I cannot remember in my entire life such a change in the attitude of a crowd in a few minutes, almost a few seconds ... Hitler had turned them inside out, as one turns a glove inside out, with a few sentences. It had almost something of hocus-pocus, or magic about it.
She was a terribly novelist, but wasn't really trying to be a great one. She was using the novel format as a scaffold to hang her ideology upon for easier access to the masses. She did that passably in "The Fountainhead", which is at least a decent story. She failed utterly in "Atlas Shrugged".
If you're interested enough in Objectivism to read AS, I suggest you read "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" and "The Virtue of Selfishness". If you're still interested, AS provides additional insight and might be worth the slog.