FictionMargaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic, Gone With the Wind, published in 1936, became one of history's most cherished stories of love and war, selling 28 million copies worldwide, creating one of the most memorable fictional couples of all time and an ending that has proven hard to beat.
One wonders at the wisdom of trying to recreate it. Rhett Butler's People is the second novel authorised by the estate of Margaret Mitchell, the first, Scarlett, published in 1991, having been widely criticised. This time the job fell to award-winning civil war author Donald McCaig. Twelve years in the making and $4.5 million passing from publisher to the estate of Margaret Mitchell for the rights, does Rhett Butler's People justify its existence?
The blurb on the jacket indicates that this is the Rhett and Scarlett love story told from Rhett's perspective. The title of the book is more informative. Rhett Butler's People follows the intertwining stories of the family and friends of Rhett Butler at a time when life in America's South was changing forever with the abolition of slavery. It is true to the original theme - a way of life "gone with the wind" - but focuses less on the central love story, and more on the world around it. A smart move. That works.
SO, WHO ARE Rhett Butler's "people"? Some we know from Gone With The Wind - Scarlett obviously, the man whose love she craved, Ashley Wilkes, and his perfect wife Melanie Hamilton. Their stories are less dominant as they have to make way for newly introduced ones, for example the often touching tale of the madame with a heart, Belle Watling and her illegitimate son Tazewell, universally thought to be Rhett's son. Rhett denies this yet treats Taz as one. The truth does not emerge until well into the book. It is the Belle Watling story that allows Rhett Butler's People have a new ending.
The tale of a new character, Andrew Ravanel, is arguably the most interesting in terms of what this book does best, taking the reader through the violent transformation from slavery, through civil war, to the establishment of the Ku Klux Klan. Ravanel is an early friend of Rhett and the source of Rhett's sister's love. It is his buying of a slave at auction that reveals the true horror of an individual being reduced to a lot number. It is his, not Rhett's, action on the battlefields that takes us closest to the war. And it is Ravanel who introduces us to the mind of a "Kluxer". This is done incredibly well.
The first 100 pages of this 500-page book precede Gone With The Wind. The final 100 pages provide a sequel. The middle section runs parallel to the original and succeeds most as gripping fiction. Until then, the background story of Rhett's early days not only lacks tension but conflicts, in places, with later events that have to conform to the original story. For example, Rhett, in this book, is very much on the side of the black man, spending much of his childhood with a "free coloured" family to escape a strict and domineering father. Why then does he fight for the "cause", the cause being slavery?
THE CENTRAL LOVE story is not the reason to buy this book. We understand less of the complex and wonderfully flawed relationship between Rhett and Scarlett. Little time is spent with Scarlett, who becomes one-dimensional, making the reader wonder what Rhett sees in her.
Despite the publisher's claims, we rarely "get inside Rhett's head" and subsequently understand his motivations less. While the ending does sit right with this book, it would not have worked tagged on to the end of Gone With The Wind.
Rhett Butler's People does justify its existence - but by providing a fascinating glimpse of a changing world, not by recreating one of the most unforgettable love stories in fictional history.
Denise Deegan is a novelist. Her latest book, Do You Want What I Want was recently published by Penguin Ireland
Rhett Butler's People: The Authorized Novel Based on Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind By Donald McCaig Macmillan, 498pp. £17.99