Rhett Butler's People Reviews

• You Can't Go Home To Tara

  
  By A23F8D2ZOCQM6V on 2007-11-16
  No novel will ever be an adequate sequel to "Gone With The Wind," and no writer will ever "complete" Mitchell's story. "Gone With The Wind" is an American epic, the tale of the fall of a doomed civilization and the dissolution and reunification of the Union. Against that backdrop, Mitchell portrayed a passionate, tragic romance between two characters with whom readers themselves fall in love. No author will ever recapture the magic of the original, whether in a prequel, sequel, or "other story," because the novel is complete "as is." Like any work of fiction, the work ends where it ends. In the case of GWTW, the reader is left longing for answers, just as Scarlett longed for Ashley, Rhett longed for Scarlett, and, at the novel's conclusion, Scarlett schemes to win Rhett back.
  
  Mitchell wrote with conviction and zeal, because the story was one that she knew well -- she'd grown up among people who had lived through and fought in the Civil War and then endured the humiliation and struggles of the Reconstruction period. Basically (the literary critics are going to kill me for this), GWTW is the American "War and Peace," and Scarlett O'Hara is our Natasha. We will never know what happens to Rhett and Scarlett, however, because Mitchell, a consummate storyteller, didn't choose tell us.
  
  That said -- I am enjoying "Rhett Butler's People," because it's not a bad read and tells a story of its own. Those reviewers who are proclaiming that the book is "awful" are, I think, merely pining for the original. I recommend "Rhett Butler's People" to anyone who is not so attached to Mitchell's novel and characters that he or she can't put aside GWTW and take McCaig's book on its own terms. If you view McCaig, not as trying to complete GWTW, but rather as imagining -- as any author does -- what Rhett Butler's history might have been, this is an engaging novel with which to while away a winter's afternoon.
  
  
  
  

• Poor Melanie...

  
  By A1IXULW4OC9X0T on 2007-11-21
  The atrocities committed in Rhett Butler's People have been enumerated in other reviews -- glaring descrepancies, inconsistancise with time, etc, but nothing is as monstrous as what this author does to Melanie Hamilton Wilkes., turning this woman with strength of "spun steel" into a gossipy, neurotic harpy.
  
  In RBP, Melanie suffers through several scenes that rob her of her dignity and strength, but none bothered me so much as the scene where she , hiding in the cellar, overhears Scarlett and Rhett discussing Charles Hamilton and his missing sword. During the dicussion, Scarlett makes some disparaging comments about Charles, and at the end of the scene, Melanie weeps over what she has heard.
  
  And after that, exactly WHY does she remain friends with Scarlett? Melanie would have never, ever remained friends with her sister-in-law if she believed Scarlett hadn't loved Charles. The reason she first embraces Scarlett is because Scarlett is her beloved brother's widow -- if Scarlett had disgraced that love, Melanie would've spit nails, because that was who Melanie was.
  
  Later, through letters, it is discovered that Melanie knows about the relationship between Ashley and Scarlett, that she has "seduced" Ashley because of it, that she has all sorts of "modern day" reactions to it. The author was either uncomfortable with the original Melanie, or did not understand her, because what he does to her is unforgivable.
  
  Melanie COULD NOT IMAGINE dishonor in people she loved, as Rhett puts it in the original GWTW. She wasn't a ninny and she wasn't weak, she was powerful in her honor and loyalty and love. Scarlett makes that discovery in the original novel -- that is one of the reasons the ending in the original novel is so powerful and why Scarlett is such a fully developed character in it.
  
  The Melanie of GWTW was a remarkable character, a paragon of strength and virtue. Perhaps that's not how she was portrayed in the film, but that was how she was envisioned in the novel. Rhett Butler would not have loved and admired this Melanie, as he did.
  
  While it's true a sequel doesn't have to be a complete retelling of the original, it should retain a connection to it. This sequel is a mess, and the ravaging of the personality of Melanie Wilkes is just one aspect of that mess.
  
  

• Correcting Margaret Mitchell

  
  By A1XYMODVE0KO8M on 2007-12-30
  I picked up this book with an open mind. I enjoy fanfiction and new takes on old favorites and never believe that any work is sacrosanct. GWTW from Rhett Butler's POV sounded fascinating, but that's not what this book is. It's not a retelling. It's not a sequel. It's not even--as I first thought--an attempt to whitewash the character of Rhett Butler. It is a correction of the flaws the author perceives to exist in the original.
  
  Many other reviews mention the inconsistencies between this book and GWTW (to which this book must and should be compared), and it's important to consider these not just because it's a kind of cheating not to work within the framework of the source novel, but to consider why McCaig made the changes he did. For example, there is no mention of Scarlett's miscarriage. Why? Because it doesn't fit McCaig's image of Rhett Butler. Then McCaig's Rhett Butler is simply not Rhett Butler.
  
  The Rhett Butler McCaig creates bears almost no resemblance to Mitchell's complex, cynical, wry observer. McCaig's Rhett is morose to the point of clinical depression and very nearly the embodiment of all manly virtues. He is friend to every man, black or white. This puts his character in conflict with the very foundation of the Confederacy. Does he believe in it or doesn't he? That might have been an interesting conflict to explore, but instead, McCaig simply leaves it there on the page, without explanation. Rhett loves and supports blacks on this page. On this page, he loves and supports the Confederacy. The end. McCaig expects you to accept Rhett as he tells you he is, rather than as he shows him.
  
  This happens frequently as numerous characters refer to Rhett as a rakehell and a renegade, but this is never substantiated in the story itself. Just saying a character is a rakehell doesn't make him one when all you show him doing is mooning over the habits of loggerhead turtles, nobly supporting every helpless creature that crosses his path and having palpitations whenever Miss Scarlett smiles at him.
  
  Yes, that's right. This Rhett is reduced to a lovesick schoolboy on first sight of Scarlett O'Hara and on every occasion thereafter. Gone are the sparkling scenes where he taunts and teases Scarlett, admiring her very worst qualities and loving her for them. Instead, the love scenes between this paragon of a Rhett and this confident, erudite and unrecognizable Scarlett are on the level of second-rate romantic bilgewater. ("Scarlett. Sunshine, hope and everything he ever wanted.")
  
