Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead. Penguin Books, © renewed 1971. (First published 1943). 697 pages.
             Plot: Two architects, long-time friends, who choose completely different roads of life, converge as they build their careers. One, named Peter Keating, is a highly acclaimed architect with the firm Francon and Heyer, who has built his career by blackmail and even murder (by yelling at Mr. Heyer, the head architect in the firm Francon and Heyer, until he suffers a stroke and dies. Then Keating can takes his position in the architecture firm.). The other architect, Howard Roark, was an architecture school dropout who started his own firm but would only take commissions from people who would let him choose the style in which he designed. This always lead to an odd sort of modern architecture that could be called "Mars-like", which was both praised and shot down -- sometimes by the same people. The two architects build their reputations, and at the same time fight over a woman named Dominique Francon, who writes architectural reviews in a prominent newspaper. As the story !
             progresses, you starts to wonder if Roark and Keating love Dominique Francon for who she is, or if they just want a good review; and also you begin to wonder if the world will ever find out that Howard Roark designs buildings for Peter Keating, and Keating takes the creditÉ
             Theme for Peter Keating, it is not only a fight against society to accept him as a great architect, but also a fight against himself as he questions his morals when he takes RoarkÕs designs -- despite the fact that Roark doesnÕt mind. As for Howard Roark, it is also the same fight against society; but the reason he fights himself is that he wonders if starting his own practice was a smart thing to do considering he had no degree in architecture, no connections, and an attitude.
             Characters: Howard Roark, architect who was kicked out of Stanton School of Architecture, close friend of P...