How ironic that the wild west unfettered capitalism that was unleashed on the post-Mikhail Gorbachev Soviet bloc by Reagan's proto-neo-con zealots is now blowing a wintery chill back through the pipelines of Gazprom. Lingering descriptions of what a pretty girl Kira Argounova is and endless details as to what she and the other female characters are wearing at any given point in the 'action,' seem to be the basis for this paeān to early twentieth century American capitalism. If you are not already familiar with the works of Ayn Rand, this is a marvelous place to begin.Īyn Rand is a made up name - Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum, Objectivism is a made up philosophy - Subjectivism of the highest order, actually. Kira's relationships with Leo and Andre, her perseverance vis-a-vis the hopelessness of her situation-her struggle to breathe in a wretchedly airless environment-were nearly more than I could bear. Though the least explicitly philosophic of Ayn Rand's novels, We The Living was for me, because of its emotional intensity, the most difficult to read. It is also a compelling work of art, and harbinger of the greatness to come. It is the most accurate portrayal of life in the late workers' paradise ever committed to words.

Just days before twenty-one year old Alisa Rosenbaum escaped Leninist Russia to sail for the United States, she was enjoined by a friend to tell the world that 'Russia is a huge cemetery and we are all dying.' We The Living, by that same young emigre, writing now in English and calling herself Ayn Rand, was the result. Emotionally intense, historically authentic

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