We the Living by Ayn Rand

Book review. Rating 8 out of 10.

This is a fine book which goes on in Petrograd, in the early days of the communist state. It describes the hardship of former bourgeosie returning to live in Russia after the revolution. Ayn somewhat indirectly portays human characters greater than the common mold and describes the difficulty they find to succumb to communist ideology, which doesn't favor the existence of strong outstanding individuals.The weakness of the novel is the plot, more precisely the actions of the characters, some of their actions seems not rational to me. There is the communist Andrei who gets Kira's (the main character) boyfriend imprisoned, but then he changes his mind and get's him out of prison again and become a spokesman for Ayn's philosopy before he commits suicide. Petrograd is a moving city and Ayn has many nice descriptions of it, especially at winter time. It's also very interesting to witness an insider view of the early years of the communist state. Even during communism bribery apparently was rife.