  Other scenes are referenced but skipped over and replaced with McCaig's inventions, again to facilitate his vision of Rhett. Instead of a scene where Rhett offers Scarlett a green silk hat from Paris to deliberately torment her false sense of propriety, knowing she will be torn between wanting to wear it and not wanting to expose herself by throwing off her widow's weeds, we get Rhett breathlessly offering Scarlett the yellow silk shawl she in turn makes into a sash for Ashley. Only this time, instead of the silk shawl being a minor symbol of Rhett's easy profligacy in a time of want and self-denial, McCaig constructs a ludicrously maudlin tale of the shawl having belonged to Rhett's adorable Bonnie-Blue-esque niece, who had been killed in the shelling of Charleston. Scarlett is somehow supposed to recognize what--in the original--Rhett obviously knew was a rather tacky and gaudy trifle--as the deepest offering of a devoted man's heart. When she fails to, she crushes the tenderest hopes of this noble creature.
  
  There are occasions when he can't avoid retelling scenes from GWTW and that is frequently where he gets tangled up in the conflict between his Rhett and Mitchell's Rhett. A prime example is the flight from Atlanta, where he can't quite make the abandonment of Scarlett work for this lovesick, devoted, perfect Rhett, and so Rhett's motivation is lost in a murky jumble of the romantic uncertainties of a schoolboy. (She never really loved me. I might as well go to war.)
  
  McCaig never comes close to matching Mitchell's voice, as perhaps he shouldn't. But since Mitchell's feminine story was written in a voice that was stringent and vigorous, it is odd to read this masculine story couched in overwrought, flowery prose ("The frosty Milkyway stretched across the heavens to the horizon where it drowned in the ruddy penumbra of guns.") I must also mention, as have others, the frequently disjointed quality of the writing. There are paragraphs made up of sentences that bear no relation to each other and conversations abruptly switch topics depending on what the author needs to have the characters say rather than the natural course of the conversation.
  
  And this isn't even getting into the large sections of the book that are given over to characters that never appeared in GWTW. McCaig's own dear creations. In fact, a case could be made that McCaig sets up his Rosemary Butler as a new and improved Scarlett, giving her similar travails but a more womanly attitude and forebearance and awarding her the coveted prize in the end.
  
  But the key problem in this tale of an alien Rhett and Scarlett isn't that McCaig is entitled to his interpretation. It's that McCaig had no taste for the original. He says as much in an interview in the New York Times, where he admits that he had never read GWTW when approached by St. Martin's to pen a "sequel." When he did finally read it, he pronounced everything but the Civil War bits as "Oh dear."
  
  So then why write it at all? He admits to "four parts poverty" playing a role in his decision. But it's abundantly clear that he does not understand Mitchell's characters and what motivated them and with all the fundamental mistakes he makes, it is also clear that he does not care to. He is more interested in constructing his new, improved versions. It is impossible to read this book without feeling that this was his aim: to show how GWTW ought to have been written.
  
  

• Thank you for an ending

  
  By A7OCP4P0S4YO8 on 2007-11-09
  Having read GWTW 1/2 a million times and watched the movie probably a million times, all I can say is thank you! The author took no more liberties with the original story than the movie-makers did with the original novel. And really, since Margaret Mitchell is no longer with us, the best any of us fans can hope for is 'well maybe this could have happened....' And the author's scenario for happily ever after in Georgia is as plausible as any other....and for the most part he does follow the trail laid down by Ms. Mitchell and doesn't have the characters acting in a totally implausible manner (no travels to Ireland and accusations of witch-craft, thank you very much!)
  
  Possibly some readers who are more acquainted with the movie than the novel will be upset/confused/disappointed with 'Rhett' but in my opinion if you read one and then the other (as I did), the new book presents a satisfying and fairly comprehensive alternative ending to the story of Rhett and Scarlett.
  
  I have never been a big fan of Scarlett's much more of a Rhett supporter--usually 1/2 way through GWTW (movie or book) I have a strong urge to shake her and scream 'open your eyes woman'. I enjoyed the fact that she was not the only strong female character portrayed (loved Rosemary) and was glad to read that Melly actually had some feelings after all. And the portrayals of some of the other important figures in Rhett's life literally had me spell-bound.....happy to see that Wade Hampton and Ella were brought to life...happy to learn something about the back story of the folks back in Charleston and to me that was one of the most satisfying accomplishments....introducing us to not just the Atlanta folks but to 'Rhett Butler's People' as well.
  
  Nicely done Mr. McCaig.
  
  

• "The Other Side of the Greatest Story Ever Told"...Is Not a Good Story

  
  By A38MV91UM6ROEX on 2007-11-10
  Donald McCraig spent 12 years working on this book, and it's plain to any fan of Gone With the Wind that he didn't study the original book. Rhett Butler's People starts out with promise, detailing Rhett's awful childhood and problems with his father. But it quickly loses steam and reads more like a rough draft that McCraig didn't take time to perfect. It's choppy, dull, inaccurate as a sequel to GWTW, full of typos, and moves quickly from one pointless scene to the next. I think McCraig should have asked for a few more years.
  
  I was most upset with the complete character changes. Rhett was portrayed as an innocent bystander to almost everything that happened in his life instead of the cold, hard rouge he was. Even his brilliant plan to save Ashley, Frank, and other towns people by saying they were at Belle Watling's house was taken away from him and turned into Belle's idea! Belle Watling became a leading character who, despite being a madame and completely scorned in GWTW, ends up as Scarlett's friend (even invited to Tara and kissed by Scarlett) and all of Atlanta mourned her death! Melanie turned into a sly, gossiping letter writer who knew about Scarlett and Ashley all along but hid her true feelings (which made absolutely no sense), and secretly disliked Scarlett. Scarlett herself went from a penny-pinching businesswoman to a complete idiot who invests everything she has, including Tara and her Atlanta house, into the stock market and loses everything. Apparently McCraig forgot her vow never to be poor or hungry again (along with her personality) and has broke, divorced Scarlett once again working half-starved in the fields of Tara while Rhett takes a depressive, and expensive, tour of Europe. McCraig adds a few new characters to the old story line, but none of them are memorable. Rosemary, Rhett's sister, takes up a majority of the book with her dull marriage problems. Rhett spends some of his childhood living and working with a free black family (created, I fear, just to add a PC feel to the book) and runs the blockade with them.
  
