Did you like those books themselves, though? Two excellent writers, Orwell and Huxley.
I thought the books were great.
Recently, I also really liked The Mandibles, by Shriver. Independent of theme, I think the writing itself is very good.
I read Brave New World and 1984 years ago. I seemed to remember liking 1984 better. Both were good though.
I've tried at least 4 times to grind through Atlas Shrugged over the years. I can't do it. There is plenty to argue about the philosophical underpinnings, but that wouldn't bother me. What bothers me is that it is such cataclysmically, galactically bad writing.
I understand it is an "important" book. But important due to the influence it's had, like Das Kapital, or Mein Kamph. At least no one has had the bad taste to try and novelize those. Atlas Shrugged is the most one dimensional, thinly veiled political pamphlet disguised as a novel I have ever seen since.... Fountainhead.
It's not even college sophomore level writing. The story is shallow, and utterly transparent. The characters, to be generous, are nothing more than cardboard cutouts. Every time I've tried to read it, I have to put it down due to the migraine it induces from my constant eye-rolling.
The people who love that book love it because it parrots the particular, narrow eco-political religion they espouse; not because it has any passable resemblance to a well written novel.
Ayn Rand has never written a single good novel or screenplay I know of. She should have stuck to essays and articles. If you're going to drop a 1000 page boat anchor on my desk and call it a novel, I'm going to judge it as a novel and not as a political manifesto. Rand's works are great novels the way Ishtar was a great movie.
I'd rather read the Left Behind novels than make another try at Atlas Shrugged again.
