Frustration

I think that Atlas Shrugged is a great novel with a plotline and characters which have a quality that draws the reader in, but I have come to a point in the novel where it has become exceedingly difficult to reader any further. As a silent observer of an unfolding storyline, I feel helpless and incapable of comprehending why the characters in the novel, aside from Dagny and Rearden, are so infuriating. It is physically painful to read the ignorance of characters such as James Taggart, who watches as his company and the country fall to ruins and causally agrees with the government and its oppressive laws and its will to destroy everything good.  Even minor characters, like Ivy Starnes and Lee Hunsacker, make the read unpleasant by being incapable of taking any responsibility for their actions. Both characters do not even know the major members of their staff and then they act as if they had nothing to do with the downfall of their companies. The only thing that they are good at is making excuses and giving themselves false virtue to convince others of their innocence. The most frustrating part of all is the disappearance of every person who is any good. Every character who has anything that could provide something useful to society disappears or quits their job. I’m sure I will be enlightened on the reasons soon, but the wait is agonizing. I know Ayn Rand makes the reader feel like this purposefully to make her point about the incompetence of this society but it still makes me cringe. I am hoping that the conclusion to the story brings me some sort of closure and understanding