Writing in the first person plural toward a central theme, Ayn Rand tests the reader’s patience. 

I recommend Doris Lessing instead. Her wonky, awkward descriptive power is more attuned than Rand’s. Rand has a tendency to produce a monotone. I was picturing THX 1138 the whole time. Naming characters with numbers was also a poor choice. If you were not a fan of her characters in Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged, you won’t care for them here either. A general icy tone of indifference to human empathy pervades her work. The worship of the ego is taken to laughable pinnacles.