Gone With the Wind (finally)

[kalquessa]

I've tried several times to write a Gone With the Wind review, to no avail. Thus it is that I find myself once more backlogged on book reviews and dreading writing them more and more the longer I put the task off. And, then, of course, there's the fact that my memory has all the fine-tuned retention of cheese cloth, and the longer I put off writing

Comments

[mollyringle]

Woohoo, more GWTW! Good to discuss it while I still remember it, too. And I *heart* that you loved it so much. Not that your good taste was ever in question. ;)

Hah, yes, Rhett must indeed come back. Probably in the same fitful and sporadic way he did before they were married, but he will have to come back. He does give a damn. One question I had, though...considering they're such a smoldering couple, and considering he told Scarlett pre-marriage that being with a man could actually be "fun", how come it wasn't till the big haul-her-up-the-staircase night that she actually enjoyed sex? Or so Mitchell seemed clearly to be saying. That was after they'd had a *child* together, for heaven's sake. What was Rhett neglecting to do, previous to that night? Or was Scarlett just that unreachable? Hmm.

Agreed on Scarlett's unfathomable treatment of her children. Still, that is one of the interesting things about her: you can disapprove of lots of her actions and still root for her. I also thought she was rather a beeyotch to marry Frank from under her sister's nose. At least she felt bad for that, later. (And for getting him killed, indirectly.)

Places that made me cry...jeez, so many. I think the first was when the long casualty lists started coming in, and Scarlett sat there among weeping families, reading names and realizing that most of her old beaux were dead. Then there were odd things like Pork weeping for her father's death, which for some reason got to me. And yeah, the end.

[kalquessa]

What was Rhett neglecting to do, previous to that night? Or was Scarlett just that unreachable? Hmm.

I kind of wondered about that, too, and I think I've settled on Scarlett just being unreachable because of her preoccupation with Ashley. I think the night that Rhett gets drunk and hauls her up the staircase is the first time that he makes her focus all her immediate attention on him. He freely admits before then that he knows she pretends he's Ashley when they're making love, and that he finds this obscurely funny (though it probably drives him crazy in truth). I think that was the first time she let herself enjoy sex with Rhett and that's what made the difference. Or something.

Scarlett is definitely a wench of the first water. But you can't help but give her props for being so resourceful and ruthless.

[mollyringle]

Aye, that's probably the best explanation. Poor Rhett. The "I know you think about Ashley" thing made me cringe for them all. But I do love Rhett's quip about how Ashley can't be faithful to his wife mentally or unfaithful to her physically. :)