Rating: 
Summary: A first rate piece of literature!
Review: "The Wind Done Gone" is the story of a mulatto woman from Georgia after the Civil War. The main character, Cynara, is the half sister of Other, a character likened to the Scarlet O'Hara of "Gone With The Wind". "The Wind Done Gone" parodies Mitchell's novel in the truest sense, despite all the legal maneuvering by the Margaret Mitchell estate to keep it from being published. It mimics the characters and premise of "Gone With The Wind" in a manner that is both cleaver and creative.The slave-master relationship depicted in Mitchell's work is sharply ridiculed by Randall throughout her novel. On the surface, Mitchell's account shows a family in full command of riches, power, land and slaves. In Randall's portrayal, it is the slaves who truly maintain control of the family's destiny. From the marriage of the family's parental units, to the design of the house they will live in, to the day to day management of the estate, Mammy and Garlic remained in subtle yet assured control. Keepers of secrets and masters of manipulation, they created and secured a present and future ("What would we a done with a sober white man on the place?") that ensured safety and shelter in an atrociously oppressive environment. Randall's greatest stab at "Gone With The Wind" is the revelation that the mother's side of the family is of African slave ancestry. With all of their assumed notions of racial superiority, beneath the surface is a family passing as white to escape the plight of a being black. I find great solace in the daily agony such denial must have caused to the slavers. "The Wind Done Gone" has earned its place among the great literature of this country. Anyone who has read "Gone With The Wind" (or has seen the movie) owes it to him/herself to know another side of story. The first person narrative approach (by way of the main character's diary) allows Randall to fully explore the thought processes and conflicts of the character. Writing in the voice of a slave deprived of an early education, who later cannot quench her thirst for it, must have posed challenges for the author. But she overcame them. The exhilaration of being exposed to new things and the confusion of trying to integrate those new experiences (so vastly contrary to the old ones) into her life, are communicated to the reader with exacting language that is true to both the characters and the time. Amidst the poetic writing is the backdrop of a conflicted romance between Cynara and R, the ex-husband of Other, who purchases Cynara off the auction block and later marries her. Throughout their relationship, Cynara is torn between two loves. A love she feels owed to R for "rescuing" her from a life of toil (only to imprison her to a life of domestic servitude) and the love that is awakened in her upon meeting a black Congressman during a visit to the nation's capital city. "Gone With The Wind" has enjoyed classic status in the absence of "The Wind Done Gone". "The Wind Done Gone" has most certainly earn the merits of a classic (whether formally acknowledged by the literary establishment or not). Now, I can't imagine either being fully appreciated without the other. Kudos to Randall for telling this story and a nod to American jurisprudence for allowing us to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Huge Disappointment
Review: I opened the novel with an open mind. I eagerly awaited its release because I loved the whole Gone with the Wind storyline. However, after the first couple of pages, I was thoroughly disappointed. Gone with the Wind caught my attention in the first couple of pages. Wind Done Gone jumped all over the place and at times was utterly confusing. It was not a parody of Gone with the Wind, but instead more a competition of who was better, Scarlett (Other) or Cynara. Randall seemed to have an agenda with too many ideas trying to be put forth in this two hundred page novel.
Rating:
Summary: Much More Than Parody
Review: "The Wind Done Gone" is a miracle of a book. The ridiculous attempt to suppress it has, I hope, aided it by giving it the publicity it deserves. The author has compared her book to a patchwork quilt, and it is like that--full of marvelous colors and textures. It traces the life of Cynara, Scarlett's black half-sister (named, incidentally, for the woman in the poem from which Mitchell's book takes its name). Jumping backward and forward in time, the story brings to full, fascinating life all those who existed only as happy stereotypes in Mitchell's ponderous tome. But Randall's book doesn't depend on a familiarity with Mitchell's for its power. "The Wind Done Gone" is fully capable of standing on its own.
Rating:
Summary: Should never have been printed.
Review: The judge that allowed this disaster to lift ideas and outright quotes from Gone With the Wind should be kicked from the bench. A no talent writer with an axe to grind is a pitiful read. I thought the authorized sequel stunk, but this is much worse. This book was a gift, but it went into the trash.
Rating:
Summary: Less than Zero - in terms of parody
Review: By definition - a parody is supposed to be caricature, a distortion, a lampoon. Ms Randall was interviewed on early morning daytime television with a her publisher when the estate of margaret mitchell was attempting to stop publication of the book wind done gone. Ms. Randall appeared overtly defensive of herself and her written work - and attemped to site parts of her book as a 'parody' of GWTW - which from her descriptions of characterizations and similar scenes bear no resemblance to the Margaret Mitchell book (although she would give the impression of it to be some form of vindication for something unknown). Her work may give insight into the lives of early African Americans in the south during the post civil war reconstruction. It would appear the publisher was attempting to drum up business by jumping on the coattails of a classic american novel. I recommend - renting Oprah Winfrey's "Beloved" for a more true taste of post civil war reconstruction in the lives of african americans
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece.
