Come, therefore; it is still a novel, let us not forget, whose primary purpose is to make us have a good time!
There is in this book an obvious metaphor, of course, but it is not still a satirical narrative, not purport to be an exact metaphor of our reality today. How could he, having been written there are over half a century?
If I risked to try to criticize on this point, too, complaining about what his heroes are too rich, too smart and too good to be plausible, so I would have to accept that their story ends soon! Their enemies would have no trouble to discredit them, and so to get rid of them. Dagny Taggart, "product manager at X" would soon be shown the door. It would fail to find a job. She would end up on the street, to social assistance client. We lead the psychologist to a social worker in charge of discreetly assess the severity of his mental state when start talking about the "engine" and claims actions of his brother, etc., etc.
Henry Rearden, he would have lost the case, of course, and the press would soon torpedoed by accusing him of being a character at once whimsical and authoritarian: one of these Geo Trouvetou of Concours Lépine who believe that " it happened "; egocentric and paranoid, etc., etc.
In fact, only James Taggart is plausible, in this story, because we can not count, in fact, the characters in this century which strongly resemble it or strongly resembled him. It does not appear to us in the least implausible that missed and / or a pervert is invested high responsibilities and collects all the honors, etc., etc.
This reflection, by the way, makes me wonder whether it would not rather our perception of reality that would invraissemblable.
To those who hesitate to buy this book and who could not understand what I have just explained, I would say that it is possible to compare it to "1984" by George Orwell, except that "Strike" (or "Atlas Shrugged" in his otherwise) is much longer, without appearing because he never bored, and that context is much more like today's society, a lot like today ' hui even.
I had previously read the original version in American language of the novel, entitled "Atlas Shrugged" and another in French only available in .pdf book with title of "Atlas Shrugged" and which seems better than it there because it is more literal and accurate to the original text, and is enriched with interesting explanatory notes in addition, despite some shells. But I regret especially that it is not possible to read also the latest version of a reading light, given its weight and size. It is only for the latter reason that I give four stars to this version of this extraordinary novel.
