In my opinion, the criticism of Rand changes depending upon your age, world view, and your privileges.

She is wildly popular in India and I read The Fountainhead and AS when I was 19. To say that my mind was blown by her writing would be an understatement. As a upper caste Hindu male belonging to middle class Indian family that valued studies above anything else, I fell in love with her characters and her philosophy even though I had seen under privileged people struggle their entire life.

13 years later having lived in multiple cities, countries, and after having a sound knowledge of economics, I think she is pure garbage even if we consider her a pure fiction writer. Her characters go on these wild defensive rants when attacked about virtue and drop those virtues whenever they want. Good fiction also doesn’t preach so much but leaves it to the reader make up their mind about it. Most of her characters weather good or bad are insufferable jerks without a connection to reality.

To quote John Rogers:

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”