Review by kmhst25 - Gone with the Wind

emotional sad slow-paced

3.75

Such a unique book. I had heard a lot about it, and it still took me completely by surprise.

Strengths:

Making you care about truly reprehensible people. The male and females leads are both exceedingly unlikeable, and it can be hard to make an unlikeable character compelling. Mitchell does it with ease.
The South's perspective of the Civil War. There's a lot of emotional context for what the war was like for people in the South. The writing makes you sympathize for the characters, even though you can't sympathize for their cause.
Sheer readability. It's so dramatic that you can read it for hours at a stretch.

Weaknesses:

The length. The book spans 12 years and is over 900 pages long. No book needs to be that long, and this one is no exception. There are sections that drag, specifically in the years before and after the war.
The South's perspective of Reconstruction. The racism in this section is truly off the charts and the history is one-sided at best, downright lies at worst. This is a disappointment, because the history of the Civil War section holds up.
No neat wrap-up. Mitchell has said that the book's theme is survival, which I would agree with, but I wouldn't say that there's a definitive takeaway or clean ending. It simply ends.

Content Warnings