In defense of Atlas Shrugged

Yes, it's long, pretentious and obsolete. The prose is awkward and the characters stiff. But as a mystery novel, it's great. I waded through 900 pages to figure out who John Galt is.

I once saw a "Who is John Galt?" bumper sticker ...

Stephen King had kind of an interesting take on Atlas Shrugged in On Writing. He was generally positive, while pointing out the same flaws as #1.

Though I sincerely doubt anyone who's not a dyed in the wool Randroid has actually read the entire "This is John Galt speaking..." speech. Good grief, talk about painful.

Its too bad Rand didn't write more books like her first novel, We the Living. Yes, she still gets on her soapbox for some preaching, but the characters aren't entirely wooden drones either.

The Fountainhead is entertaining, and not as bogged down by long speeches. Too bad her female characters are so cardboard, but she wasn't really a bad writer.

Well, John Galt was an unsuccessful novelist in Scotland, who was an agent for a company that imported Scots settlers to Central Ontario, Canada. The town of Galt Ontario, Canada is named after him. After quarreling violently with his board of directors , he was fired and returned to Scotland, where he died in poverty in Greenock, in 1839.
I have always found it hilarious that Ayn Rand, a one-hit wonder in the field of Novels and movies "the Fountainhead" being her work in question, performed this uncharacteristic act of Charity by puffing another unsuccessful novelist.
Oh, Galt Ontario was the site of Ontario's first paved highway, the road to the more successful city of Hamilton. That's right, they paved the road out of town!
Finally, Galt the town merged with two other small towns to form the town of Cambridge in 1976.
So that's who John Galt was!