Yale’s Stephen L. Carter gives Gone with the Wind’s newest “sequel,” Rhett Butler’s People, a relatively positive review in the New York Times. One of the harsher paragraphs:
Donald McCaig’s fine novel is not an hommage. In reducing Rhett to a perplexed and worrying Everyman, McCaig reduces the power of Mitchell’s original. Readers adore the enigma that is Rhett – because he is an enigma. Probably that was Mitchell’s intention: to persuade us to love the world that would produce a man like Rhett. McCaig insists that Rhett is actually a lot like everyone else. That’s why, after finishing “Rhett Butler’s People,” it may be impossible to read “Gone With the Wind” in quite the same way.
Sounds better than Alexandra Ripley’s Scarlett, which my sisters struggled for weeks to finish. But still, I think I’d prefer just to re-read Mitchell’s brilliant novel every few years for my GWTW fix.
I just finished reading “Rhett Butler’s People” and I’m so happy that Donald McCaig wrote this book. I’m a “Windy” from way back when I first saw the movie “Gone With the Wind” in 1954 with my mother and my grandmother.
I’ve been to numerous GWTW events including the 1986 50th Anniversary Celebration of the book’s publishing in Atlanta. There I met Fred Crane (Brent Tarleton) and Marcela Rabwin (David O. Selznick’e executive assistant). I have a good sized collection of Scarlett, Rhett and even Belle Watling dolls and other GWTW collectibles. Needless to say, I consider myself a true fan of Margaret Mitchell and “Gone With the Wind”.
I, like many others waited anxiously for Alexandra Ripley’s “Scarlett, the Sequel, to come out only to be disappointed. While it was a fine book, it just did not do it for me. I couldn’t see Rhett and Scarlett in the roles Ripley had put them in. I did not feel closure for Rhett and Scarlett and had to keep them in my mind’s eye as parting in Atlanta.
However, I am finally able to feel at rest after reading McCaig’s book. I was dispappointed that Tara burned and surprised that Belle was killed, but coming from a family of Southerners with roots to plantations during the Civil War, I feel this book was much more realistic as to what happened after the war and how Rhett and Scarlett would have handled it.
Thank you Mr. McCaig.
From one “Windy” to another: Thank you for a great review (even with the spoilers!). I’m glad to hear McCaig did justice to Mitchell’s characters and proved to be an author worthy of continuing their story.