  There were any number of scenes that made me roll my eyes in disgust. McCraig didn't even bother to follow the timeline of the original book or learn minor details about the characters. Ashley ended up with brown eyes, Scarlett had a 15 inch waist, she sold her mills to Ashley long before his doomed birthday party, Charles and Melanie are buried in Twelve Oak's burial ground (instead of Atlanta) and Twelve Oaks never went for taxes....I could go on and on. The new scenes didn't fit, and one part actually made me laugh out loud--Scarlett sees Rhett as a widow in Charleston (before their first meeting at the Atlanta bazaar) and at the end of their conversation, Rhett says, "Well, next time we see each other we'll just pretend we never met"! Hilarious! What lazy writing!
  
  The end of the book will have any GWTW fan laughing...then crying....in disgust. Scarlett moves back to Tara broke and has to work in the fields; Ashley moves to Twelve Oaks to work on a flower garden; Rosemary (Rhett's sister) moves in to Tara to help with field work (even though she had money and could have just gone home); Belle Watling is everyone's good friend; Tara burns to the ground; and Rhett comes back to Scarlett in a dull and predictable happy ending.
  
  McCraig is no Margaret Mitchell--but then again, who could be? It's got to be hard to write a sequel to such a popular book, and I admire the author for taking on the challenge. But, sadly, I think Alexandra Ripley did a better job with her awful book, Scarlett! Ouch!
  
  
• A Big Disappointment
  By A1YCZAJP0PFFDS on 2007-11-08
  The timelessness of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With The Wind" is due to its historically accurate narrative, complex and insightful character development, and the sheer passion with which Mitchell wrote. Donald McCaig may be forgiven for not writing with the same artistry as Mitchell, a feat few could emulate, but factual inaccuracies related to the original story, superficial development of newly-introduced characters and behavior inconsistent with Mitchell's originals are difficult to overlook for lovers of GWTW. Scarlett O'Hara's waist was never fifteen inches, but seventeen. The escape from Atlanta was made not in a buggy, but a wagon, and Melanie Wilkes was unconscious throughout, not carrying on conversations with her nephew, Wade. Depicting Rhett Butler, a tall, muscular man, astride a "black stallion eleven hands high" creates a ludicrous vision, given that eleven hands is about the size of a Welsh pony. To the extent that this novel purports to tell the story from Rhett's side, it fails him. Rhett Butler is one of the most tragic heroes in American literature: an educated, sophisticated, worldly gambler who plays the biggest hand of his life and loses when he pursues a rural Georgia belle almost half his age when he first meets her. McCaig's depiction of the aging Rhett and the seemingly unrepentant Scarlett are at variance with what readers might likely expect from GWTW's conclusion. While McCaig is under no obligation to adopt material from Alexandra Ripley's equally tepid sequel, "Scarlett," the inconsistencies create parallel universes for Rhett. In Ripley, his mother is Eleanor; in McCaig, Elizabeth. In Ripley, his brother is Ross; in McCaig, it is Julian. In Ripley, his sister, Rosemary, is a spinster, while in McCaig, she marries three times. Newly-introduced incidental characters are so weakly developed that it is difficult to care what happens to them, and those adapted from Mitchell behave in ways either starkly at variance with the characters Mitchell developed so well, or in ways that are a burlesque of their innate qualities. The book explains some of the secrets of Rhett's life that Mitchell lift unexplained, such as the identity of Rhett's ward in New Orleans, but overall, not in ways that justify 498 pages. This is a sad legacy for Mitchell's master work.
  
  
• I don't like it
  By A9R6WH9AJL1AX on 2007-11-07
  The biggest problem with this book is that it doesn't tell a coherent story. It's more like a series of snapshots than a narrative. Some like that, but my tastes run to the great storytellers--and Margaret Mitchell was a master among them. The title of this book is apropos, because much of it is not about Rhett or from Rhett's point of view; instead, it's about people in his life. That can work, but doesn't here, because there's no real glue to hold them together; more often than not the characters (his sister, various childhood friends, Belle's son, and GWTW characters--Scarlett, Melly, Ashley, Belle, etc.) are followed in brief snippets without Rhett's being there, and without becoming compelling themselves. The journeys into Rhett's head are also brief and unsatisfactory; I kept wanting more, turning the pages til the next appearance by Rhett, but being disappointed by the bare bones approach. The scenes with Scarlett lacked any tension, sexual or otherwise.
  
  Some have praised this book for de-romanticizing the over-romanticized view of the South in GWTW. I think he worked too hard to remove any hint of romanticism. It is possible and necessary to acknowledge the horrors and cruelties of slavery without removing the glamour or the nostalgia. Both the nightmare and the magic were true of this place and time, and I wish the author had captured this paradox.
  
  I bought this book because I loved GWTW, its story and its rich and complex characters. The shadows of those characters as created by Mitchell kept me reading this book (barely). I'm very sorry this is the author chosen, and that he wrote this book.
  
  
• Caveat Lector!
  By A1HLVYHUUHOSCO on 2007-11-09
  I had huge misgivings about this book after the disastrous 'Scarlett' but still, my 'Gone with the Wind'-loving soul decided to pre-order the book.
  
  After seeing the MySpace page for 'Rhett Butler's People', I truly considered canceling my pre-order. However, in the end, I knew I'd want to read it.
  
