The Fountainhead

The fountainhead is one of those classic books that everyone recommends you to read, even if they themselves haven’t. it almost always ends up in the ‘best books to read’ lists that some have. I recently read it (ill admit, a lot of coercion was involved) and I have ended up with very mixed reactions to it.

There are two kinds of books... one in which the story by and far overpowers the characters. Pick up any of those books, replace a few characters and you still would have the same brilliant story folding out before you. The other kind is the one where the characters loom large over the story. The fountainhead is a book of the latter kind. In a nutshell the story is about an architect who only believes in working in his way, or not working at all (and he does end up not doing anything - a lot). What makes it worth a read are the characters,. Now personally, I only liked the characterization of the main character – Howard Roark. Scenes that do not involve Roark seem dull and boring and skim-over-it-ish .

There are five main characters. Roark- who is a self admitting egoist to the core, does only what he wants, will not compromise on any level, but also does not care enough to defend himself or his work (or does he?). Another character is another man who quite frankly seems spineless, a parasite even. He feeds and grows on other people opinions of him, their generosity and their work. He even makes himself believe he’s the best at what he does. The third is a character who sets out to rule over the world in his own way – in the most dangerous way - by means of his thoughts, by directing, projecting and propagating his thoughts onto other people, people who somehow seem sickeningly in eternal gratitude towards him. People whom he has “made” and can choose to break anytime with the firm knowledge that they will still love and respect (?) him. The fourth character is one who wants and achieves success- and for that he is willing to do anything, go against his own wishes, kill his “soul”- anything that can get him success. He tells people what they want to hear, even when he feels strongly against it. The final character (and you may call me crazy) is one of finest written female characters I have ever read. And with no words to put it in all I can say is she’s everything you never expect her to be- whereby lies the genius of the author’s characterization.

The story like is aid is average, mundane when compared to the characters. The writing starts out impressive but then gets pretty predictable. One thing ive never liked is 1 person speaking on and on for pages- and that happens a lot in this book. Also, after a really great build-up, the climax is disappointing. All said and done, it is worth a read, but leave the expectations behind before you start. The book's title is a reference to Rand's statement that "man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress".
One thing I agree with – there’s two ways to go about things – be utterly selfless or be an egoist to the core. A mid way in this context can only be met with failure and regret.