OMG. What a book. What characterization. What dialog. This one is superlative in all respects. I had heard about this book (& Atlas Shrugged) all my life but kept postponing reading it only because it was voluminous. But when I was reading the novel, I wanted more and more of it & in fact, was actually dismayed that it came to an end. Howard Roark - The Man! A Hero depicted in a way like how a Hero should be depicted - like Russell Crowe in Gladiator. You just cant get enough of him. And Dominique - his cohort-of-sorts. The novel, at times, one feels is just a tale set in an introductory manner for the author's actual message which lies in characterizations and how the society has succumbed to the powers of what Ayn mentions as 'The Second-Hand Man' (which apparently was the original thought-out title of this book). Her philosophy of Objectivism is thought provoking. This one's a must-read & I will go further to state this book's a must-own!