  Having said all that, I wish I did cancel my order. Why on earth this arrogant man thinks he can take actual passages from the beloved source material (that being the novel 'Gone with the Wind') and rewrite the scenes to suit his whims and fancies is downright plagiaristic! How can this book possibly be sanctioned by the Margaret Mitchell Estate when it butchers her writing? Making things happen that never did in the novel by beginning a scene with direct passages from the original work!
  
  I am truly disgusted by this piece. At least 'Scarlett', terrible bodice ripper that it was, had the common courtesy to leave the original story alone.
  
  
• Never let sunlight in on magic
  By A3SHHE8ZUDCMR1 on 2007-11-13
  When I read "Scarlet" by Alexandra Ripley, I thought I had read the worse book ever written, but now I know that was not so. "Rhett Butler's People" is much worse. I have seen "Gone With The Wind" at least 10 times in theatres, and I have the DVD. It's my favorite movie of all times. I have read GWTW at least 5 times, and have a new copy I just recently bought. I should have left well enough alone. "Rhett Butler's People" is poorly written, with too many characters, and most of the first 86 pages is not even about Rhett. The Rhett Butler of "Gone With The Wind" was a man of mystery, and he should have been left so. This book is so boring I could hardly finish it.
  
  
• worst book ever read
  By AQXPB3FUU4CB7 on 2007-11-10
  I bought this on the strength of my liking of the author's other books, and a lingering fondness for "Gone With the Wind".
  It was a major disappointment. Can't even begin to discuss the poor quality of the writing, which was episodic in nature.
  The final straw was the description of one of Rhett's horses, a supposedly wonderful black stallion which he rode back to his home plantation after the war was over. It's described as being eleven hands high.
  Folks, that's about forty four inches high at the withers - the size of a nice donkey. Was this supposed to be a joke, or is it a major error?
  Save your money and steer clear of this one - a really awful endeavor.
  
  
• Frankly, my dear, this book isn't that bad
  By A3KEZLJ59C1JVH on 2007-11-12
  As a die-hard "Gone with the Wind" fan, I eagerly awaited the arrival of "Rhett Butler's People" for many years. I plowed through the book in just a few short days, and for the most part, I wasn't disappointed. Obviously, nothing could ever begin to compare to Margaret Mitchell's timeless masterpiece, but this book is pretty good...not great, but good. Fans of the original book (and movie) will appreciate Donald McCaig's exploration of Rhett Butler and, well, his people.
  
  The story begins 12 years before "Gone with the Wind" and extends slightly past the end of Mitchell's novel. Readers are given a great deal of backstory on Rhett's childhood and family. His father, Langston Butler, is a cold and ruthless man who is determined to break his eldest son's rebellious streak. Rosemary, Rhett's younger sister, adores her big brother, but ends up making some bad personal decisions in an attempt to get out of her house and away from her family. There many other new faces in the book and also a lot of familiar characters, including Belle Watling, Ashley and Melanie Wilkes, and, of course, the infamous Scarlett O'Hara.
  
  There are no big surprises as far as the basic plot of the story goes, at least until the last 50 pages or so. McCaig chose to ignore Alexandra Ripley's book "Scarlett," the authorized sequel to "Gone with the Wind" which was published in 1991, and so "Rhett Butler's People" features a completely new ending for Scarlett and Rhett that I didn't see coming. However, the ending is pretty decent and leaves the door open for another book, if McCaig ever chooses to go there.
  
  Although I enjoyed reading this book, there were aspects of it that surprised and bothered me. I thought that Rhett would be the focus of the entire book, and so I was surprised at how many of the chapters were completely Rhett-free. McCaig ventured deep into the lives of Rhett's sister and friends, and although those portions of the book were interesting, I would have preferred more chapters with the character of Rhett actually in them. Also, because so many pages are devoted to other characters, there are many pivotal "Gone with the Wind" moments that are simply glossed over. Rhett's engagement and marriage to Scarlett is summed up in about a paragraph and a half. Bonnie's death is merely mentioned in a letter Melanie writes to Rosemary. That kind of sucks. Also, I was surprised that Scarlett wasn't featured in the book more, and her characterization seemed a bit off at times, as did that of Melanie Wilkes.
  
  Regardless of all the flaws, it was fun explore one of my favorite stories from an entirely new perspective. I think the best advice I can give readers is to approach this book with an open mind. It isn't at all on par with "Gone with the Wind," but it gives us something fresh and new to enjoy and ponder. Mitchell never wrote her own sequel, so this is the best we're going to get. "Rhett Butler's People" isn't perfect, but it's a wonderful tribute to what is quite possible the greatest novel ever written.
  
  
• Run...Like the Wind
  By A1HDQE70AU8LVA on 2007-11-12
  If you loved "Gone with the Wind" you will despise "Rhett Butler's People". The characters lost their respective personalities. Scarlett turned into Melanie. Melanie turned into a gossip. Rhett turned into Ashley at the end, and Ashley should have been killed off just to put him out of his confused misery. This book did not honor the true spirit of the characters' personalities and strengths, which is the true heart of the story. However, I could not put it down, it was like driving past a car wreck involving clowns and not being able to avert my eyes. It would have been laughable had it not been so disappointing. Burning down Tara---give me a break. The author should have burned his own manuscript. Absolutely horrid!
  
  Also, at some point a preacher invites Scarlett to church to which she replied she was Catholic. The preacher said that it was okay because his church welcomed all sinners. Hmmmmmmm.... What is the writer trying to say if anything? That might offend some Catholics.
  
  This book seems to be an attempt on the part of the author to reform Scarlett into a perfect southern lady with no gumption or brain. The type of lady that some southern men might appreciate more... This is something Scarlett rallied against and certainly Margaret Mitchell in her life time did as well.
  
  In the author's preface, it is written, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." Not this time, pal.
  
