The Wind Done Gone: A Novel

TERRIBLE, AWFUL, HORRIBLE ETC.

I'm a huge fan of Gone With the wind. i have read the book a thousand times and discover new things about it each time. The Wind Done Gone is an insult to all GWTW fans. First off, in the book randall says that Bonnie cried in the dark because of the things they stuck in her bed to make sure she would stay white,( because mrs randell makes scarlett become half black) while the reason bonnie cried in the dark was because mammy told her there were ghosts in the dark to keep her from walking around at night, which is stated quite plainly by mammy herself in GWTW. Randall didnt even get her facts straight! i seriously want to slap alice randall for being so ignorant and annoying. yes, slavery was wrong, and evil, and i understand that randell may have gotten insulted by mrs. mitchells portrayel of slaves, but what randall doesnt seem to understand that it is ONLY A BOOK, not some big statement against black people. No one who loves Gone With The Wind loves it cause it insults african-americans, but because of the whole love story between rhett and scarlett, and because it truly is a wonderful story. Gone With The Wind also insults women, but you dont see us girls getting all insulted about it, and staging protests. also, GWTW was written by a southern woman, from facts about the war that was handed down in her family from the southern point of view. there are dozens of history books about the civil war, all focusing on the northern point of view, and yet you dont see southern people getting all insulted. not only that, but the book was not even written good! it was dry and boring.its like one big rant against GWTW, when the author of GWTW isnt even alive anymore! She completley attacking Mrs. Mitchell, while the poor woman has been in her grave for years, and will never even know anyway what alice randall thinks( and i doubt she would even care!)Alice randall is obviously a pathetic person, who has let some book rule her life. Slavery happened over 200 hundred years ago, SO GET OVER IT ALREADY! MOVE ON WITH YOUR LIFE!if anyone agrees with me, or doesnt agree, or wants to air their opinons, please write to me at XStarlightdreamX@aol.com

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

The Wind

When I was a young girl, I used to consider myself as 'obsessed' with Gone With the Wind. No other book compared. Even now, I still hold a similar belief. As any Gone With the Wind fan, I was curious to read a novel based on my absolutly favorite book. I was willing to give it a chance. That being said, I was saddened when Mammy and the O'Haras were so degraded by Ms. Randall. Margaret Mitchell was very clear when she wrote about how Mr. O'Hara was utterly besotted with his wife and how Mammy was always so meticulous with what was 'fittin'. The very idea that Mr. O'Hara and Mammy would conceive an illegitimate child is hard to process. Still, I was curious as to whether the story might smooth into cleaner waters with Ms. Randall's lackadaisical writing. Sadly, it did not. The story only went on to make Scarlett a sniveling wretch and Rhett a sexual monster. I must say, though, that Ms. Randall has a unique voice that could develope into some fabulous works. Her use of wording was very tantalizing and exotic, as was her originality in storyline.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Pure Wishful-Thinking Mary Sue Fantasy Fiction

Several individuals have praised Randall for ¿bringing forth the truth about Tara and presenting the more sordid details of what life was REALLY like there.¿ This usually refers to the frequent sexual miscegenation presented in her story. The trouble with this scenario is that, not only is it not ¿cannon¿ to the original novel, it is not presented in a credible fashion. The ¿cannon¿ states that Scarlett had never seen a mulatto before traveling to Atlanta. That is the reality of the original world set down in Mitchell¿s story. Now, without any real explanation or series of events to explain why, we are expected to believe that Scarlett had a mulatto sister and playmate raised on the plantation with her, a girl who resembled her physically (of course, she was even more beautiful than her ¿white¿ half-sister, although later on we are expected to believe Scarlett herself has African heritage as well.) When Ms. Randall also expects us to believe that her Mary Sue is the love child of Gerald O¿Hara and Mammy¿Well, I¿m still laughing at that. I don¿t believe it a bit, but I am laughing about it. There is an unfortunate number of people who have focused on the racial miscegenation of the Old South even before the War Between the States broke out. The fascination of it in the public eye is almost vulgar and I believe most people love the titillation factor of it. It is almost requisite to believe that every plantation-born male is a rapist (at least the white ones; no one seems curious to know if black planters and slave owners ever sexually abused their slaves which is actually a far more credible crime since most rapists have a tendency to act within their own ethnic groups.) While I don¿t doubt that miscegenation (both consenting and non-consenting) took place on some plantations and in some cities throughout the country, it¿s ludicrous to suggest that every planter in the South, black or white, took sexual advantage of his female slaves. What about the planters who might not have found their slaves attractive? What about the true racists who would have considered it degrading to have relations with an ¿inferior race,¿ and an utter disgrace to father children in such a manner? What about the decent law-abiding citizens out there who knew interracial miscegenation was against the law and chose to obey the law? And finally, what about the men with enough decency and integrity to honor their marriage vows?

