3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A disappointing read, June 19, 2008
This review is from: The Pianist Who Liked Ayn Rand: A Novella and 13 Stories (Paperback)
Where to begin?
I picked this book up in a local bargain bin thinking it might contain some contemporary, witty satire on Ayn Rand... woe is me. This book is full of cliche's, badly written metaphors, and generally uncreative material.
If you're a fan of Rand, avoid this book. If you're a critic of Rand, avoid this book. But if you're looking for cheap fuel for your furnace in the midst of these high gas prices, this is a great buy--only 59 cents for a used copy on Amazon!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Perfect But Worth Reading, September 4, 2011
This review is from: The Pianist Who Liked Ayn Rand: A Novella and 13 Stories (Paperback)
I'm pretty sure that if Woody Allen were huge into classical music, and Hispanic, this is the book he would have written.
I think if I'd read any of these short stories or the novella on their own, I would have really loved it. However, when grouped together they felt a little flat. First of all, every story was about the same protagonist - yet he had a new character for each one. So the voice was identical to the story before, yet there was an entirely new background. It made it really confusing at times, especially when the guy always ended up with a leading lady that was basically the same character - yet different - every time as well.
I also had an issue with these stories not really being, well, stories. Not a single one of them had any sort of conclusion. Almost all of them started out with a huge infodump, then set up a problem . . . and stopped, sans resolution.
He also clearly could have benefited from an editor. There were many instances of poor word choices that a simple read through from an unbiased eye could have picked up on. Note, for example, the excessive use of the word 'almost' in this passage :
"Oh, damn, English class, I'd almost clean forgot," he muttered. The bike ride across campus felt almost exhilarating. There was almost no one on the paths as he coasted along.
Those issues aside, I did really enjoy the book. It was peppered with all kinds of tongue in check attacks against Rand and Objectivism in general.
My favorite was easily a story called History Reconsidered which was actually a satirical review of a fake book called, Hitler Reconstructed : An American Conservative Takes a Second Look at the Third Reich, and Finds More Than a Few Things to Recommend. It included great lines like, "Can anyone who killed 20,000,000 Soviets really be half bad?"
Overall : I'm glad I read it and I would recommend a story or two to a friend, however, I don't think it worked as a volume.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Having actually read the book..., December 15, 2006
This review is from: The Pianist Who Liked Ayn Rand: A Novella and 13 Stories (Paperback)
It is strange that the defense of Ayn Rand (noted elsewhere as a writer of "decent middle-brow novels" by Bell-Villada) seems to concern many reviewers more than the actual stories themselves.
Well, speaking as somebody who has actually read the stories, I found them fairly low-key. There are a number of obvious jabs - at Ayn Rand, at postmodern society, and at other American oddities - but the tone is more one of bemusement and satire than rancor and bitterness. There is a certain sense of cultural displacement running through the novels. In the first half of the collection, it's more explicitly related to being a "third culture kid". In the second half, the displacement (from which the pianist's liking of Ayn Rand ultimately springs) is more a consequence of modern society.
This isn't one of those books that makes you stop dead and rethink everything. But it does provide a good bit of food for thought, especially if you take time to delve deeper into the themes and ideas underlying the stories (notably "Problems of Postmodern Society", the one about the mustache dilemmas). It's light reading that sometimes ends up a little bit pessimistic.
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