Gone with the Wind

Rating:
Summary: Immensely enjoyable (aside from the beginning)
Review: I must admit that the first 100-200 pages were not so interesting. But everything after that was great. You get a real feel for each character - Scarlett, Rhett, Melanie, Ashley, Mammy, etc. This book contains everything - everyday life, tragedy, war, humor, love, etc.

The more you read, the more entrenched you get in it. It's written very well. Its not your typical love story - it has much more to it. I got so into it to the point where I felt for each character. It's definitely a must read. I enjoyed it immensely.

Every day I looked forward to reading it. It's relaxing (not like your modern suspenseful-murder-thriller book) yet so interesting.

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.

Rating:
Summary: omg!
Review: oh god the ending! the ending! the ending!

(it is best to read the book before you watch the movie)