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

umm...ok...what is this?! Certainly not Gone With the Wind.

I read this book thinking that it'd be enjoyable, but as much as I tried to understand or enjoy it, I became bored rather quickly. I was determined to stick it out. I wasn't impressed by the names she used for the characters and places of Gone With the Wind. I wouldn't read it again either. I refuse to recommend this book to anyone.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A Foul Wind Indeed

I read the press releases for The Wind Done Gone as well as various interviews with Alice Randall prior to the release of this book, so it was with some excitement that I anticipated buying this book. I expected a parody. What I got instead was a mean-spirited, soulless, humorless and basically pointless account of a story that runs parallel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind. The Wind Done Gone is no parody. Alice Randall committed a direct theft of the characters we already know too well. Randall is a good writer. She has a wonderful talent for imagery and the rhythm of her language is as beautiful as a lullaby. Randall would have done better to write a book featuring characters of her own creation, rather than stealing from Margaret Mitchell. I really hated this book. It struck all the wrong chords and was entertaining only in its overreaching absurdity.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Enormous Disappointment

I am an Black woman and I loved GWTW and Scarlett. When I first heard about this book I was very intrigued and couldn't wait to read it. I got the book, read it in two days and really didn't like it. It can't compare to GWTW. I think Alice Randall has potential to be a good author but this book simply did nothing for her. The book was boring and didn't go into much detail about its characters, only Cynara. I do not recommend this book, it is a huge disappointment.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

didn't finish the book

i had to stop reading it. it made no sense - especially if you have never read gone with the wind. alice randalls writings dont even begin to compare with margret mitchells. all her book seems to me is some wiritngs to get back at gone with the wind (dunno what for but whatever). i didnt find the book offensive but it was just a poorly written book. im not sure if i will continue reading the book or not.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

um...

the book is about nothing related to gone with the wind. It just uses parts of names and letters in names as characters from gone with the wind. i would not recommend this nor will i look forward to any other "novels" Alice Randell may have.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Awful!

Ok, I understand Randall's annoyance with Gone With the Wind. She is black and I also understand that she may not agree with the way the South was in the Cival War era and before. But there isn't anything that she can do about it. That's the way it was back then and Maragret Mitchell's 'Gone With the Wind' is a classic and even though she tries to do something to change all of that there is not one thing she can do. Sorry Ms.Randall the book was a spoof. If you want people to notice your book write a good book that people will notice because of it's literary success not a spoof on an American Classic.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Hmmm....

The book threw me off a little bit, but it was a slight ok with me

A Parody

When I heard about The Wind Done Gone, all I could think about was how much I wanted to read it. I hunted every bookstore down until I found the beautiful cover with the mulatto woman in a green dress. I was positive this was going to be a funny story, a sort of African-American behind-the-scenes of Gone With the Wind. A historical story that gave a voice to the slaves. Sad to say, Ms. Randall wrote a little differently than I had oricinally anticipated. She wrote with the hateful voice of a wronged slave-turned-prostitute. I applaud Ms. Randall's efforts to distort a classic American novel, ruin well-loved characters, and write a book focused on bringing down the work of another author. She greatly succeeded on all points.

Very interesting...