Review: Houghton Mifflin did a disservice to this novel by putting a false sticker on the cover calling The Wind Done Gone "an Unauthorized Parody". It's NOT one... A parody, according to Merriam-Webster's, is: "a humorous or satirical imitation". This novel is neither humorous or satirical in tone, nor is it a simple copying of Gone With the Wind. Like Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea is a revisioning of Jane Eyre from the perspective of Edward Rochester's "mad" wife so is The Wind Done Gone a revisioning of Gone With the Wind from a slave's perspective with the creation of a mixed-race half-sister for plantation belle "Other". This book stands on its own as a novel of significance. The Wind Done Gone is the fictionalized journal of Cynara, the daughter of a plantation farmer and the plantation's black Mammy. Cynara's life has been defined by what was denied her, growing up as Other's unacknowledged half-sister; shunted aside by her mother Mammy who dotes on Other, and being sold off the plantation as a young girl because Other becomes jealous of her. R., a rogueish Southern gentlemen, it turns out, is someone Cynara met before Other, but makes the mistake of whetting R.'s interest in Other by telling R. about her. After R. and Other's daughter dies and he leaves Other, he returns to Cynara and sets up a house for her. But the ghost of Other and Cynara's history is always between them. Alice Randall dwells on the hidden and unspoken truths of Southern gentility: the unacknowledged alliances and relationships between men of power and colored women, the unrecognized mixed-race children, and the crutch of slavery for the antebellum South.
Ms. Randall's points especially hit home in the familiar framework of Gone With the Wind. After reading both Gone With the Wind and The Wind Done Gone, I don't prefer one novel over the other: I think that both viewpoints co-exist and that taken together they encapsulate the charm, hypocrisy, and inter-relationships of the South. Both are riveting stories. The Wind Done Gone is a much shorter novel, but Cynara's narrative voice and the detailed writing are excellent. In my opinion, The Wind Done Gone will be studied as an alternative vision to Gone With the Wind. If you like The Wind Done Gone, I recommend Wide Sargasso Sea and the movie Jefferson in Paris.
Rating:
Summary: The Point Done Missing!
Review: Poor Margaret Mitchell. A parody is great when it is done well. When a book as poorly written as this one claims to be one, we all suffer. The book is dull, thinly written, and all involved should be ashamed. The estate should have sued becuase how bad it is and not because she stole characters. I'm amazed by the positive reviews. I must have read a different book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book!! No Parody Here.
Review: mrs. randall's work provides insight into the lives of people of color in the south during reconstruction. the book tells the story of a mulatto former slave who survives by usine her wits to get what she wants. the book analyzes the effect slavery had on each of her close relationships and her ability to build new ones. its a good book and very entertaining, but it is NOT a parody!! besides referencing a few characters there is virtually no resemblance to GWTW. first, the book is written in diary format. second, the story is told almost exclusively during reconstruction, GWTW began well before the civil war and ended during reconstruction. third, the diary details the life of a former slave and written from her perspective. since the main character was sold away from "tata" at a young age, by definition her story can't match that of GWTW. each one of the characters of GWTW are referenced, but you wouldn't know it if the reader was not told before reading the book. overall, its a good story and an interesting read.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but flawed...
Review: I think many people have jumped the gun on this book, thinking it is a sequel or something of that nature to Gone with the Wind. And it definatly isn't that. I have to say that this book is something that should've been written. I will give the author credit for that insite. It also has some good entertainment value. It is humourous at times and give good perspective on lives on the other side of the original story. I gave it only three stars because, first, some of the details in this book do not go along with GWTW. Secondly, as a warning, if you haven't read GWTW, it will not make much sense. All in all, it really is a good read.
Rating:
Summary: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Should Refund My Money!
Review: I bought this book primarily because of the legal action surrounding its publication, which was a mistake. This book simply isn't very good. It isn't "brilliant" in the least. It isn't even really a parody (an appellation someone's attorney must have put on the cover). The author had a wonderful idea but failed to deliver. This book could have been interesting and thought-provoking. Instead, it was poorly written (why do so many people think that "great literature" needs to involve disjointed narrative and stream of consciousness?), far too unrealistic (more so than the original GWTW was), and just plain weird in parts. In attempting to explore the dark undercurrents of the characters from GWTW, the author goes too far, turning this parody into something we might see on "Jerry Springer." Infanticide, tragically closeted homosexuality, multiple murders, suicide, fetishes--you name it, this book has it! Real people are not the fairly two-dimensional characters from the original GWTW, but neither are they the complete whackos depicted in this book. A balance would have been nice--next time, the author should pick just a couple dysfunctional behaviors instead of giving readers the full gamut. I also found disturbing the author's basic premise that slaveowners' lives and destinies were largely manipulated by their slaves--this is unrealistic and discounts the most horrific and reprehensible part of slavery: the enforced powerlessness of the enslaved. In short, unless your book club railroads you into reading this one, don't bother.
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