Rhett Butler's People

Donald McCaig

Edition	Hardcover
List Price	$27.95
	$15.78 (Save 43%)

Published by	St. Martin's Press
Release date	2007-11-06
ISBN	0312262515
Availability	Usually ships in 24 hours

Fully authorized by the Margaret Mitchell estate, Rhett Butler?s People is the astonishing and long-awaited novel that parallels the Great American Novel, Gone With The Wind. Twelve years in the making, the publication of Rhett Butler?s People marks a major and historic cultural event.

Through the storytelling mastery of award-winning writer Donald McCaig, the life and times of the dashing Rhett Butler unfolds. Through Rhett?s eyes we meet the people who shaped his larger than life personality as it sprang from Margaret Mitchell?s unforgettable pages: Langston Butler, Rhett?s unyielding father; Rosemary his steadfast sister; Tunis Bonneau, Rhett?s best friend and a onetime slave; Belle Watling, the woman for whom Rhett cared long before he met Scarlett O?Hara at Twelve Oaks Plantation, on the fateful eve of the Civil War.

Of course there is Scarlett. Katie Scarlett O?Hara, the headstrong, passionate woman whose life is inextricably entwined with Rhett?s: more like him than she cares to admit; more in love with him than she?ll ever know?

Brought to vivid and authentic life by the hand of a master, Rhett Butler?s People fulfills the dreams of those whose imaginations have been indelibly marked by Gone With The Wind.

Margaret Mitchell's story of Scarlett O'Hara's and Rhett Butler's beguiling, twisted love for each other, set against the gruesome background of a nation torn apart by war, is by all accounts epic--so much so that it feels untouchable. Yet McCaig's take on what many would consider a sacred cow of 20th-century American literature is a worthy suitor for Mitchell's many ardent fans, for reasons that may not be altogether obvious. It would be easy to look at Gone With the Wind and Rhett Butler?s People side by side and catalog what is accurate and what isn't and tally up the score. In doing so, however, the fan is apt to miss out on the best part of this whole book: Rhett Butler himself. McCaig's Rhett is thoroughly modern, both a product of his Charleston plantation and an emphatic rejection of it. He is filled with romance and ingenuity, grit and wit, and a toughness matched only by a sense of humility that evokes so gracefully the hardship and heartbreak of a society falling apart. It's not hard to love Rhett in his weakness for Scarlett's love, but it is entirely amazing to love him as he rescues Belle Watling, mentors her bright young son Tazewell, adores his sister Rosemary, dotes on dear Bonnie Blue, and defends his best friend Tunis Bonneau to the very end.

To pluck a character from a beloved book and recalibrate the story's point-of-view isn't an easy thing to do. Ultimately, the new must ring true with the old, and this is where Rhett Butler?s People succeeds beyond measure. In the spirit of Mitchell's masterpiece, McCaig never questions that love--of family, lover, land, or country--is the tie that binds these characters to life, for better or worse. --Anne Bartholomew

Customer Reviews - courtesy of Amazon.com ( Marked4Sale.com is not responsible for review content )

should not have gone there.

IMHO this book sucks. It's basically unreadable and makes no sense. I'm glad I got it at the library...because if I had spent money on it I would be livid.

Dear Mitchell family, no more "authorized sequels". Honor Margaret's Mitchell's wishes...

And even if it wasn't a GWTW sequel, it sucks on its own merit. I wouldn't dare to compare it to the original.

Not Gone With the Wind

Not gone with the wind...
After reading the original novel, Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind, and I have been riveted by its heroine, Scarlett O'Hara. I was destined to be hooked by the sheer existence of the sequel to Gone With the Wind, Scarlett: The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind". To nobody's great suprise, I loved that novel and devoured it as soon as I received it. Being a die-hard fan of the movie and prior written works, I admit that I may be biased in my opinion of Rhett Butler's People. Needless to say, I loved it!

Donald McCain, author of Jacob's Ladder, I have not yet read, follows the true spirit of the original story as written by Margaret Mitchell. In looking at Margaret's photographed portrait, I see the obvious resemblence of Vivien Leigh's Scarlett. He kept this key elements and characters of this story in direct alignment with Margaret's memorable epic. Which, personally, I think is great. Those who may not be the "die-hard" that I am, may only have seen the movie and not read the novel. In Gone With the Wind, you discover that Scarlett actually has more children than just Bonnie Blue, for example. In McCain's novel, you follow the lives of these children and Rhett's relationship with them. Another character development that I really enjoyed as the discovery of who Belle Whatling really was. Understanding her roots and history gave me an entirely new perspective on her character completely.

Another aspect of the novel that I enjoyed so much was Rhett's viewpoint of what happened after the famous line, "Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn." McCain provides you with an ending that ties Gone With the Wind (GWTW) to Scarlett beautifully. If I were to recommend an order of reading, definitely GWTW, Rhett Butler's People, and then Scarlett. With that being said, if you are a true romantic and fan of the saga, this read is a must! You get more fun with Mammy, Prissy and Big Sam. McCain's description of both Ashley and Mellie give you an entirely different perspective on their strengths, and more importantly, their weaknesses.