I have read both Gone with the Wind and seen the movie. I think this book gives a very interesting look into the part of life not shown in any version of Gone with the Wind or any other southern romantic book/movie of that era. I understand that this and Gone with the Wind are both fictional stories. I think that if there is enough room for a fictional romanticized version of southern life...there has to be room for a fictional version of slavery during that time as well. Although I had the knowledge of Gone with the Wind 'book/movie' before reading this book, I could still read The Wind Done Gone without trying to compare it chapter and verse to the classic. I think that is the best way to approach anything like this. I can appreciate how white people lived back then and how a lot of people (black and white)can relate to Gone with the Wind as a love story. I can also appreciate someone taking the time to try and give a little insight into how enslaved Africans and their mulatto children lived DURING THE SAME ERA. It's very easy to dismiss/get angry at this subject in literature b/c it's an uncomfortable topic-but it existed. As a black woman, married to a white man and who has researched the 8 main sides of her ancestry back to 1637-1660 in America and found 'enslaved mulattoes' on all sides of my family from the 1600's through 1900 -I admire her attempt at bringing this topic to light. I hope she has encouraged other people, whether relating their fictional story to a classic or not, to begin/continue shedding light on 'mulatto slave life'.

very disappointing

I read Gone With the Wind right before I read this novel, because I wanted to be informed before I read this. I was really hoping this would be interesting and informative. Maybe it was to some people... I did not think it was very well written, and most of all, I thought the characters were NOT like those they were trying to parody. Given Gerald's attachment to Ellen, it seemed ludicrous that he would ever sleep with Mammy. The characters just didn't work. I also found it highly distracting that all the characters were so obviously from GWTW but had names changed slightly. It would have worked far better to just write a book that could stand on it's own. I mean, honestly, Debt Chauffeur?

Another Perspective

At first I was concerned that Alice Randall had betrayed the old south. As I continued to read I was forced to see and embarassed to say that I had not realized it before there was another side to the Pre Civil War old south. I really enoyed this book and felt that Alice Randall presented the other side of the coin wonderfully.

Haven't yet read the book, but the review is worth reading

I have not yet read this book, but as I was looking through the reviews for it on this page, I was at first intrigued by the way it is written from the point of view of Scarlett's black half-sister, but soon I became disgusted by the way it makes fun of Scarlett, and has Rhett having an affair with a black woman. Anybody who knows anything about GWTW would know that Rhett would never cheat on Scarlett. Don't get me wrong, because I know slavery was a terrible and immoral thing, and it's horrible that it ever happened, but it seems like this novel drags the classic picture of the Old South and GWTW through the mud. And believe me I do know what the antebellum South was like as I am a reenactor and tour guide at an antebellum plantation, not to say though that white men didn't have affairs with slaves. However, I also believe that GWTW was in many ways from an almost racist point of view, but one must understand that the South was really like that, and when Margaret Mitchell wrote it the South was very racist and obviously she was a white woman so her novel was very one-sided.But, I plan on reading this book so that I can return with a more informed opinion.

Good stuff

This book was wonderful!!! It is disliked by many because they are from the "upper-side" and not the "under-side". Thanks to the author for making Gone with the Wind important to those of us who look more like Butterfly McQueen than Scarlet O'Hara. Wake up, people, Gone with the Wind was not a wonderful piece of literature.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

like a photo negative of GWTW

If you pick up this book and decide to read it, please leave your prejudices at the door. It is not as bad as those who hate it say, and it is not as good as those who love it say, but it is fun to read if you love southern lit, like I do. Go ahead and read it. I promise that if you do, you can go on to live a normal life.

Should not even be compared to GWTW

I had to force myself to finish this book, I wish i hadn't even bothered. I think a much better book could be written about blacks in the south then. it seems like the main character is meant to be intelligent, but has the depth of a pole to me. It does not deserve the right to be compared with the greatest book ever written, Gone with the Wind. I really do hope that someone will write a better, more in depth, and intellectual book about what life was liekf or black people in the south. I think one could be good enought o be compared with Gone with the Wind. Oh, and I really don't give it one star, I give it minus one, but they made put something.

Will Read Again!

Shaky at first, but as this book unfolds,it is genious! Her word selection is genious and one has to actually THINK when they read the book. I never read Gone With the Wind but this book makes me want to read it. I mean, if Cyn is the "good sister", then Other must be a Scarlet O'hara!(pun). This book seems to be showing the cleverness and subtle ruthlessness of the slaves and what they had to do to survive. Now that I understand the book, I'll read it again after reading Gone With the Wind (the movie is not the same as the book).

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Bad

I really disliked this book becuase it made i seem like the great Gone with the Wind sound like a terrible book. I would not recommend this book to other people.