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neetslives 's review for:
Rhett Butler's People
by Donald McCaig
I'm going to go right down the middle on this one. I enjoyed seeing this author's take on Rhett's family and the detail behind Belle, Rosemary, etc, life is interesting. I had too look at it on a couple of different levels to really digest how I felt about this -- usually I think about whether I like the story, liked the characters or whether I learned anything new.
DID I LOVE THE CHARACTERS?
Someone else on this site said you really need to have read GWTW to understand this == I think it's more that you need to read GWTW to really love the characters in this book. I don't think I would have been attached to these characters in the way I was without having read GWTW. So to that end, I don't think I could have liked this book as a stand-alone based on my attachment to them. They just weren't as compelling. I wouldn't have "gotten it."
DID I LOVE THE STORY?
I liked all the parts that did not overlap with GWTW. For example, there are key scenes from GWTW that are "reimagined" in this book. I would have rathered these scenes be left out and that the author had found another way to progress the plot withouth re-hashing the scenes that are so beautifully done in GWTW. At least, recreate the dialog faithfully and then add Rhett's perspective or inner monologue. I tried to accept these changes throughout the book by remembering that all of us remember conversations differently and that this is merely presenting Rhett's side of what happened. However there are a couple of scenes where Scarlett is by herself and the author rehashes an entire scene that is in GWTW, where Rhett isnt even present. Why did we need that?
DID I LEARN ANYTHING NEW?
This author did try to add some more historical perspective to the novel that Mitchell's original classic. GWTW describes a world and everything that comes into contact with the people in that world, but it isn't heavy on describing the external world. You learn about the external only when it touches the main characters. With RBP the story ranges far afield with the descriptions of the army and its structure, the reconstruction and many of the issues of the day. So from that perspective, it was interesting to see the timeline of wartime events followed more closely.
Ultimately, its unfair to judge it again GWTW too much. It's just one imagining of the same world. But of course what makes us love GWTW is that Mitchell knew how to describe it so that we felt the texture of their dresses, the feel of the velvet settee, the heaviness of the Georgia heat, the dirt in our mouths and the frustrated rage and sadness of a society we can barely understand anymore. I don't know that this book does that, but I found it enjoyable to have someone help me imagine how Rhett and Scarlett got their happily ever after. And to be honest, I think RBP is closer to how it could have happened than the Scarlett sequel was.
DID I LOVE THE CHARACTERS?
Someone else on this site said you really need to have read GWTW to understand this == I think it's more that you need to read GWTW to really love the characters in this book. I don't think I would have been attached to these characters in the way I was without having read GWTW. So to that end, I don't think I could have liked this book as a stand-alone based on my attachment to them. They just weren't as compelling. I wouldn't have "gotten it."
DID I LOVE THE STORY?
I liked all the parts that did not overlap with GWTW. For example, there are key scenes from GWTW that are "reimagined" in this book. I would have rathered these scenes be left out and that the author had found another way to progress the plot withouth re-hashing the scenes that are so beautifully done in GWTW. At least, recreate the dialog faithfully and then add Rhett's perspective or inner monologue. I tried to accept these changes throughout the book by remembering that all of us remember conversations differently and that this is merely presenting Rhett's side of what happened. However there are a couple of scenes where Scarlett is by herself and the author rehashes an entire scene that is in GWTW, where Rhett isnt even present. Why did we need that?
DID I LEARN ANYTHING NEW?
This author did try to add some more historical perspective to the novel that Mitchell's original classic. GWTW describes a world and everything that comes into contact with the people in that world, but it isn't heavy on describing the external world. You learn about the external only when it touches the main characters. With RBP the story ranges far afield with the descriptions of the army and its structure, the reconstruction and many of the issues of the day. So from that perspective, it was interesting to see the timeline of wartime events followed more closely.
Ultimately, its unfair to judge it again GWTW too much. It's just one imagining of the same world. But of course what makes us love GWTW is that Mitchell knew how to describe it so that we felt the texture of their dresses, the feel of the velvet settee, the heaviness of the Georgia heat, the dirt in our mouths and the frustrated rage and sadness of a society we can barely understand anymore. I don't know that this book does that, but I found it enjoyable to have someone help me imagine how Rhett and Scarlett got their happily ever after. And to be honest, I think RBP is closer to how it could have happened than the Scarlett sequel was.