  
• Disappointed...
  By A216BPJWA2XEW1 on 2007-12-01
  I am obsessive about GWTW, having read it over 50 times and always in my original copy that I got when I was 12 and which is completely tattered and torn apart. I wanted to love this book so I resisted reading any reviews prior to reading it. It didn't matter. It was disappointing at best...so many changes and inconsistencies. Rhett was not received because he took a girl out riding past twilight and refused to marry her. In GWTW, Scarlett and one of her friends whisper about it on the stairs at the Wilkes BBQ. Mrs. Butler met Bonnie -Rhett goes to stay with her when he goes off traveling with Bonnie and Prissy and she was at Bonnie's funeral!
  
  Additionally, the author ruined the character of Melanie, one of the strongest, most beloved women in literature. His take on her was ludicrous.
  
  I wanted more about Rhett and Scarlett and his feelings and motives and everything to do with that. I could care less about those made up friends we never hear anything about in GWTW. I wanted more about what made Rhett who he was based on the tantalizing hints given in GWTW.
  
  I'm no fan of "Scarlett" but I'll take that over this any day. Save your money GWTW fans.
  
  
• Oh Lord, Please Don't
  By A2DN3RA9NOY2BR on 2007-12-06
  Please, people, with the plethora of good, well-written books out there, please don't waste your time with this. Perhaps Mr McCaig is well-versed in the Civil War, but it certainly doesn't come through in this novel. Our beloved "Gone With the Wind" characters are nothing like the way Mitchell crafted them to be. No one in this novel is memorable, least of all Rhett himself and I couldn't recognize the egomaniacal yet full-of-life determined woman who Scarlett was in Mitchell's book.
  
  Please, stop with the sequels. If Mitchell had really wanted a sequel, she would have written it herself. Shame on anyone who had a part in this. And no, it's not even a "fun read"--it was excruciatingly painful. By the time I got to the end--yes, I did read the entire thing--I could only laugh, at the pathetic actions of all of the characters, at the stupidity of the needless deaths and at myself for thinking that this one would be different than "Scarlett" or even "The Wind Done Gone."
  
  Let it all rest in peace. We really don't NEED to know "what happened" after Rhett left Scarlett after Melanie's death. That's why Mitchell ended her story there. As for Rhett's "back-story"--it doesn't matter. The character Mitchell crafted was enough. What's with this perverse American desire to "know all"? Mitchell gave us all we needed to know; it was part of Rhett's mystique that his past story was as shrouded in mystery as it was.
  
  
• Interesting but ultimately disappointing
  By A1LUSPRZV1V1ZZ on 2007-11-24
  I agree with the reviewer that said that this author was "damned if he did and damned if he didn't". How can you sucessfully write the sequel to a book that many of us have lived and breathed for years? I hated "Scarlett" so much I had forgotten already that it was also authorized by the Mitchell Estate. God Almighty! What were they thinking there? (However, I do love Alexandra Ripley's "Charleston" which I consider a very under-rated Southern Classic). I had thought Pat Conroy was going to write this new sequel. Would that he did!!
  
  I don't think this author did a very good job with his characterization, particularly with Scarlett. It all seemed too alien and flat and not a continuation for the characters we all know and love. Because of this flatness and lack of continuity I really can't believe this author read "Gone with the Wind" more than once or twice. I guess I'm sexist but few male authors can write a women's true character and this author took huge artistic liscense with the sexuality of Scarlett and Melly. This just wasn't our Scarlett but it was a sexed up, male fantasy version of the Scarlett I had envisoned and that was very sad for me. This was a pre-Victorian Era and I just can't believe the woman of this era were as sexually awakened as this author writes.
  
  However, I do disagree with the review that claimed the author besmirched Melly's honor and morality. Melly has to be somewhat human and subject to human fraility's of character and I do think that this was captured in this book in the few times that Melly was portrayed having human faults. We saw it with Ellen Robillard regarding Phillipe in GWTW and this author allowed Melanie to also be human. That was very insightful.
  
  I am going to have to read this a second and then third time to make a definate decision and I know that is a sad review to submit!!! However, books, like other things, are subject to our moods and whims and especially to our expectations....and I do think this book warrants more attempts . I do know it lacks the overall richness of descritions and storyline that Margaret Mitchell gives us but it does give us many other details that suprisingly fit with the first book that I felt the book "Scarlett" fell short with. It aint a Pulitzer, folks, but it does give us a worthy background for Rhett and Belle and others.
  
  I am upset that Mitchell's Estate authorized "Scarlett" because, to me, that totally discredits the reception and authenticity of this sequel especially since the storylines of either do not mesh with the other.
  
  Final recommendation: Read it through to get it over with...then read it again (and again if necessary) and then make your decision.
  
  
  
  
• A charming book
  By A23US54A0OILE4 on 2007-11-09
  Without getting into a long and drawn out review let me just say that I found Rhett Butlers People to be a charming and fun read. Are there problems with the book? Yes. I thought it was too long and I have to agree with another reviewer that this really isn't a narrative in the strictest meaning of the word. It is a series of "snapshots."
  
  However, that being said I thought McCaig did a good job in filling the reader in about Rhett Butler by giving us his background. He extended the story in an intelligent and plausible manner. Is this Mitchell's GWTW? No. But it never could be. Our world today is less romantic in every manner. I doubt whether GWTW would even be written in 2007 and certainly with our concern about PC, the movie would never have been made.
  Comparisons are pointless.
  
  Rhett Butlers People stands on its own...hands down. It is a good read. I recommend it.
  
  Peace
  
  
• An interesting prequel/parallel novel/sequel to "GWTW," but inevitably disappointing
  By A2NJO6YE954DBH on 2007-11-24
  For fans of "Gone With the Wind," it is inevitable that "Rhett Butler's People," the authorized novel based on Margaret Mitchell's classic tale, will prove to be disappointing. But that does not mean that fans should avoid Donald McCaig's novel, because time and time again you will get to come to your own judgment regarding what he is doing with these character. What will be most surprising is that the Mitchell estate has decided that this book, which begins before and ends after the events in "GWTW," has nothing to do with Alexandra Ripley's "Scarlett: The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone With the Wind'," the first novel authorized by the estate. These books were mandated not so much by a desire to find out what happened next, what with the "will she or won't she?" ending of the original representing the epitome of literary ambiguity, but by the necessity of maintaining a copyright over the character. That means that Katie Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler, one of the iconic female characters in literature (along with Emma Bovary), has been reduced to being more like Tarzan and Superman, where there are competing visions that are supposed to be accepted on their own terms. Does this mean that there will be authorized novels in which anything goes, where Scarlett runs off with Ashley and such? It sure looks like the Mitchell estate has opened a bigger can of worms with the publication of this second authorized novel than it did with the first one.
  
