We the Living

By: Ayn Rand

Narrated by: Mary Woods

Length: 18 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

We the Living portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three people who demand the right to live their own lives. At its center is a girl whose passionate love is her fortress against the cruelty and oppression of a totalitarian state. Rand said of this book: "It is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write."

©1936 Ayn Rand (P)1991 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Not like anything I've read

Which character – as performed by Mary Woods – was your favorite?

The voice matched exactly what I would expect Kira to sound like. But all the voices were well done.

Who was the most memorable character of We the Living and why?

I found Andre to be the most memorable in that he developed and grew more through out the book than anyone else.

Any additional comments?

A strong recommendation the all listen to the forward as written by Ayn in 1958. It does much to give you understanding about her, as well as her reasons and desires in writing this book. The characters in the book are very real and very believable and I believe you'll find it hard to not both love and hate many of the prime characters. Often loving and hating them at the same time, you can experience their feelings at an exceptional depth.

(a little bit of a spoiler here so read at your own risk)

I think most westerners, myself included, will find the resolutions within the book a little hard to take and a bit unsettling, but I understand the necessity and the value of the reality expressed. Written any other way it would not be exceptional book it is.

Great book

This is an extremely well-written and enjoyable book that helps explain Ayn Rand. I recommend it to all that enjoyed the Fountainhead.

Great story showing the reality of collectivist...

societies in action. This pseudo autobiography turned novel from someone who lived with communism in Russia gives a picture of what it is to truly live in a system where the individual is secondary to society and how the nature of people in positions of government power can then abuse the individuals with impunity.

It is a gloomy novel based on a gloomy reality. It is worth the time to read.

A good listen...An important listen.

What made the experience of listening to We the Living the most enjoyable?

All the character voices she does - Impressive! Also, the realism of the story...understanding what life was really like in St. Petersburg/Petrograd, Russia. How would some of us Americans live and cope under the circumstances? Imagining America under a communist government with such oppression is scary.

Every author has a first offering

First writings are understood to be often not of the caliber of future offerings, so why compare? This semi-fictional rendering is about a past she escaped. A story of society turned on its end, and her recollection of that reality.

I appreciate the glimpse into a fledgling soviet society. When everyones world turned upside-down. How people act and react for survival sake. It is raw. Raw because it is a rendering of the author's life, the closing of a chapter of that life from a safe perspective.

The characters we come to dislike, even despise are true renderings of many a person when life leaves their normal boundaries and one must still survive. Pressure shows weakness, weaknesses we'd rather not think about, much less see. Life becomes very ugly in some under certain pressures. Pressure also shows strength. The strength to see that something one has pledged their whole existance upon is a sham in practice- then to correct a core belief. That is fortitude of character in humans.

Yes its kinda depressing. How could a post war torn country's reality be otherwise? Ayn Rand's future books were about hope. Things that could be to thwart the troubles she fled if those troubles came to her new home. I've read she was amazed, and alarmed at how many of her new countrymen in a free land thought the bolsheviks had some great ideas, only dislikeing the distasteful implementation.

Great story but audio is somewhat muted

Found this after reading Atlas Shrugged, the pacing seems a little better in this.
the narrator does a good job but the audio seems somewhat muted.

Thought (and heart) provoking

It's evident how personal of a story this was for Rand and that in and of itself makes it a powerful read. Her own first-hand experiences and perspective make this feel viscerally real.

A remarkable semi-biographical novel!

Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum, who wrote using the pen name Ayn Rand, arrived in the US from Russia at age 26 in 1931 unable to speak English. A mere five years later she wrote her first novel in English titled We the Living. The story is of a young woman's life under communism and ultimately he escape from the USSR to freedom. The most important aspects of the book are about the deterioration of the lives of middle class Russians after the communists took control in 1917. Alisa Rosenbaum not only wrote using the pen name Ayn Rand but lived using that name.

We the Living is a good and well written book, but it does not measure up to the quality of her later works of fiction. It is still well worth an audible credit.

Just as good as Rand's other books

I have read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead before I found this book and the three of them fit together perfectly. Anyone that has enjoyed any of Rand's book should read this one too.
The narrator does a good job and does not distract from the story.

Earth Shattering Amazing!

How does one use words to explain the literary journey we just experienced? I can't and will not try. Just amazing!