We the Living
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book was one of my greatest literary pleasures and surprises in recent years. I had somehow managed not to read anything by this writer, even though the genre this book can be categorized in is probably my favorite, i.e., classic Russian literature. Apparently, Ayn Rand grew up in Russia, in the same period as this book (early twentieth century), and it's clear that she still had a huge Russian influence when she wrote it, because in some aspects it is almost indistinguishable from the style and atmosphere of the Russian greats. She seems to also have inherited a great deal of passion, and she excels at expressing her beliefs in noble and beautiful ways. Her characters are well-drawn, deep, realistic and diversified, and she was obviously an intelligent and perspicacious woman, who had a good grasp of the human psyche in all its varied forms. Her depiction of the incredible and impossible conditions which people had to suffer through in this period in Russia is extremely well-written, as is all the absurdity of the communist doctrine, and how it made people act and even think. I think I can say that Ayn Rand has become one of my favorite writers through one book alone, and I look forward with the greatest pleasure to read the rest of her work.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
We the Living is Ayn Rand at her greatest. Her phenomenal writing talent moves the story along at a fascinating pace. The characters are totally believable. They don't become the non-human symbols of people which populate her other two masterpieces (although they're all fascinating, you can't relate to them on a human level). She manages to interweave her philosophy in bits and pieces, rather than the page-after-page rants in Atlas Shrugged. Kira, though, is a frustrating heroine to admire. While she treats Andrei like crap, she pours her life into Leo, a fascinating but brutal hero. Also, if a basic tenent of her philosophy is self-reliance, of holding no one higher than one self, one wonders why Kira becomes dependent on Leo, and sacrifices so much for him. In re-reading this masterpiece again and again, I kept thinking of how Rand was using Greta Garbo as her heroine. Also, the Italian movie made of "We the Living" is an absolute must-see for any admirer of this book. It runs over 3 hours and is amazingly faithful to the book. To think that this film was made in Italy and not in Russia is a shock. And to think it was made right at the height of World War II, with bombs exploding all over the place, makes it even more extraordinary.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
As far as I'm concerned, this is the only real novel that Rand ever wrote. Lacking the soapbox diatribes of her later works, this novel is filled with a savage beauty, deft characterization, and beautiful poetic prose. It is the story of a young woman who must endure the turmoil of revolution and the imposition of a totalitarian state & who ultimately risks everything for freedom. Don't avoid this novel just because you don't like objectivism (this was written before she started her philosophical movement) or you'll definitely be missing out on one of the best novels of the 20th century.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Gripping and Troubling
I had such mixed feelings about this book. On the positive side, it's a wonderfully readable account of the horrors of the Communist regime in the last years of the rule of Lenin... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Kate Hopkins
Excellent written
The book is excellent written and has a good story. It tells us about what happens if we just accept conformity and and how government power easily corrupts. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Torben Jensen
slightly better than Barbara Cartland
I turned to this book after reading Tobias Wolff rip the piss out of Rand in 'Old School'. I found it surprisingly entertaining stuff which bowls along nicely, but how anyone can... Read more
Published 20 months ago by ossian
Objectivism aside, it made me reflect on life after a regime change
After reading all of Ayn Rand's fiction in two months, We the Living (objectivist philosophy in its infancy) made me think of something that had always been there and never stopped... Read more
Published on 29 May 2009 by J. Casinos Molina
Born out of experience
Not surprisingly, this is Ayn Rand's most realistic story since its background of the sordid results of the Communistic takeover of Russian came from her personal experience. Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2007 by J. A. Eyon
The most readable of Rand's books
For those of you who excroriate Rand for one-sided hatred of Communism, let me just point out that she was born under it, and she ought to know. Read more
Published on 2 Sep 1999
Emotionally and philisophically exhausting.
I read this book for the first time when I was 12. I loved it then and didn't fully comprehend it. I love it now more. Read more
Published on 24 Aug 1999
incredible
Once I read On The beach by Nevil Shute and thought that was the most depressing novel I'd ever read then I came by this book and it beat them all by a mile. Read more
Published on 9 Aug 1999
By far the best of Ayn's Rand Fictional Endeavors
I read the Fountainhead first, then Atlas Shrugged, then We The Living. We The Living is by far the most moving, engaging, and realistic of these novels. Read more
Published on 28 May 1999
I cried.
This is the first Ayn Rand book I've ever read and it's incredible, and so realistic. I was born in Russia, and came to the US when I was nine(I'm 15 now). Read more
Published on 24 July 1998
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