  I read "Scarlett" so I knew I was going to read this book as well and studiously avoided reading reviews, comments, or diatribes on McCaig's book. When I picked it up to read it I paid less attention to the title than the claim on the back of the dustcover (which I always remove so that nothing happens to it and so that I do not read anything about the book) that this was "The Other Side of the Greatest Love Story Ever Told" (Take that Wm. Shakespeare). My expectation was that McCaig would be doing with Scarlett and Rhet what Orson Scott Card did with Ender and Bean when he wrote "Ender's Shadow" as a parallel novel to "Ender's Game." So I was looking forward to, for example, finding out exactly what Rhett did during his service to the Confederacy after he left Scarlett and company on the road to Tara. But I discovered that the title of the book was no lie, and there is more about what characters who did not exist in "GWTW" did during the war then there is about Rhett himself in that regard. I knew that Belle Watling would be a more pivotal character from Rhett's side of the story, and I suspected that Belle's son in New Orleans would play a prominent role, which proves to be the case. In fact, the book begins with a young Rhett Butler about to have a duel with Belle's brother, who has accused Rhett of getting her pregnant. Rhett has denied paternity, and since we believe him the question of paternity becomes the book's biggest mystery. I thought I had it figured out, keying on the idea that the boy bears a physical resemblance to Rhett and thinking that it would explain the animosity between Rhett and his father, but I proved to be wrong and the disclosure of the truth ended up being so inconsequential that it did not seem worth the effort.
  
  Since he is not trying to tell the story of "GWTW" from Rhett Butler's vantage point, McCaig puts himself in a position of being damned if he does and damned if he doesn't by introducing new characters. The most prominent of these would be Rhett's younger sister, Rosemary, whose correspondence with Miss Melly and closeness to her brother make it improbable (retroactively speaking, of course), for her not to have been mentioned in "GWTW" (although she does appear in "Scarlett"). However, other creations, such as Rhett's friends Andrew Ravanel and John Haynes, end up to be not worth the bother, especially since McCaig creates the former by borrowing from the history of a real Confederate raider. I liked the irony of what becomes of Ashley Wilkes, but have no doubt that what will offend "GWTW" fans the most will be the depiction of Miss Melly in this book (I totally dismiss attacks on McCaig for using language appropriate to the racism of the time). You can understand how Scarlett becomes a minor character in this book, since this time the focus is on Rhett, but Melanie Wilkes becomes a different character and everything she writes just rings wrong to me. What happens with Archie Flytte before and after what is in "GWTW" strikes a note of discord as well. On the plus side, Mammy does not die at the start of this one and there are certainly other things that you can willingly incorporate into your expanded version of the story of Rhett and Scarlett.
  
  In terms of what happens with Rhett and Scarlett when we finally get to the long awaited tomorrow that is another day, I prefer Ripley's version to McCaig, and not just because she uses an entire book to get to the next fade out whereas he takes less than 100 pages (remember how much Mitchell throws at Scarlett in the last 100 pages of "GWTW"). I was actually intrigued by the notion that Scarlett would go to Ireland and become "the O'Hara," which made sense given how much she cut across the grain of Southern decorum, even during Reconstruction. However, both Ripley and McCaig achieve their reconciliations by circling Scarlett through her past for second pass at Rhett (not to mention throwing in a big fire for good measure). For Ripley that is through another pregnancy resulting from what we will politely call ravishment, while McCaig not only sends Scarlett back to Tara but essentially sends Tara back to where it was at the end of the war (Scarlett might never be hungry again, but that does not mean her cotton picking days are over). I also do not like seeing who gets killed in the final chapters of "Rhett Butler's People," and it was this stark contrast with the litany of death at the end of "GWTW" that made me knock down the rating on this book to the point where rounding up or down was moot. However, none of this is intended to dissuade you from reading the book, because you should make up your own mind about what happens here and there is definitely plenty for you to make up your mind about before the next authorized novel comes out a decade or so from now ("GWTW" from the perspective of either Melanie and/or Ashley or Mammy and/or Prissy would be my guess, because I can see all of those working). Plus reading this book will probably inspire you to go back and read the original, which is always a good thing.
  
  
• Margaret Mitchell must be turning over in her grave
  By A3F0TEWQVUTIIM on 2007-11-13
  So boring, I can't even stay focused on the book and doubt I will even finish it. This Rhett does not even compare to the "real" Rhett Butler. The Mitchell descendants must be hard up to sanction this rip-off.
  
  
• Not worth your time or money....
  By A3A2X8KOCA4VYU on 2007-12-02
  Not worth your time or money; also skip it for free at the library. Did McCaig read the same Gone With the Wind that I did? Rippley's Scarett was fair, but readable and did capture some of the original GWTW spirit. But Rhett has no relation to the original. The Mitchell estate let greed cloud their view.
  
  
• Fiddle dee dee!
  By A3C9ML37T4KHP2 on 2008-02-02
  I adored Gone with the Wind. In fact, I had to buy another copy because the ink was smeared and there were pages missing in my original. I read "Scarlett" and thought it was okay, so when I heard about "Rhett Butler's People" I was intrigued.
  I didn't like it at all. It should have focused a lot more on Rhett, rather than Rhett and Rosemary. I didn't like the fact that the author added things that didn't happen in GWTW and glossed over things that did.
  
  ***HERE BE SPOILERS!!!!*****
  
  I didn't like the fact that Bonnie's death was reduced to a letter from Melanie to Rosemary. I would have liked to see Rhett's breakdown. And what happened to Scarlett's miscarriage?! Those were all events that shaped Rhett's decision to leave Scarlett and they were basically ignored in favor of some stupid storyline involving Belle's son (I don't care!).
  
