Felt like this book and movie were due for a re-take. I am currently listening to the audio book and enjoying the lovely voice of Linda Stephens as narrator. This movie can be found on a few streaming services including HBO/MAX and begins with a disclaimer about how the language and ideas are outmoded for our time now. Thankfully.
For me, the book and movie hold something altogether different as I realize more and more how important the idea of home and land have become to me. When Rhett tells Scarlett she gets her strength from the dirt of Tara, I suddenly understand.
I also understand several marriages and several romantic disappointments much better now.
That's the thing about books.....they can teach you something different every time......
The summer of 2017 was an odd time to decide to read this novel. For that was the summer that the Nazis decided to crawl out of their hovels and folks decided to pull down Confederate monuments. Nonetheless I decided to commit the month of August to this book with the hope of finishing by Labor Day. And after toting it with me to Carolina Beach, around my house and yard and sometimes even to work, I made good on my promise and finished the nearly 1000 page tome to meet my deadline.
Of course, I've seen the movie.....probably a dozen times. And even though well-meaning people will tell me not to, I love the movie. It is a beautiful and grand story full of great characters and epic stories.
The book is even better.
To say this book is only about the Civil War is to grossly underestimate it. I read quite a lot of historic fiction, so I can easily tell you that this novel is historical fiction set in Civil War times that was written by a wealthy woman in the 1930's. All of that makes a difference in the tone and the telling of the story. Yes, it's racist. Yes, it's dated. Yes, it has many terms and words not appropriate today. And yes, it's still a good book.
Like most movies, there is no way everything that is great about this book could be captured in it. (Scarlett had babies with Charles and Frank before they died? No way!) The film also couldn't possibly fully explain the relationship and family history. (Why exactly did Ellen run the O'Hara Plantation and not her husband?) It also got into the dark parts of Reconstruction and the beginnings of the KKK. (Were Ashley and Frank in it? Yes. Rhett? No.) What was the mysterious "illness" that killed Melanie? (Miscarriage.) And it also couldn't fully explain Scarlett. Because Scarlett is what the book and the film are all about......but this book gives you so much more. You had no idea she could be even more mean and ruthless. And powerful. And strong. And I believe it will leave you asking yourself if you are a Scarlett or a Melanie. (I'm still on the bubble myself.)
Reading this book doesn't make me a proud Confederate. I'm smart enough to know that most of the men that fought that war were conscripted and would have rather been home on their small farms. It also doesn't mean that I want to keep the monuments up. I actually don't approve of monuments to any war. But it does mean that I believe in understanding history......the lovely and the dark sides. It also means that I love to read about the qualities that keep us all going: strength, resilience, and desire. Without those, what does it all mean anyway?
The thing I loved most about Gone With the Wind was that it gave me one more view of a very troubled time in America. Cold Mountain, The Ballad of Tom Dooley and even the miniseries North and South were all pieces of historic fiction that did that for me. I think I learned more from all my own study than I ever did in school. But the fact is, we're all still learning and growing. So to be told that this book shouldn't be read or the movie shouldn't be watched is a mistake to me. They're all just more pieces of the puzzle. Understanding should always be the goal, not forgetting or erasing to make us all feel better.
I also can't overlook the central theme to this epic story: the romance between the two bull-headed characters that were Scarlett and Rhett. Nobody understood them like they understood each other, but they never said it out loud until it didn't matter anymore. They loved and hated one another in equal measure. They were survivors of war, of terrible deeds and ultimately of each other. If there's any one lesson in this novel (and actually there are several) I'd say that it's to live today: tell people what you want them to know, do the things you kept putting off, embrace the love and push off the bad. To be such a long-winded book, the ultimate lesson is actually pretty simple.
So yeah, it was a good book, but it really just made me want to watch the movie again!
Oh, and the movie has this guy. So yeah, there's that. May have to find an old DVD so I can rescreen. Something tells me this movie doesn't show up on Netflix or TMC anymore.