According to my sources, McCain is not involved with a screenplay for this novel. What my dream would be... combine Rhett with Scarlett and give us another 2-DVD masterpiece collection to savor tubs of popcorn over! I'm in!

My very best friend, from the days of high school, have made it "our movie" and watched it religiously on my birthday each year. I am Scarlett, en carne, and Lori most definitely Mellie. I have a gorgeous scarlett and ivory Christmas Tree decorated with the collector's edition ornaments in tribute to my favorite gal and favorite story. I know, I know!

McCain does an excellent job in his character development, however give you stuff to keep guessing on. All 498 pages I absorbed in less than two days, so I found it riveting enough to stay up late for. McCain leaves us with a teaser that this may not "nearly be the end." FINGERS ARE CROSSED!

Who are these people?

Because they're not Rhett, Scarlett or Melanie. Oh, sure, the author calls them that, but you will not recognize them as any character out of GWTW.

Rhett has been transformed into some mooning wimp. Scarlett is a pale creature with no spark. And Melanie...don't even get me started on Melanie. There are numerous discrepancies that don't jibe with the original, and I could get past that if the characters were authentic. Instead, it seems as though the author read the CliffNotes of GWTW instead of the actual novel. The very least he could have done is captured Scarlett's spiteful streak, which is central to her personality.

Donald McCaig isn't a particularly good writer, aside from bastardizing a beloved classic. He is given to pointless meandering, disjointed timelines, and overly flowery descriptions - which is why the paperback is a bloated 687 pages. Even if I'd never read GWTW and didn't know a thing about it, I wouldn't have enjoyed this book because it reads like a Harlequin romance.

The People review says, "A must-read for Gone With the Wind fans."

I disagree.

A mixed bag

Much of the book is quite interesting, in that it fills out the character of Rhett Butler. In GWTW, the book and movie, he appears and disappears without our knowing from whence and to where. With this book, we learn about the events that shaped his character--from the beatings by his cruel father to his association and partnership with Belle Watling. We also learned the Margaret Mitchell estate approved version of what happened after the last page of the novel GWTW.

Also good is the depiction of the ante-bellum South, especially Charleston, where secession was born. There is a myth about that era, propagated by post-bellum, 2nd generation Southerners. Only a small percentage of the whites lived on comfortable plantations, worked by happy slaves. A London newspaperman traveled through the South just before the war and was amazed to find that so many white illiterates, so much chewing tobacco on the sidewalks. Still, there were the Taras so GWTW was not entirely inaccurate. The present book continues that myth but fleshes out the other reality a bit.

However, when this book attempts to describe military actions, it is woefully inaccurate. One example: Morgan's Ohio raid of July 1863 is a mess in this book. Gen. John Hunt Morgan is replaced by a fictional colonel, who looks at "Pommery, Ohio," rather than Pomeroy, Ohio, in Meigs County, on the Ohio River. Morgan's raiders tried to cross the river near there, and some made it into West Virginia, which was scarcely safe Confederate territory at the time. The rest of Morgan's men were forced eastward and were captured near East Liverpool. The prisoners did not go to prison in Illinois, as is suggested in this book, but were sent to Camp Chase, Johnson's Island and the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. Morgan escaped from the latter site. I can't imagine why the author decided to change history so drastically, when the real story could have served his purpose just as well. The author's postscript explanation does not adequately explain or justify the rearrangements in his novel.

There is also confusion with respect to the sequence of when military events took place. The Ohio raid followed closely upon Gettysburg, in July, and yet the southerners shivered in the cold. In another place, southerners cross the Potomac River into Pennsylvania. What happened to Maryland? In another case a train leaves Georgia, enters Mississippi, then proceeds into Alabama. Another case: Maj. Ashley Wilkes was all over the place in the war, in the Army of Northern Virginia, in the Army of Tennessee, and in raids into Kentucky. In the Mitchell book he is with Gen. Gordon, strictly in Lee's army.

It is hard to overlook these alterations of history or errors and maintain a sense of reality in reading this. Margaret Mitchell was far more careful in mentioned battles and in adhering to accurate timelines.

It is unfortunate that the author of Rhett Butler's People let his book be marred by errors that any student of the Civil War will see--amd regret.

An Amazing Read!

I recently purchased and read this book. Based on the reviews that I had read, I thought I wasn't going to enjoy the book. I am so glad that I was wrong. Are there flaws with the book? Absolutely, the main one being the way Melly is protrayed. However, with all of the flaws, it is still an amzing read! If you didn't like the way Alexandra Ripley continued the story, you should really get satisfaction from this book. Congratulations Mr. McCaig on a job well done!!