Saralee Says
The Fountainhead (Plume), first published in 1943, is one of those novels that is required reading for many college and high school students. Why does The Fountainhead have the reputation as one of the all-time great American stories?
Author Ayn Rand divides this book into four main sections and names each section after a main character. My favorite parts of The Fountainhead are the beginnings of each section because Rand gives extensive background for some of her characters. She uses more narrative in these portions of the book and way too much dialogue for my taste throughout the rest of the novel.
The story begins in 1922 as Peter Keating and Howard Roark are at the end of their college studies in architecture. Keating is graduating with great prospects and Roark is denied his diploma because he refuses to submit traditional architectural drawings. Rand sets in motion the continuing conflict in the world of business between Keating and Roark.
Keating is an attractive man, determined to move up in corporate world and in society. He will do anything to land a job, including taking credit for work that is not his, denying his affection to the woman he loves and literally driving his co-workers to the point of death. Roark will only build buildings his way or no way. Keating resents Roark's courage and Roark frequently ignores Keating. Both are attracted to Dominique Francon, the daughter of Keating's boss. Francon is a successful journalist who is at war with her own inner demons. Other players include Gail Wynard, who grew up in Hell's Kitchen and has built an empire by publishing trashy newspapers, and Ellsworth Toohey, a despicable and influential columnist who delights in destroying others.
Why do you think The Fountainhead is so popular today with the twentysomethings? I think it is because they are at an age when many develop their behavior for their careers. Who was the most idealistic of Rand's characters in this book? Did you become impatient with Roark or is he your ideal for individuality and independence? What about the woman who has her own career like Francon - was this progressive feminist thinking on Rand's part? If you have read this book multiple times, do you like it better each time you read it? I found myself much more impatient than I did when I was impressed by Rand many years ago. This time around there was no one really to cheer for and very little redemption in The Fountainhead.
Larry's Language
You don't have to take my word for how truly awful this book is. Just listen to two of Rand's minor characters in The Fountainhead: "Ike, it's awful … it's perfectly awful. It's so awful it's wonderful." To which Ike responds, "If Ibsen can write plays, why can't I? He's good and I' m lousy, but that's not a sufficient reason." Wrong. It is a good and sufficient reason.
The five major characters in this book all reflect various aspects of Rand's belief in the mythology of the self-made man who achieves fulfillment in life by acquiring money and business success. It does not matter who they run over - Mom, spouse, lover or co-worker. There is no discrimination here - her moral imperative for her characters is to trample rich and poor alike. While her characters are passionate and moralistic, they are strangely lacking in human qualities of warmth and kindness.
The Fountainhead is a study in philosophy, not a real novel. Not surprisingly Rand, who grew up in Russia and survived its 1917 communist revolution, writes in the style of the nineteenth century Russian novelists. The difference is that Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky were good writers, and Rand is a lousy novelist. If you want to learn her truths, read her short non-fiction such as Virtue of Selfishness, not her novels.
Rand's fame and fortune derives from her arguments for what she calls the philosophy of objectivism. She uses her stilted characters and their problems to illustrate that selfishness is good, the Golden Rule is evil and individualism is supreme. It is almost a handbook for how the undeservedly rich should live their lives. Even Roark, her most idealistic character in The Fountainhead, proves destructive in the end.
Rand believed that we should recognize and experience reality and not try to create or invent our own, thus rejecting most belief and faith systems, except for her own abiding faith in unregulated capitalism. She makes a virtue out of selfishness and all but romanticizes rape in this appalling novel.
Join us for our next Book Club discussion featuring Under the Banner of Heaven - A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer.
