Ayn Rand’s Fiction

Two quotes posted by friends on Facebook:

Douglas Minson points to a short article giving Flannery O’Connor’s opinion of Miss Rand’s fiction:

I hope you don’t have friends who recommend Ayn Rand to you. The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail. She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoevsky.

And from Patrick Deneen, a quote from Miss Rand herself:

No one will hate this book [Atlas Shrugged] as much as the Catholic Church. Not even the Communists.

He remarks: “the most sensible thing she ever said.” A commenter adds to this:

There are two novels that can transform a bookish fourteen year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish daydream that can lead to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood in which large chunks of the day are spent inventing ways to make real life more like a fantasy novel. The other is a book about orcs.” − Raj Patel