Rating: 6.9/10.
Novel by libertarian author Ayn Rand, set in New York in the 1920s featuring two young rival architects. The story begins with Howard Roark expelled from his architecture school for his unwillingness to conform to the standards of the establishment; he has a distinct modernist style and refuses to compromise to please others. Meanwhile, his classmate Peter Keating is less skilled but is a conformist and graduates at the top of his class. Keating doesn’t know what he wants, so he does what others expect of him, and often goes to Roark for advice.
I stopped reading after about 130 pages because none of the characters were very likeable. Roark views himself as a misunderstood genius but comes off as extremely arrogant. After all, his job as an architect is to design buildings for others to enjoy, so Rand’s portrayal of his unwillingness to compromise as a virtue doesn’t make sense to me.
