Rating: 
Summary: Parody is right!
Review: I read this book in a weekend and did not like it at all. I really feel [buying the book] was a waste of my money. It was hard to read, difficult to follow and lacking intelligence of the heroine. Also, I found it rude and quite crass that at the end of her book she gives a multitude of thanks to friends and family and totally eliminates thanks of any kind to Ms. Mitchell, who without her book, Ms. Randall's could have never been written!
Rating: 
Summary: Watch the video, then read the book
Review: From the reviews posted here, it is easy to see, you're either going to love this book or hate it. Since it has been 20 years or so since I watched Gone With the Wind, I thought I would see it before reading what all the controversy around this book means. It was crucial to my enjoyment of Ms. Randall's efforts...and frankly necessary to understand what is going on in the book.Despite some of the reviews here, there is no questioning the author's ability to write with clarity and bite...and insight. Revisionist? Yes. But I think that was Mrs. Mitchell's desire with GWTW as well. And it's not a parody of the National Lampoon, Mad Magazine genre. It's a clever, cutting role-reversing commentary of an American icon that is both grating and great. It is not a belly-laugh lampon, but the whole idea and execution of the book prove brilliantly funny in their results. Ironically, had the book not been the subject of the Mitchell estate lawsuit, I doubt it would have hit the sales charts as it has. Which, I guess is another commentary on the state of American book sales these days. Watch the GWTW video (frankly my dear, you can fast-forward through a lot of it), then read Wind Done Gone...and you'll appreciate the quality of this first novel by an obviously gifted, insightful author.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing, but too many changes for me
Review: When I saw "The Wind Done Gone" at the library, I figured I better get this while I can. I liked the book, but it kept changing too much for me. For one, it is not like she mentioned the names of the characters in "Gone with the Wind", but if you follow along, you can guess who is what. Then, you really can't catch the story with the changes that this book produces.By the jacket on the book, I was under the impression that Cynara leaves R. to marry the Congressman, but I find that that isn't so. You really don't know where you are in the book, because she kept going from one scene to another with very little preparation. Still worth a look see for your own discretion.
Rating:
Summary: An okay parody but as God is my witness, I wanted more
Review: When I first heard about the attempts by the estate of Margaret Mitchell to stop publication of Alice Randall's "The Wind Done Gone," I thought it was a no-brainer that the book should be published. But most of the stories talked about the book as telling the story of "Gone With The Wind" from the perspective of the slaves on the O'Hara plantation. I became very much interested in reading that story and in seeing the slavery issue explored much more than it ever was in Mitchell's classic novel. But once you start reading Randall's novel it becomes clear that this is a parody of GWTW rather than the thoughtful exploration the new stories seemed to suggest. Randall's main character is Cynara, the daughter of "Planter" (i.e., Gerald) and Mammy. The name is taken from the line of poetry from which Mitchell got the title for her novel. The story takes place on the plantation "Tata," where "Garlic," Mammy and "Miss Priss" are really the ones in charge. In fact, Mammy has been killing the male children of "Planter" and "Lady," so that the slaves do not have to worry about a sober white man running the place. Cynara is far smarter than her half-sister "Other" (Scarlett), who is scarcely better than the the gay "Dreamy Gentleman" (Ashley), "Mealy Mouth" (Melanie), and the old and wrinkly "R" (Rhett). Only when Cynara muses on how slavery made it impossible for Other to know if Mammy really loved her, something Cynara never had to worry about, does "The Wind Done Gone" really get at the untold side of GWTW. But ultimately Randall is more interested in achieving ridicule through her parody than a penetrating social critique. There have been novels dealing with the mulatto daughter of the plantation owner, Margaret Walker's 1967 novel "Jubilee" obviously comes to mind, but I must admit I have become enamored with what Mammy, Pork and Prissy really thought about Scarlett and the rest of the O'Haras. Obviously I should have paid more attention to what those news stories were telling. "The Wind Done Gone" is certainly clever, but I was really hoping for much more.
Rating:
Summary: I read it in one sitting...
