems to run out of ways to screw up their own plans. The only difference is that Pokemon is more entertaining, and sometimes Ashe and co. do screw themselves up, and Team Rocket shows flashes of good will and integrity.

One gets the idea that when Rand wrote this book, she had her own brand of philosophy - Objectivism - in mind in order to lecture her readers on what the ideal man is. While this might be her intention all along, it doesn't make good storytelling. And the last time I checked, novels are primarily created to tell stories, and not philosophical lectures.

In hindsight, this is probably the reason why the book is padded with Rand's writings. The publishers of the latest edition must have realized that people would finish reading the book with an undefined feeling...puzzlement even. While many famous books have an introduction that explains the historical setting of the work or the personal background of the author, no book I'm aware of contains its own "Cliff's Notes" in a long winding effort to make people understand and appreciate the story.

Not a book that I'd recommend to anyone. Objectivism seems to be a worthy read though. I just wish she didn't express it through this novel.