(book review)

“Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them.”
― Ayn Rand

‘Atlas Shrugged’ – is a popular novel by the American writer Ayn Rand, which was first published in 1957 in the United States, and was translated into Ukrainian only in 2015.

I read this series of three books three years ago, but even at the age of seventeen I understood a lot and was very interested, although not all three books. I can say one thing for sure: I would re-read these books again, at a more conscious age, in order to understand their essence and message completely and to the end.

When I first sat down to read the first part of the book, I just couldn’t put it down. I could sit for days and just read. It was surprising for me that I just sit, and read and I’m interested (because I don’t like to read and very rarely do it, and few things can hook me so much.). Reading this part, I was constantly overwhelmed with emotions: positive, negative or mixed. It was unpleasant to read fragments that talk about the politics of influential people and what actions they could do for their own good, while simply destroying everyone and everything around them. And the fragments with the participation of businessmen who, in difficult situations, make balanced decisions and with complete calmness evoked only positive emotions and a desire to learn how to do the same as they do. The main heroine Degni, throughout the trilogy, shows the reader that no matter how difficult it is, no matter what the situation is, it is always possible to find the right way out of everything and there is a solution for any situation.

The books show 3 types of people:

Entrepreneurs, businessmen, Atlanta. They take responsibility, give jobs, strive for development. They earn and let others earn.

Ordinary residents. Hard workers. They cannot change the situation. They can’t even make a decision on a simple matter.

Pests. Deputies, officials, philosophers, historians. This group of people makes decisions based on self-interest. They think that it is possible to take from some and give to others without causing consequences.

Pests, throughout the novel, take away from the Atlanteans their achievements, ideas, results of labor, appropriating everything to themselves. Atlantes, ceasing to bear this burden of burdens, straighten their shoulders, and society is deprived of all technological progress. Everyone suffers, especially civilians.

And one of the main ideas comes from this that it is quite easy to become the head of some large organization, but it is very difficult to manage it so that it does not fall apart, but rather flourishes.

To be honest, I found the second and third parts difficult to read. I read the first one in a week, despite the fact that all three parts are quite extensive, but the second and third I read for three months. I was bored and not so interested anymore. Perhaps this is true, but I am more inclined to believe that I had not yet grown up to such literature and therefore did not understand much, and it seemed boring to me. I never even finished reading a couple of dozen pages in the last part. But now or in a few years, I really want to read this trilogy again, and I advise everyone to do it, because the book really tells about many things that are of interest to everyone and shows the true face of life and business. This novel is really exciting, making you angry, laughing and crying. My rating is 8/10.

The most important question: do you know who is a John Galt?