Review: Alice Randall's Wind Done Gone was worth the wait. The author jolts our complacency about the Gone With the Wind days without, as many might have been lead to believe, focusing overtly on the Mitchell story itself; Wind Done Gone is less a parody, and more just a look at an era. Randall is seemingly subtle, using rich, sensory language (capable of both soothing and alarming) to tell this long overdue story; her twist on the story is thorough, clever and often amusing. I particularly liked her creative spin on the character names. "Mealy Mouth," "Twelve Slaves Strong as Trees" and "Other" all seem to capture an element of the original characters while at the same time making the new roles very relevent to Randall's own story (read the book to figure out who they are!) And the roles are new. The author has brought to life a world very different from the one we have accepted from Margaret Mitchell - these people and these places aren't what we thought they were at all. Randall's thoughtful take on this long-overdue parody is beautifully done. It was certainly no easy task, and she managed it masterfully. Wind Done Gone is an important book to have been written, it made me think, and I hope others can enjoy it and learn from it as I did.
Rating:
Summary: IMPORTANT BOOK! -- don't you see?!!!
Review: It appears as if many of the readers who wrote reviews here don't at all understand that this book is not meant to entertain them! -- although the writing is great, and I found it very enjoyable! The Wind Done Gone is filling in a critical void that Margaret Mitchell's book created---- The Wind Done Gone delves into the internal lives of characters that Mitchell so egregiously neglects!
Rating:
Summary: some people just don't get it
Review: I feel sorry for the people who just don't get this book. It's not a cheap followup to Gone With The Wind (her estate already did that, and plans to do it again, from what I understand)--it's a look at the very unromantic side of the south that most people like to ignore.
Rating:
Summary: Great Title - Bad Story!
Review: I read all of the reviews and heard all of the controversy. I still had to read the book. The title was excellant. The story was too jumpy, the characters were strange (I could not figure out who was who). I am still interested in another version of "Gone with the Wind" but this was not it. Peace and Blessings!!
Rating:
Summary: a brave and often haunting novel
Review: alice randall's writing took my breath away. she is tremendously talented, a powerful new literary voice. this book is not a sequel to gone with the wind--it is an answer to it.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: Who in the publisher's house doesn't know the meaning of "parody"? This book is not a parody of "Gone with the Wind" but a moving companion piece to the GWTW world of Margaret Mitchell. For almost seventy years, we have had Mitchell's view on the old South, the heroine Scarlett O'Hara and "Wind Done Gone" is an amazing work of fiction on the African-American point of view, its heroine, Cynara, Scarlett's half-sister. The story is told in first person, stream of consciousness, which may be difficult for some to follow, as the author weaves back through Cynara's memories and revelations. Stream of consciousness isn't as straight-forward as a point by point, outlined presentation, but more realistic presents the human experience. I feel the author's style, presenting this as Cynara's diary is a wonderful way to tell this story. There are some surprises along the way as Alice Randall gives detail to some of Mitchell's characters that were lesser characters to Scarlett and Rhett in GWTW. Not only the twists that change Mammy and Prissy from old derogitory stereotypes, but the detail she spins into the characters of Gerald and Ellen O'Hara, Scarlett's parents. Ellen, here called "Lady", is more interesting here than in the original, I think! For those who are so affronted that a new frame of reference is given to a historical period, and a **work of fiction**-- well, no book is for "every one". However, look at any other real event in American history - in any country's history - in any one's life- and there is always more than one point of view!!! The original accounts of "Custer's Last Stand" from the Caucasian point of view were vastly different than the Native Americans' account of the battle. The American account of the final days of the defense of the Alamo are sharply contradicted by the Mexican accounts! If anything, Alice Randall's book adds a richness to Mitchell's classic. And it means I can read GWTW and watch the movie without cringing when it comes to the depiction of the slaves. I read the reviews on Amazon before I bought this book and have to say I enjoyed this book much more than I expected. Don't get so wrapped up in the mythos of GWTW that you forget that **it is a work of fiction, as is The Wind Done Gone** or that you forget that in art, as well as life, there is always more than one point of view, and the world is not just as it is seen by yourself and your culture!
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