Lynn C. (LostLenore) reviewed on 9/1/2010

Helpful Score: 2

If you like your revisionist history laced with dry humor, this so-called parody may seduce you. As a "Gone With the Wind" fan, I could overlook the less ludicrous rearrangements but not such glaring oversights as changing how Gerald O'Hara died. In Alice Randall's parallel universe to Tara, the slaves run the show, and there are deeper, more disturbing motivations behind most characters than we ever might have dreamed. Despite some thought-provoking premises, multi-layered metaphors, clever twists and poetic passages, "The Wind Done Gone" dissolves into mundane and dubiously resolved romance. The doppelgangers of Rhett and Scarlett bear none of the original characters' fire, and the corruption of Melanie into the murderous "Mealy Mouth" is ridiculous beyond contempt. Given the nauseatingly racist language and imagery of the original novel, it's understandable why someone would want to recast it from an African American perspective. Randall succeeds on some levels and fails on others, with her take on Prissy being particularly memorable and astute. The rationale for Bonnie's fear of the dark is pure genius, although I still don't understand what finding a clothespin in her bed had to do with it.

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