Rating: 
Summary: Why this story just doesn't work...
Review: TWDG touts itself as an unauthorized parody of GWTW. It is actually extremely poor Mary Sue GWTW fan fiction. It's obvious to anyone Ms. Randall wrote this story as a vehicle to accomplish two things. The first is to indulge in a fantasy love affair with Rhett Butler through written fiction, and the second is to ridicule a wonderful classic novel in any way she could.
"Fan fiction" is a term referring to fiction works where an author uses characters and locations created/copyrighted by another author. Although Ms. Randall renames the characters and presents them in an often unrealistic and unflattering light it's obvious enough the GWTW characters are there. "Mary Sue" is a technique where an author inserts him/herself into a preexisting fiction world and proceeds to change or "improve" the scenario as s/he sees fit.
"Mary Sue" is always exceptional and superior to the "mainstream" characters in the story. More beautiful, smarter, sexier, more intelligent, more successful, more everything than the others. "Mary Sue" is generally truly good at heart and wishes to help the people around her and her "mission" in the story usually brings the other characters "into the light" before she moves on, dies, or happily marries the leading man in the story.
That's not to say Mary Sue work is always badly written and cannot be enjoyable, because it can be. TWDG doesn't work because of Ms. Randall's violent and excessive departures from the "cannon work" (Margaret Mitchell's GWTW.)
Several individuals have praised Randall for "bringing forth the truth about Tara and presenting the more sordid details of what life was REALLY like there." This usually refers to the frequent sexual miscegenation presented in her story. The trouble with this scenario is that, not only is it not "cannon" to the original novel, it is not presented in a credible fashion. The "cannon" states that Scarlett had never seen a mulatto before traveling to Atlanta. That is the reality of the original world set down in Mitchell's story. Now, without any real explanation or series of events to explain why, we are expected to believe that Scarlett had a mulatto sister and playmate raised on the plantation with her, a girl who resembled her physically (of course, she was even more beautiful than her "white" half-sister, although later on we are expected to believe Scarlett herself has African heritage as well.)
When Ms. Randall also expects us to believe that her Mary Sue is the love child of Gerald O'Hara and Mammy...Well, I'm still laughing at that. I don't believe it a bit, but I am laughing about it.
There is an unfortunate number of people who have focused on the racial miscegenation of the Old South even before the War Between the States broke out. The fascination of it in the public eye is almost vulgar and I believe most people love the titillation factor of it. It is almost requisite to believe that every plantation-born male is a rapist (at least the white ones; no one seems curious to know if black planters and slave owners ever sexually abused their slaves which is actually a far more credible crime since most rapists have a tendency to act within their own ethnic groups.) While I don't doubt that miscegenation (both consenting and non-consenting) took place on some plantations and in some cities throughout the country, it's ludicrous to suggest that every planter in the South, black or white, took sexual advantage of his female slaves. What about the planters who might not have found their slaves attractive? What about the true racists who would have considered it degrading to have relations with an "inferior race," and an utter disgrace to father children in such a manner? What about the decent law-abiding citizens out there who knew interracial miscegenation was against the law and chose to obey the law? And finally, what about the men with enough decency and integrity to honor their marriage vows?
If I had been writing this story and I wanted to present miscegenation in a believable light, I would have written Mammy as Ellen's half-sister. If you check out the original novel and read the back story/history of Mammy and Ellen before they moved to Georgia when Ellen married Gerald, there's a good background to suggest that connection in a plausible way. (Another excellent possibility is that Uncle Peter was Miss Pittypat Hamilton's half-brother or half-uncle. Why else would he take it so seriously when his dying master exhorted him, "Take care of your Young Miss Pittypat. She's got no more sense than a hopper-grass.")
Instead we are expected to believe that a middle-aged Irish-American planter (who grew up under British oppression and had some idea of how it felt to be discriminated against himself) devoted to his elegant wife is dallying with said wife's best friend and most trusted assistant (who, in turn, is a child-murderer and master manipulator, more or less "running the show behind the lines." This is hardly an empowering portrayal of a truly loveable and respectable character.) This same planter, presented as being fond of children and foolishly indulgent with his own daughters, effectively ignores and neglects his love child with Mammy (insert more laughter) and even sends her to the auction block.
I'm afraid my overall impression is that Ms. Randall exploited the original novel just to garner notoriety and public interest for her own work and indulge a fantasy where Rhett Butler has a decided preference for mulatto women (more laughter-Butler is one of the most racist characters in GWTW.) The story itself is not badly written, I suppose, but the characters are so misrepresented I just can't warm to it. They are made ridiculous to better glorify the Mary Sue heroine. The book is no credit to a lady of Ms. Randall's education and ability, nor is it a credit to history enthusiasts concerned about exposing the evils of slavery.
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: No.
Review: Yes, there were many injustices in the south during the Civil War. Yes, slaves were abused, sexually and in many other ways. But here's the thing--Gone With the Wind, racist as it may be, is a beautiful, classic novel. Do I like that I have to turn off the "offense" button when I read it? No--but that hasn't stopped me from reading it more times than I can count. Novels don't have to be real; they're fantasy. I loved GWTW and I will always love it, though I would never want to live it. This book is exploiting the grandeur that was the story of Scarlett O'Hara. It's relevant--but not as a rip-off of the classic. Write it over; create new characters; write your own story of slavery. I would read it with pleasure and recognize how easily it could have happened like that. But, please, don't just take someone's ready-made story and change it around. I love Scarlett and Melanie and Rhett and Ashley and Mammy and Pork. The idea of Mammy killing Ellen's and Gerald's sons is horrifying. Yes, the black characters of GWTW were abused, but they were lovable. At the end of the day, GWTW is a story. It's not meant to be taken as truth. Please, Ms. Randall--write your own story. It's unfair to take one we love so much and tarnish it.
Rating:
Summary: No.
Review: Yes, there were many injustices in the south during the Civil War. Yes, slaves were abused, sexually and in many other ways. But here's the thing--Gone With the Wind, racist as it may be, is a beautiful, classic novel. Do I like that I have to turn off the "offense" button when I read it? No--but that hasn't stopped me from reading it more times than I can count. Novels don't have to be real; they're fantasy. I loved GWTW and I will always love it, though I would never want to live it. This book is exploiting the grandeur that was the story of Scarlett O'Hara. It's relevant--but not as a rip-off of the classic. Write it over; create new characters; write your own story of slavery. I would read it with pleasure and recognize how easily it could have happened like that. But, please, don't just take someone's ready-made story and change it around. I love Scarlett and Melanie and Rhett and Ashley and Mammy and Pork. The idea of Mammy killing Ellen's and Gerald's sons is horrifying. Yes, the black characters of GWTW were abused, but they were lovable. At the end of the day, GWTW is a story. It's not meant to be taken as truth. Please, Ms. Randall--write your own story. It's unfair to take one we love so much and tarnish it.
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