Aarthi Ramamurthy

Night of January 16th is a play written by Ayn Rand in 1934 based on the story of Swedish "Match King", Ivar Kreuger. The play revolves around a murder trial of the main character. The central theme of the play, like in most Ayn Rand's books, is to believe that one's self is of primary importance to a person.

The interesting aspect of the play is that the trial's jury consisted of members from the audience of the play - at the end of the play, the "jury" would get to decide if the accused was "guilty" or "not guilty". The end of the play is in accordance with this verdict.

I read this book end to end last week at the new Crossword store (yes, Hyderabad has a new Crossword store and yes, its fabulous - complete with couches so that you can spend an entire lazy Saturday reading there. Plus, if you get really hungry, you can dash off to the McDonalds' that's right below Crossword and feed yourself french fries and Coke. Such fun!)

Like all other Rand's books, this one inspired me - the characters were typically Ayn Rand's idealists (Remember Rearden, Dagny, Fransisco and others? You get the picture..), and the plot was excellent. Worth a read, definitely.

Labels: Books