Author:
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Published: Apr 2002
Genre: Fiction - Historical - General
Retail Price: $15.99
Pages: 210
Alice Randall's controversial spinoff/parody of Margaret Mitchell's GONE WITH THE WIND is told not from the point of view of the rich white folks, but through the eyes of the beautiful Cynara, daughter of a white plantation owner and a black slave woman. The Margaret Mitchell estate sought to block publication of THE WIND DONE GONE, and won, but Randall appealed and prevailed in the courts. Hailed by African-American intellectuals, writers, and activists, the novel--Randall's first--provides a view of Southern plantation life and Reconstruction that has long been missing from American literature.
This book is lazy, boring, confusing, frustrating and basically, not worth reading. Half the time, I didn't know what the author was talking about. The book jumps all over the place without any obvious relevance...none of the stories, memories, thoughts seem like their even connected to each other. The narrator - Cynara even the main characters name is trying too hard - considers herself to be a strong woman but comes across to me as a spoiled, whiny, self-absorbed brat. The author should have written a book about slavery in the antebellum and reconstruction south without trying to ride on the coattails of an American classic for publicity. This book probably wouldn't have irritated me nearly as much if there wouldn't have been any reference to GWTW.