Ayn Shrugged: Objectively Speaking, Rand's Opus is a Literary Disaster (Liberties) (Ayn Rand‪)‬

One of the unlikely beneficiaries of the current financial crisis is the estate of Ayn Rand. Sales of Atlas Shrugged, her dystopian classic, have soared in the past year. The book has been solidly in the Amazon bestseller list and briefly edged into that of the New York Times. Not bad for a novel published in 1957. And especially impressive for a work that--viewed purely as literature--must be accounted a disastrous failure. Pace, all you Randians: I am one of you. I have a small picture of the lady on my desk in the European Parliament, next to a signed photograph of Margaret Thatcher, a bust of Thomas Jefferson, and a silver medal from the Ludwig von Mises Institute. The most pleasing compliment paid to me as a politician was when some conservative students started selling a T-shirt with the slogan "Who is Dan Han?"--a reference to the famous opening line of Rand's magnum opus, "Who is John Galt?"