Remember Rhett Butler? He was that good looking, somewhat mysterious guy in Gone With the Wind. You know, the one who didn't give a damn. I always thought he was pretty awesome, so reading Rhett Butler's People sounded like a treat. The author, Donald McCaig, delves into Rhett's character, his backstory, and the lives of his family and friends--just like it promised on the little blurb on the back of the book. It's like fanfiction for GWtW.
The bad stuff:
The book is an authorized sequel to Margaret Mitchell's work, but strangely enough, McCaig is not a huge fan of the original. It definitely shows. It's been a long time since I read the original work or even saw the movie, but since I have a thing for handsome, uncaring men, I at least remembered Rhett. His selfishness and masculine mystery made him such an intoxicating counterpoint to Scarlett's character. Unfortunately, McCaig completely fails to capture that. In his version, Rhett is the poor, misunderstood good guy. Every less than savory action on his part is justified times a million. Sounds a bit unlikely, doesn't it? I don't remember the original story enough to know how well McCaig wrote the other characters, but based on my observations of Rhett, I can see why GWtW fans are so upset with this book.
The good stuff:
As a stand alone novel, this book does very well. If you pretend the characters and setting have nothing to do with GWtW, the book becomes your standard, well-written Southern nostalgia story. It possesses a nicely suspenseful plot (for me, probably aided by the fact that I couldn't remember exactly how the original ended), a slightly more balanced view of race than you usually get in this type of book, and well-drawn characters. Rhett's sister was a particularly enjoyable one; it was a delight to watch her personality become more complex as she grew. Also, Rhett waxing eloquent about nature came across as downright sexy. Rhett Butler's People was definitely worth reading for that alone.
My rating system.
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