Control Review: The Fountainhead

How does one review a masterpiece? I tried to review “The Bluest Eye” the other day. Now I, Dalton Lewis, lowly blogger, self-published novelist, have the privilege — the responsibility — to review Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead.” It’s…difficult. It’s…complicated.

Let’s start with the basics: the surface story. Howard Roark and Peter Keating finish college. Peter Keating graduates with honors and Howard Roark is kicked out for doing something against the rules — ignoring the rules and instead acting with integrity. They both get jobs in architecture. They design buildings for a living — and Roark is very, very good at it. Peter Keating immediately gains success in the architecture world. He drinks with the popular architects and knows the right people and schmoozes the right higher-ups and has the connections necessary to become a success. The press talks about his buildings as if they are fantastic. They are not, of course; unless they are designed by Roark, which they are — some of the time.

Howard Roark, meanwhile, turns down most of his assignments because they betray his integrity. They are projects in which he would not have the ability to have creative direction on the project — he would have to accept changes from unqualified outsiders. This is a dealbreaker for Roark. He turns down more assignments than he takes because he won’t have creative control. He then gets a reputation for being difficult. Then things become complicated: a woman shows up. Dominique Francon shows up.

Dominique Francon is beautiful and brilliant and bored. She seduces Howard Roark and knows that he is quite possibly the only man in the story with a hint of integrity — so she is instantly attracted to him. For awhile she is with him, and then things get complicated. What follows is a lot of politicking in which the various sides try to manage who will succeed and who will fail at architecture and the newspaper business.

There are two other major players in the book: Ellsworth Toohey and Gail Wynan. Toohey is a critic. He tries to manipulate public opinion with his stories and his critiques. He tries regularly to destroy Roark, mainly by refusing to mention him in his articles on architecture. He pretends that Peter Keating is a brilliant architect — which isn’t true at all.

The story is about integrity: who has it, who doesn’t, and who manipulates people and influences them. Gail Wynan is a rich media magnate who started out with nothing and became a very rich man in the newspaper business. He then tried to prove that no one has integrity by destroying anyone who says that he or she cannot be bought. He buys them. He tries to buy Howard Roark, and their interactions make up the second half of the book.

I liked the architecture building conceit of the book. I thought that it was an interesting idea — that physical buildings mattered, that who built them mattered, that their designs mattered. I also liked the symbolism of the architects needing their designs to be followed — that Roark would freak out when his designs were not followed exactly and to the letter, when someone would lessen his work by adjusting it. This was an interesting conceit.

The second concept — the love quadrangle between Dominique and the men — it was interesting because Dominique was enigmatic and hard to pin down. It was hard to tell if she was innocent or guilty and if she wanted to help or hurt the various men in her lives. She seemed desperately unhappy and I understood that. I just wanted to understand her motivations better.

The third conceit was the newspaper business and the manipulation of the public opinion by said newspapers. The war between Toohey and Wynan was an interesting battle in which I didn’t know who was good or was bad. I think that the battle over the dissemination of information makes for an interesting concept for a novel.

Overall The Fountainhead deserves its place as a classic. It’s quite good. I would venture to say that it’s along with Beloved, The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, The Sound and the Fury, and The Old Man and the Sea as the classics of the 20th century.

Thanks, and take care, friends.