Ideal by Ayn Rand

   First, let me start off with saying that I am always a little trepidatious about reading books that are "found" and released posthumously.   If an author chose not to release a book, there is probably a reason and that reason should be honored.  Still, being a huge Ayn Rand fan, I had to read this one for myself.   I guess Ayn is right and we all have our price - new reading material is mine.

The premise is that Kay Gonda, a world famous Hollywood starlet, is on the lam from the police.  She turns to six people who claimed that they would do anything for her, looking for help.   At first, it didn't even seem like Ayn's style at all.  It even seemed , during the first visitation that she was making an anti-capitalist statement.   I got caught up in the main character being a woman and not a man, like in other works by Rand.

Then,  I realized.... Kay Gonda isn't really a woman at all.  She truly is an Ideal.  Duh!  Hence the name.... It's this wonderful and very abstract philosophical argument about what our Ideals are, and what we are actually willing to do to live up to them.  The more I think about it, the more meaning it has but it definitely doesn't come all at once.

It's very short.  Ayn chose to release this as a play and with this version, the play is included.  I only read the novella part as there was more in depth of the characters there, but it definitely reads as a play. A morality play.   If you are a fan of Rand,  it is well worth the hour or two it will take to read, and it will leave you thinking for long after.