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Facets of Ayn Rand

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Facets Of Ayn Rand is an impressive and informative memoir that collects 48 hours of interviews from two people who remember Ayn Rand as their friend and as a person who was totally unafraid to voice her convictions, no matter how unpopular or controversial they were at the time. Facets Of Ayn Rand offers moving testimony filled with personal touches, rendering a closer and more intimate understanding of the life and thought of a truly great and influential woman. Facets Of Ayn Rand is "must" reading for her many admirers and students of her work.

To put it simply, this is is a touching memoir of Ayn Rand by those who shared her friendship. The accounts of daily conversations and habits of Miss Rand add a depth of humanity to her image and give new insight into what an incredible human being she was. I couldn't put the book down once I started reading and often found myself laughing or smiling from the sheer pleasure of contemplating such an incredible individual.

This memoir brings the novelist-philosopher back to life in the form of a delightful interview full of her benevolent metaphysics. It is told not with anger or mocking cynicism, but with the fond admiration that Miss Rand deserves. Whether you just want to know more about Ayn Rand the person, or whether you want to feel the joy of Ayn Rand's presence, this is your book.

Finally a look at Ayn Rand by someone who knew her. One of the co-authors--Mary Ann Sures--was a typist for the *Atlas Shrugged* manuscript. The book documents information about Ayn Rand that you will not find anywhere else.

Charles and Mary Ann Sures were associates of Ayn Rand from the 1950s until her death in 1982. Mr. Sures was one of Rand's attorneys and Mrs. Sures was a lecturer for the Nathaniel Branden Institute. (Mrs. Sures was one of four people who denounced the Brandens along with Rand in 1968.) This is the first (and thus far only) volume in a projected oral history of Ayn Rand by the archivists at the ARI.

Notwithstanding Rand's iconic role in American life, there have been relatively few accounts and biographical studies of her. Thus the memoirs of those who knew her well for many years are certainly of benefit.

The Sures state that they are giving their accounts, in part, as a corrective to more negative memoirs of Rand (the reference is to the Brandens, although unstated). Rand doesn't come across as perfect; however her personal flaws (most notably her anger) are downplayed or ignored. Like Leonard Peikoff's account of Rand's anger, the problem is with those who can't see that when Ayn Rand blew her top, it was different from you or me blowing our top.

"Yes, but certainly not at every question period. And it's important to understand that she was not angry at anyone personally. She did not know the people involved; she was speaking to strangers. And many of the questions she answered were written questions--neither she nor the audience knew who had asked the questions; only the questioners knew. What's relevant here is that she expressed anger and indignation, not so much at the person asking a question but at the ideas expressed, or ideas she thought were implicit in the question asked. That was the focus of her anger."

As they say, "whatever."

I'd also like a little more discussion of the Objectivist movement in the 50s and 60s. Even some Objectivists admit that there was a "cult" that grew up around Rand (although they generally put the blame on Nathaniel Branden). The Sures are notably silent on this. The continued airbrushing of the Brandens, and the elevation of Leonard Peikoff at Nathaniel Branden's expense, is also present.

As with anything produced by the ARI, this book should be used with caution. It appears that it was rather heavily edited. From 48 hours of interview Scott McConnell edited the interviews, then the Sures added another layer of revisions.

In spite of its flaws and its tendency toward hagiography, FACETS OF AYN RAND contains many interesting anecdotes and helps the reader appreciate something of the magnetism of Ayn Rand.

Facets of Ayn Rand is an enjoyable behind-the-scenes look at Ayn Rand, the person. For those familiar with Ayn Rand's philosophy (which holds integrity as one of seven virtues), it will come as no surprise that her personal life was consistent with her philosophy. Reading this book is probably as close as one can get to actually spending time with Ayn Rand these days.

Judged against most oral histories or memoirs by friends of the famous, this is an above-average work. Mary Ann Sures wrote about art for Ayn Rand's publication, The Objectivist, back in the 1960s. In between anecdotes about stamp collecting or watching "The African Queen" in Ms. Rand's living room, both Charles and Mary Ann Sures discuss the reasons for their lifelong intellectual engagement with Rand and her philosophy.

Where the book disappoints is in its excessively careful avoidance of controversy and negatives.

The Sures both refer to insightful remarks Ms. Rand made about their individual values or character, that had an enormous positive personal impact on them. I see this as the main theme of the book, in fact: it is a personal memoir of how she enriched their lives. I know many readers of Ayn Rand who have had a similar experience just from reading her, myself included. To read Ayn Rand is, for many people, to feel engaged and understood on a very deep level. That is why when surveys ask, "What book has most influenced your life?", Atlas Shrugged routinely ranks second only to the Bible. (For example, when the Library of Congress did such a survey in 1991, about two percent of all respondents picked Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead -- while about 20 percent chose the Bible. Atlas Shrugged outpolled its nearest competitor by about 3 to 1, suggesting it has a unique place in American culture.)

However, throughout the book and particularly in the chapter entitled "On Negatives" -- discussing Ayn Rand's tendency to public fits of temper, in which she sometimes responded harshly to questions from students -- the Sures seem to engage in special pleading. In effect, if Ms. Rand boosted their confidence with an insightful bit of praise, that was a measure of her genius. But if she denounced some student she had just met as evasive, irrational, or anti-life, based on the way a question was put, all the same she was "not angry at anyone personally," she was just being polemical. This distinction was lost on the people being shouted at, some of whom were devastated to be denounced in front of friends and family by their hero. The Objectivist movement went through years of denunciations and purges, and remains divided even today between orthodox loyalists and more tolerant dissidents. Where the movement wound up was at least in part a consequence of Rand's own harshly confrontational public persona.

The Sures say early in the book that their goal is to preserve Ms. Rand's "larger than life" reputation. The problem is that by failing to acknowledge the more difficult and less praiseworthy facets of Ayn Rand when they come up, the book hurts its own credibility. Too much of her life and the movement she inspired necessarily goes unmentioned as a result.

Perhaps this is inevitable in such a memoir, by friends who loved her. She was a genius, and the positive side of her story is admittedly far more interesting and important than the negatives. However, it would have been much better if the Sures or their editor could have acknowledged a little more ungrudgingly, as other writers have done, that personal involvement with Ayn Rand occasionally led to pain. A memoir that managed to capture the impact of her brilliance on the Sures, AND deal honestly with life in her circle in the 1960s, would deserve five stars. This book, though well-intentioned, does not.

Note: I previously reviewed this book for The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, Volume 5, Number 1.

An utterly engrossing, engaging memoir, presented in interview format, by two of Ayn Rand's closest (and genuine) friends. Both interviewees were psychologically perceptive and intelligent enough to understand and fully appreciate the actual "woman behind the genius". Any reader who is capable of admiring Ayn Rand's achievements will probably read this (as I did) in a single sitting; the food for thought it affords, though, will last a lifetime.

I was going to write a review to warn readers (listeners) away from this book, but, after reading the review of Mr. A entitled "THEY PLUMP WHEN YOU COOK THEM", I decided that he had expressed my thoughts exactly, and probably better than I could have put them. I agree with Mr. A's review completely.

I listened to this as an audiobook, and I would add that I did not enjoy the reading of the book, either. It would certainly have benefited by a male and female voice to read the parts of Ms. Rand and Mr. O'Connor, so that the narrator would not have to endlessly repeat their names, which was extremely annoying.

Overall, don't waste your time reading or listening to this book.