  It would have been nice to see his reaction, instead of two pages about it. And he murdered Melanie! Melanie wasn't much of a gossip and she certainly wouldn't have even considered the idea that Scarlett loved Ashley.
  
  
  All in all, I wouldn't recommend it. Go read the original GWTW.
  
  
• I say leave the mystery alone
  By A16N4T8A0JGDOC on 2007-11-14
  I was disappointed. I wish I hadn't bought this book. It's OK, but there are major problems with it. McCaig is a decent historian, but I never felt I was reading a story. I agree with the reviewer who said the book felt like a seies of snapshots.
  
  One thing that would have helped is dates, to ground me in time. I'd be reading along, finish a chapter, start the next and then have to figure out that the author had skipped ahead 2 years in time. I found this frustrating.
  
  Also, I wish McCaig had stayed inside Rhett's head and told the story completely from his point of view. One of Margaret Mitchell's strengths as a writer is that she created a chracter that could carry the whole story. If I remember correctly (and it has been a while) nothing happenes in GWTW that Scarlett doesn't directly experience. This is what brought the story so much to life for me.
  
  Rhett Butler's People skips all over the place; the omniscient point of view just doesn't work for me, here.
  
  It's a satisfying enough ending, but after the disaster of Scarlett, and now Rhett Butler's People, I am sad to have read both. Perhaps the point was for readers to create their own endings.
  
  It was an OK reading experience, but I cannot recommend it.
  
  Sorry, Mr. McCaig
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Not your (grand)mother's Gone with the Wind
  By A3KUV9T4HHBZUM on 2007-11-19
  First of all, Mr. McCaig has done a good job on several points with this novel. He elicits a very real sense of historical time and place. Most memorable here was the retreat of the Confederate troops from Atlanta. It was done pretty well visually in the GWTW film, but very well verbally here, without an excess of words. McCaig's own characters are interesting. Tunis Bonneau, Rhett's childhood friend and a freed slave's son, gives a perspective Margaret Mitchell wouldn't have conceived of. In addition, Rhett's sister Rosemary is very well developed here. One gets the feeling that she is who Scarlett might have been if a man had written the character.
  
  There are a few negatives, though. I felt like some of Margaret Mitchell's characters got less care than then did in the original. Ashley and Melanie especially seemed out of character, a lot less dignified or genteel than they were in GWTW. (Miss Melly writing about sex and seduction in a letter to a friend? God forbid!) And at times I found myself wishing for a clearer understanding of Rhett (as there was of Scarlett in GWTW), and less so of his "people".
  
  Overall, I'm glad I read Rhett Butler's People. It gave me a wider understanding of the antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction South, in some ways maybe a little more realistically than GWTW did. But when it comes to Rhett Butler, nothing beats Clark Gable and the mystique of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind.
  
  
  
• Fabulous
  By A3312IPRZK57H4 on 2007-12-05
  Several people have commented that "Rhett Butler's People" can never be like the original story of "Gone With the Wind" and I agree with that. But, this book was excellent. I could not put it down. Plausible plots and characters throughout.
  
  The only reason I didn't give the book five stars is because the character of Melanie Hamilton just did not work. Melanie Hamilton was a good and loyal woman, who loved her husband and Scarlett to the point that she was blind to their flaws. McCaig turned Melanie into a disloyal, gossiping penpal (to Rhett's sister, Rosemary) that just is not believable. Melanie would never have talked and gossiped about anyone, much less put it all in writing. She would never have voiced her suspicions of Ashley and Scarlett, nor blabbed about everyone's business so freely. I don't understand why the writer went that route, but it just isn't possible or true to the real character of Melanie Hamilton.
  
  However, other than that serious misstep, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend it to others.
  
  
• Compelling story from Rhett's side
  By A3AFCZTWL5VNNR on 2008-01-09
  I have read other's reviews, and understand their criticisms - like Melly not fighting back to what she heard while she was looking for her brother Charles' sword, or her pretending nothing happened at Ashley's birthday party. But - Melly, the Melanie Wilkes I envision - she may have thought, wrote and imagined reactions to hurtful things, but she was such a beautiful soul she couldn't lower herself to do such a thing.
  I thought the book well written and we come to understand Rhett, his actions, and character. We see his family, and come to know and love his sister. We know about Scarlett, but we see her in a different slant too.
  Belle Watling - how interestingly she is portrayed here - it really explains her 'relationship' to Rhett and why she was a big part of GWTW.
  Rhett was a man ahead of his time - in a time where people were sold like canned goods and treated worse than animals, he was fast friends and helped.
  It is a book worth reading, even if you are an uber GWTW fan - in the South, they used to say "And who are your people?" so the title was perfect - we see the how's and why's Rhett became the man who has lived in our hearts all these many years - a strong man with convictions and a heart full of love.
  
  
  
• Inconsistencies Abound
  By A2PG20QKBULXST on 2007-11-18
  I loved Gone With The Wind and even liked Scarlett, because it advanced the GWTW characters while mainly staying true to the original story and characters. It even allowed Scarlett to discover herself and to grow up. This book, however, is completely off course in those regards. It didn't advance the characters from GWTW and Scarlett, but developed different names for some of them and completely different storylines. Made for confusing reading given that this book is to provide backstory. Some of the backstory tidbits shed new light on various parts of GWTW, but for the most part, the book is a major disappointment.
  
  
• The "Original" Stands Alone, unblemished by the Sequels
  By A3QYHR31DF3YN6 on 2007-11-19
  I looked forward in eager anticipation to the reading of this book, and signed on early to receive the First Edition as it became available.
  
