What an ending!

I can honestly say that finishing reading Atlas Shrugged has been a difficult challenge. My opinion on this book is a strong one. While the writing itself is beautiful and the story is rather engaging, the length seems a bit unnecessary. Rand is one of the best authors I have ever had the pleasure of reading, but the amount of detail was excessive and a lot of times the points she tried to make were irrelevant to the story. In a lot of cases, Rand goes off on a tangent. One small incident leads to a huge rant that somehow connects to politics and how corrupt the government is. While I thoroughly enjoyed Atlas Shrugged, I wish it was just a little bit more concise. I hate when authors drag something on just for the sake of putting more writing on the page. Many may disagree with me, saying that everything Rand wrote was put there for a specific purpose that ultimately helped lead to the conclusion of the book, but I do not see it that way. Also, I feel like Rand tends to repeat herself a lot. Maybe it's to stress a point and drive it into the minds of her readers, but, on the other hand, it gets to be a bit much.
Anyways, beside the length and redundancy of Atlas Shrugged, I loved everything about it. The character development was definitely my favorite part. The way Rand initially describes each character ends up being intriguingly different than how they are at the end of the book. My two favorite characters were definitely Dagny and Francisco. I must admit that I wish they ended up together, partially because the whole "first love/ childhood sweethearts" concept is so romantic, and also because they are just so perfect for each other. Together they could conquer the world, they're just that powerful and strong-willed. The fact that Dagny's character transformed so drastically was a bit annoying at first, and I know that I complained about how "weak" she has become in the past, but to be honest, I still love her. She has learned how to handle two important aspects of her life: being able to love someone else and being able to stay true to herself and respect herself. As a woman myself, I believe that putting yourself before any man is extremely important. My love for Dagny has come and gone and come back again, and at the end of the day, I realize how hard it must be to be her.
Now the end of the story was something I wasn't expecting. I bet a lot of people hated the ending and felt rather disappointed or cheated to some extent, but I think the way Rand ended it was perfect. If you think about it, the book had to end with some optimism, as bittersweet as it was. The fact that Eddie was stranded with no way of getting home was in no means optimistic, but all in all, the whole story basically revolves around the destruction of society. From the get go, the story outlines a dystopian society, corrupt government, and apocalyptic time period. To go from all of that to a perfectly happy, skipping-off-into-the-sunset ending would be ridiculous, to say the least. While we're comforted by the fact that the main characters, with the exception of poor Edwin Willers, are safe and sound, they still have a lot of work to do in rebuilding society to how they want it to be. It's kind of like a win-win situation, in a way. The society they all hated came to a downfall and now they have the opportunity to raise it from the ashes according to their liking, their standards, their political views, etc. If Rand continued on after that point, I probably would have thrown the book across the room and refused to read another sentence. Every good book must come to an end eventually, and the story of the Taggarts, John Galt, Francisco, and the rest of the gang definitely had to end where it did.
All in all, Atlas Shrugged was one of the best books I have ever read, and I'm not just saying that to get brownie points. It was enjoyable from beginning to end, though some moments were particularly frustrating, but that comes with the territory. This book is powerful and demands a lot of respect. The dedication and hard work that Rand put into writing it is evident, as well as her passion for economics, government, and politics.