Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne C. Heller

I just happened to see this book sitting on the new arrivals cart at the library and since I’ve really enjoyed Rand’s book I decided to pick it up. I wasn’t even sure I would read the whole thing but once I started reading I was hooked.

I’ve read three of Rand’s novels and enjoyed them but I really didn’t know anything about her personally. When I read her books I was young and idealistic and I thought her ideas were great. (To be honest, I’m not sure I completely understood them then or even now!) Now that I’m older and hopefully wiser, I’m not in 100% agreement with her anymore. I do think she had some important ideas and I think they were especially important at the time that she wrote her novels. I’m just not 100% on board now that I’ve lived a little bit of life.

Reading this biography opened my eyes to the kind of person she was too. She was extremely intelligent and she lived through some hardship but she was also a hypocrite and a narcissist. As her novels gained popularity she acquired a group of followers that behaved almost like a cult. A lot of the things that went on in her later life really turned me off of her. I still really appreciate what she did in writing The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.  Both of these books are extremely well written and for containing so much philosophy they are incredibly entertaining and well paced.

But, this review is not of Ayn Rand or her novels! I really enjoyed this biography. It was well written and it was entertaining. It was also incredibly detailed and well researched. I’m not sure how much else I can say about a biography though. If you like reading biographies or you are interested in Ayn Rand you would enjoy this book.