  Maybe I expected too much. After all, following a masterpiece of the proportions of GWTW, was, perhaps, an undertaking beyond the ability of any "remaining mortal". That's too bad, too, because all the elements for a credible effort to weave a new "prelude to the greatness" existed. Indeed, it had been allowed us within the scope of the original story: a glimpse, hinted at but never before seen into the wild and free-spirited beginnings of the "Rogue from Charleston" which included but were not limited to, the duel with "wild eyed brother of a silly little fool kept out too late due to a buggy accident"; the fertile soil of the seemingly intertwined lives of Rhett's people and Scarlett's people, obviously having known each other before the war - all of this presented a vast garden of opportunity for the hand of a master story teller to weave some magic. For, unlike the other very bad "Unforgiven Sequel", "Scarlett", whose story had first been told and told so well that nothing could follow it anyway - (and I'm surprised the Mitchell family allowed it) Rhett's sat dormant, waiting in the wings for a breath of life.
  
  Unfortunately, the "quest for life" failed; the saga struggled from the very first page and never fully recovered. If the author had concentrated on shaping and building the new idea and story lines rather than attempting to re-write the original, which was impossible, he may have had a measure of success; but as designed, it fell flat.
  
  I regret I could not be more complimentary, but this book seems destined for the seedy paperback "romance novels" section of the shelves (and probably not titillating enough at that) rather than as any important literary work of art emerging to compliment the honor of "authorization" to write it bestowed by the Mitchell legacy.
  
  
• True characterizations
  By A323LV2V7KBD26 on 2007-11-25
  I was so pleased to see Rhett Butler's People in the store last week. Then I read it. I'm all for fan fiction but you need to be true to the original characters. Miss Melly in this book was a totally different person than in Margaret Mitchell's book that it totally ruined the book for me. Was there a reason in the plot that she had to be so terribly different - no, I saw no reason for it. It made Scarlett's and Melly's friendship totally unbelieveable.
  
  There were some enjoyable parts and that is why I give it two stars. I did enjoy Rhett's friendship with Tunis and was brought close to tears with them.
  
  It could have been so much better....
  
  
• Started so good... ended so bad...
  By A31J1FH2A4L1FG on 2008-01-23
  Being a long-time fan of "GWTW" (and I did enjoy "Scarlett"), I was very excited to receive "RBP" as a gift. As I have never read any of McCaig's works, I was not sure what to expect.
  
  I found it took me a few chapters to catch on to the non-linear storyline presented early in the book. However, it was very descriptive and engaging, and I found it was hard to put the book down. Rhett's history, and the characters involved with this history, were very vivid and interesting. I did find that there were some changes to timeline to "GWTW," and changes to characters from "Scarlett," which caused me to refer back to the previous 2 books several times just to clarify. (I should have re-read "GWTW" and "Scarlett" before starting "RBP," as I have done with other series--i.e. "Harry Potter").
  
  As the story continued, I found that it was surprisingly violent compared to "GWTW." Mitchell included some violence within her story. However it wasn't discriptive graphic violence without purpose, which I found consistantly thoughout McCaig's story, and seemed to tarnish many of the situations (both origional and previously presented by Mitchell). I sense this may just be a male's perspective of the story... or perhaps a view that Mitchell would not have taken, as women from the Civil War era were shielded from such things. Either way, I found it was disturbing and often taken to an unnecessary extent in the story.
  
  I enjoyed the new perspective on some of the characters, including Belle, Melanie, and the children from "GWTW." I also enjoyed the introduction of other characters, such as Tazewell. I did not like the characterization of Scarlett. She was watered down and weak-- very disappointing compared to the strong woman previously presented by Mitchell.
  
  Generally, it was a very strong book, and a worthy read... until Part Three, which marks the end of "GWTW." At this point, the entire voice of the book seems to change. Rhett disappears for chapters at a time (effectually ending "his story"), the plots slows way down, and a series of bizzare and macabre events almost turn the book from a historical piece to a horror/mystery book. The climax and ending were abysmal-- definitly not in line with Mitchell's image! It seems McCaig was grasping to keep the reader entertained? enthralled? If he was so short on direction (and with obviously poor guidance from his editors), he should have ended while he was ahead, instead of trying to create his own, very poor, ending to Mitchell's masterpiece. Honestly, I was so disappointed, if I knew the book would end in such a way, I think I would have stopped reading at Part Three and called it done.
  
  I would hate to think my review would prevent someone from reading anything that they may enjoy, so I would say give it a try. However, I would first check it out at your local library before you decide to add it to your own collection. I know that I will continue to read "GWTW" and "Scarlett" from time to time, but I can not say that I will read "RBP" again... and I definitely will not be reading it in its entirety.
  
  
• Very empathetic look into Rhett Butler's life
  By A36KW21AE51EHD on 2007-11-07
  I fell in love with Gone With the Wind when I was a kid and to this day I religiously re-read the novel and re-watch Clark Gable & Vivian Leigh every year. There is just something so magically tragic and romantic about the era.
  
  The writing is much more brilliant, genuine, and raw than Ripley's Scarlett. And the histories and backgrounds of the Charleston folk and all their inter-woven relationships further strengthen the foundation of networks that Mitchell created. You can see that McCaig did his research, was thoughtful about all his character developments - I applaud him.
  
  All in all, it was a very quick read. McCaig delves a little deeper into Rhett and Scarlett's relationship and it's interesting and promising to witness different sides to their marriage. He does an excellent job keeping Rhett's tone consistent with that of Mithcell's.
  
  Except for perhaps the last eighth of the book. I thought it became a little cheesey at that point. After the war has ended and everyone is back at Tara, only then does the story stall and simmer away. I was hoping the ending would be more dynamic, more exciting. But I suppose with experience and age, everyone reverts back to a more simple life.
  
  
• I wanted to like this book...
  By A2JJN3IT9960IN on 2007-11-13
  ...I really did but I can hardly read it. I wasn't looking for the author to channel Margaret Mitchell and he hasn't. The writing seemed more first draft than final offering. I am disappointed. Perhaps "we can't go home again" after all.
  
  

• Scarlett: The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind"
• Gone with the Wind
• Jacob's Ladder: A Story of Virginia During the War
• In Search of Rhett Butler
• Scarlett (Special Collector's Editon)