One often wishes that writers would yield a little more to their satirical inclinations, and that goes for Miss Ayn Rand. From internal evidence one would guess her to be a middle-class White or Whitish Russian living in exile in America, and We the Living (a title of no particular significance) is so frankly counter-revolutionary that it ought to annoy readers of Red or Reddish sympathies. Writing, often graphically, of life in Leningrad in the 'twenties she seems anxious to show the corruption of those newly raised to positions of authority…. Miss Rand's account of the social upset following the Revolution is detailed and likely enough; she makes a certain amount of rather bitter fun of the workings of the new bureaucracy and of the lapses of the new orthodox into such unorthodoxies as private trading. But towards Kira, who stands for individualism and those little things like scent and lipsticks which Mean So Much to a woman, Miss Rand is altogether too partial. If Kira had played the game with nice Red Andrei instead of nasty White Leo … we might have liked her better.
William Plomer, in a review of "We the Living," in The Spectator, Vol. 158, No. 5664, January 15, 1937, p. 98.
This is a free excerpt of 207 words. There are 211 words (approx.
1 page at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Rand, Ayn 1905–1982: Critical Essay by William Plomer Access Pass.
