In Which We Discuss Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind blew me away.

Ha!  Pun!

I watched Gone with the Wind on Christmas Day, and picked up the book shortly after that.  I've owned it for a while - almost ten years - but had never read it.  I don't know why.  Maybe because I didn't have much idea of what it was about, and it's over a thousand pages long.

Anyway, I really liked the movie, so I decided to pick up the book.

Warning: Spoilers for Gone with the Wind Beyond Here!

Firstly, I loved Scarlett.  She's a ruthless bitch.  She's accused of being selfish, and it's true that she doesn't take much consideration of other people's feelings.  But, really, would a selfish person break themselves to support others like she does?

I also loved Rhett.  He and Scarlett deserve each other, in a good way and a bad way.

I loved how readable the book was.  It was over a thousand pages long, but the only thing that put me off about that was the idea of trawling through it.  Actually reading it was easy.

I was aiming to write a really thorough review and explanation of this book, but now I come to try to do it, I find I have no original thoughts.  Only fangirl squeals.

Oh, wait.  I do have one observation to make.

In Sheri Tepper's Grass, Marjorie observes that her husband's fiery personality is at odds with her own.  She wants to know him gently, to observe him at arm's length.  He wants to know her by possession.  He can either be up close or far away; he has no middle ground.

Rodrigo, Marjorie's husband, reminds me of Scarlett and Rhett, while Ashley is more like Marjorie.  Their unhappy marriage is something like how I imagine Scarlett and Ashley would have ended up, if Scarlett had her way.