The Pianist Who Liked Ayn Rand: A Novella and 13 Stories

These stories are best read in terms of what, in Australia, is called 'fictocriticism', a blend of fiction and reality that operates as entertainment, art, and exposition all at once, Bell-Villada, a renowned academic and literary critic as well as innovative fictionist, is adept at imagining character and situation--"Abortive Romance" is a really painful and moving tale, and is reminiscent of lawrence and Tolstoy in its portrayal of a relationship where there is an almost inherent conflict between aspirations for democratic conduct and hopes for erotic gratification. The music element is also interesting and adds an important formal counterpoint. And the entire issue of whether ultra-individualism is or is not fascism is one that is still pressing...indeed, Bell-VIllada was one of the few in the 1980s and 1990s to not take a de facto position of tolerance with respect to neoliberalism, to ask just what it was, how dangerous it was, whether it was metaphysically noxious or merely situationally do, and just through what cognitive modalities it worked. Ayn Rand has been somewhat taken off her pedestal recently due to recent biographical revelations, but as recently as ten years ago one got shocked responses from many people if one dared to question her status as least as important thinker if not, as those who have experienced her prose must concede, necessarily a great writer. Bell-Villada's wit, acerbity, and courage render him a steadfast guide to an era and an ideology whose self-rofessed rationales we simply did not sufficiently question.

In his very positive review of this book of mine, Thomas M. Sipos states that the volume is out of print. Not so! There are plenty of brand-new copies still left. As the author of THE PIANIST WHO LIKED AYN RAND, I want any interested parties to know this. That aside, my thanks to Mr. Sipos for his generous comments.

It is strange that the defense of Ayn Rand (noted elsewhere as a writer of "decent middle-brow novels" by Bell-Villada) seems to concern many reviewers more than the actual stories themselves. Well, speaking as somebody who has actually read the stories, I found them fairly low-key. There are a number of obvious jabs - at Ayn Rand, at postmodern society, and at other American oddities - but the tone is more one of bemusement and satire than rancor and bitterness. There is a certain sense of cultural displacement running through the novels. In the first half of the collection, it's more explicitly related to being a "third culture kid". In the second half, the displacement (from which the pianist's liking of Ayn Rand ultimately springs) is more a consequence of modern society. This isn't one of those books that makes you stop dead and rethink everything. But it does provide a good bit of food for thought, especially if you take time to delve deeper into the themes and ideas underlying the stories (notably "Problems of Postmodern Society", the one about the mustache dilemmas). It's light reading that sometimes ends up a little bit pessimistic.