Gone with the Wind

Rating:
Summary: Put aside your PC predilections....
Review: Published in 1936, can any serious reader expect Gone With the Wind to mesh with 21st-century sensibilities? Of course not. Therefore, it may be wiser to open this book, put sensibilities aside, and let it rip because Gone With the Wind is simply a classic. Margaret Mitchell's Confederate sympathies hold little in the way of ambivalence. The dream-like plantation lifestyle, it's total devastation, and the abject humiliation of it's adherents under Reconstruction are starkly protrayed. Amidst the tragedy of civil war, Mitchell places a bevy of unforgettable characters whose inner strengths and weaknesses receive vivid definition - the interplay of which is truly sublime.

Gone With the Wind is ultimately a story of traumatic loss and dogged perserverence, overcoming disaster, peeling oneself off of the cold, hard floor. To be sure, there is wicked condescension, biased justifications, premises so one-sided they defy belief, but through it all Gone With the Wind stands with Tolstoy's War and Peace in it's ability to bring the social costs of war to the surface in a manner both eloquent and disturbing. This book should be read by all. 5+ stars.

Rating:
Summary: "After all, tomorrow is another day"
Review: this book is so great. i read it a couple years back and reread it about once every 2 months. i love it so much. It's set in the Civil Era and displays how the civil war changed people's lives. Scarlett O'Hara is very childish and flirty at the beginning, with no care in the world. When the war comes, she is widowed and her family's land is ransacked and destroyed, leaving Scarlett to start from scratch. The land meant a lot to her "pa" which is why Scarlett throws away all her views on women working and gets down and dirty. One of the things that makes this such a great novel is that while Scarlett is growing into a mature young lady, she is also falling in love with Rhett Butler. Rhett is the only one who truly understands her character, deep down inside. He loves her and they marry. Lots of twists and a crushing ending take place throughout the book. A very long read but well worth it. My favorite character is Rhett because he struggles to make Scarlett happy. In the end he realizes the truth. I wont give anything away. Though I'm sure you already know what happens. this is without a doubt, one of my favorite books. PEACE & LOVE

Rating:
Summary: A Classic Book And A Classic Movie-Way To Go!!
Review: This classic Civil War-era romance novel won the Pulitze Prize in 1937 and was made into the classic movie audiences around the world know and love two years later. This terrific saga begins before the Civil War (which the Union won four years later, paving the way for the 14th Amendment, which ended slavery in 1865, several months after Abraham Lincoln's assassination) and ends during Reconstruction. I won't go over the plot again, as many who've either read the book or seen the movie (or both) know what it's about. Those who haven't read it, read the editor's reviews. One major difference between the book and the movie is that the book has a lot of cursing and the movie only has one swear word: "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." The way Rhett (Clark Gable, who won Best Actor in 1934 for the delightful screwball comedy "It Happened One Night"; review coming soon) says that to Scarlett (Vivien Leigh, in the role that won her her 1st Academy Award for Best Actress; the 2nd one was also for Best Actress in "A Streetcar Named Desire" in 1954) makes it seem like it's not a bad word at all. Watch the movie AFTER reading the book, you'll appreciate it more. The book is rated PG-13 for intense thematic elements, strong vulgar language, mild war violence, some images of wounded, violence, intense domestic conflict, mild sensuality and brief nudity. The movie is rated G.

Rating:
Summary: my favourite book ever
Review: This will always be my all-time favourite book. The most sumptuous and vivd imagery. Such intriguing and authentic characters. And of course Scarlett is one of the most fascinating women in literary history precisely because she is so ahead of her time and dared to be different. I just love her though I certainly don't like her much!

As much as I adore the movie as well, particularly the exquisite Vivien Leigh, it doesn't capture even half the richness of the novel.

This is one book I re-read every few years and continue to find new elements to fascinate every time.

Rating:
Summary: Old South life depicted with unflinching realism
Review: Unlike the movie, this book is NOT a "romance novel"; it's a hard-hitting account of Southern life during the Civil War, told from a Southern point of view, told as if from the period. The racist attitudes of the time, though naturally, entirely unsavory from today's point of view, existed, and denying it won't erase the facts. Mitchell WASN'T trying to make a statement of ANY kind, pro or con; she merely wrote on how things were, as opposed to how one wished they might be, or wished them to be different. The dichotomies between black and white life are entirely realistic, and to portray them as anything otherwise would be foolhardy. The only way to know how ghastly our history was in terms of its treatment of humanity is to preserve the facts as they were, and this book, without even trying, does exactly that.

Too, it would be a serious mistake to paint this book as an idyllic, romantic love story. Mitchell, to her credit, does not fall back on dime-store novel clichés, and unfortunately, she is rarely accorded respect for this. Because of the movie, an entirely different, not altogether flattering, slant permeates the whole "Gone With The Wind" phenomenon - and which debased Mitchell's intentions in the appalling Alexandra Ripley sequel.
If everyone who saw the film had read the book, realization might be more widespread as to how they differ, and how much more complex and sharply drawn are the characters.

Scarlett and Rhett are two unapologetic opportunists who are startlingly lacking in typical "storybook" appeal. Instead, their "appeal" is in how earthy and shrewd they both are, survivors by discarding public approval and approbation. In the end, both are humbled ("redeemed" is too strong a word) by life and their chronic misunderstanding of each other - and wind up, naturally, alone. Mitchell, shrewdly enough, in a rare move of unsentimentality, does not go the "happily ever after" route - Rhett leaves Scarlett, ruthlessly, abruptly. How could Butler, after being so shabbily treated, retain his self-respect by staying with Scarlett? All the other characters are drawn with wonderful strokes of originality and vividness - human, flawed and far more appealing than the pastel versions portrayed in the film.

Mitchell was an incredible vernacular writer, and her skills in doing so emphasized the differences between all the cultures, classes and races. Astonishing is Mitchell's ability to combine history, social commentary and fiction with unbelievable ease; after several hours of reading, the reader may feel as though he had been in a virtual time machine, so indelibly detailed are the locales, weather, sounds and even smells. Even more absorbing are the marvelous dialogues between the characters, especially those of Rhett and Scarlett. Mitchell had a grasp as to how humans interact through words, and unlike, say, Ayn Rand, the conversations sound as if they are spoken by real people.

Finally, though, for those who thought that Mitchell was Olde-Tyme in her attitudes and conventions because she was able to depict them so vividly, I suggest the reader pay close attention to the character of Rhett Butler, and his disdain for Old South values. Mitchell pulled a fast one by revealing, through Butler's character, just how modern a thinker she was. Butler repeatedly upbraids Scarlett for her early adherence to an antiquated "value system" and mockingly scorns the society around him. He sees what a sham and fakery of all the conventions that exist, and of having to accede to a mass-mentality. Through Rhett Butler, Mitchell slyly tucks in her own incredibly multi-faceted, intellectually-based mindset.

Mitchell's book is one of the true greats in American novels.