31. Scarlett. Alexandra Ripley. 1991. 884 pages. [Source: Library] [2 stars, historical fiction, sequel, adult fiction, adult romance]
Dear Future Self:
You may have just finished reading Gone With
The Wind. You might possibly be wanting just a little bit more to the
story. STOP. Don't do it. Don't. I promised to leave myself clues so that I won't reread it again.
First sentence: This will be over soon, and then I can go home to Tara.
Premise/plot: Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler loves, loves, loves, loves Rhett Butler. He, however, has stopped giving a damn. Or so he claims. This is the 'sequel' to Gone With The Wind. It covers roughly six to eight years. (That is it covers no more than eight, by my reckoning, and possibly as few as six.) It opens with the funeral of Melanie Wilkes. It ends, well, with much rejoicing on the part of this reader because it is OVER at last.
My thoughts: I first read Scarlett when it released. I was in junior high, I believe. I was excited. I was thrilled. I was eager. I can't remember if I was disappointed, angry, or frustrated....or confused. Probably one of the above.
Does Gone With The Wind need a sequel?
My "no" argument: Margaret Mitchell wrote the LAST chapter of Gone With the Wind FIRST. This was the destination all along. This wasn't an oops. If she'd changed her mind on the ending at any point while she was writing the book, she could have changed the ending. When she saw the success of the book, she could have begun drafting a sequel, talking of a sequel, making plans. From what I remember of the biographies I've read, she did not in any way want or desire a sequel.
My "yes" argument: While the book doesn't "need" a sequel. There's certainly enough life in the characters to allow for creative play.
What I would perhaps STILL like to see is a collection of SHORT STORIES or SHORT NOVELLAS written by a dozen or so authors--perhaps more but not less--that allow for more of the story to unfold. Each author working independently could put their spin on the question WILL SCARLETT O'HARA get Rhett Butler back. What will happen next to Scarlett? What about Rhett? Will he get HIS happily ever after even if that means saying NO to Scarlett forever? At what cost do we want a happy ending if their relationship is toxic?
It might also be AWESOME if an author were to approach the story from decades later. Perhaps told from the point of view of one of Scarlett's children or grandchildren.
Is there anything in Scarlett that works?
I honestly didn't hate the opening chapters. I didn't love, love, love them mind you. But I didn't hate them.
Scarlett reacted just like Scarlett at Melanie's funeral. She's newly discovered that she does in fact love Melanie Wilkes. That Melanie Wilkes was an incredible, incredible woman. But no one--except Rhett--knows of this change of heart. The town has long been skeptic--almost openly hostile--towards Scarlett. She associates with all the wrong people. She was caught alone with Ashley--hugging, nearly an embrace. She doesn't care about what they care about. Melanie interceded standing between Scarlett and polite society. Atlanta was torn between wanting to support Melanie AND despising Scarlett. Now that Melanie has died, Scarlett stands alone. And so being Scarlett, being a proud woman, she accepts standing alone and doesn't want to show her weakness, how broken she feels on the inside. When Ashley plays the fool at the graveside, Scarlett being EVER PRACTICAL acts purely on common sense alone. This will cost her.
Scarlett returning to Tara makes complete and total sense. She returns to Tara just in time to witness Mammy's final days--perhaps weeks. She returned too late to say goodbye to her mother, but, she arrives in plenty of time to say goodbye to Mammy. It isn't simple. Scarlett stays by her bedside night and day, day and night. Barely taking care of herself. She is devoted completely and selflessly caring for her.
I liked Scarlett visiting with some of the country folks--the ones that we especially got to know during the hardest days of the war and directly after. The Fontaines. The Tarletons. Etc.
Rhett returning for Mammy's funeral and lying to her also makes complete sense. Those two had an understanding after bonding after Bonnie's death.
When Scarlett returns to Atlanta because Tara isn't really big enough to live with her sister, Suellen and Will and their kids as well as her first two kids, Wade and Ella, that makes sense as well. Scarlett thinks that Rhett will 'have' to visit Atlanta a few times a year at least to keep up appearances. Atlanta is where her store is, it's where her big fancy house is. She thinks that even if folks don't 'like' her they'll keep on accepting her. She's never been 'cut' by society before. Hated and despised, yes, still invited to all the things, yes. Scarlett reveals that she is still trying to make herself happy with stuff, stuff, and more stuff. She's looking for happiness in all the wrong ways. She's turning to alcohol. She's turning to easy friends that she can buy. However she is also LOOKING to keep her promise to Melanie. And the few interactions we have between India and Scarlett seem true to both women. There is HATE, a hard, rigid HATE that loathes. Scarlett's conversations with Uncle Henry are among my favorite in the book. (That's not saying too much. But it is something).
Scarlett does not stay in Atlanta. Though she might stay in Atlanta for most of a year. At least six months or so. She next goes off in pursuit of Rhett. She goes to Charleston to visit her aunts. (Though I'm still not sure if her aunts were from Charleston or Savannah. Or maybe they divide their time between both????) She isn't with them for a day before she gets herself invited to stay with her mother-in-law. She is welcomed by some of Rhett's immediate family, though others have their doubts. She is introduced to everybody in Charleston. But she has to play a role. Scarlett is absolutely excellent at playing a role. She can even play a role for long stretches of time--months and months. Here she is playing the role of devoted wife who is eager to learn everything about Charleston and make it her forever and ever home. So if that means learning about all the kinds of seafood, then she'll go to market and learn all the best secrets for picking seafood. Rhett is angry, frustrated, confused. But he can't treat Scarlett as he wants because he values his mother too much. So they play pretend. They officially agree to play pretend. Scarlett thinks that if she can get Rhett interested in her again, game over. They'll play happy couple for 'the season' and then she'll go back to Atlanta, or if not Atlanta, anywhere but there.
It is only when their lives are in great danger that Rhett gives into his lust for Scarlett. She assumes this means happily ever after. But this is not to be. Why is this not to be? There are eight million pages left. I jest somewhat.
Scarlett writes a LETTER to Rhett. Rhett does not get the letter. Why? Because his sister decides Rhett deserves better than Scarlett, that Scarlett is TRASH, and so she destroys the letter. This, of course, introduces miscommunication to novel that should be much, much, much shorter.
Scarlett next goes to visit her grandfather--I think in Savannah. I think her aunts are there too. She also visits her uncles and cousins on the O'Hara sides. Her grandfather recognizes something special in her, I believe. I don't know for sure, but I might have preferred the novel IF she'd settled in Savannah and made a new life for herself there. Anything is better than what happens next.
What doesn't work in Scarlett?
Scarlett meets her uncles and cousins and more cousins and more cousins. She's persuaded to take a "short" trip to Ireland--a few weeks--to meet her grandmother. (Gerald's mother). Well, to meet all her relatives. Why do they want to take her to Ireland???? Good question. No one knows. There's no true reason for Scarlett to go anywhere near Ireland. On board the ship, I believe, she discovers that she's pregnant. Does she send word to Rhett? NO. Does she send word to anybody? No. Does she decide to keep it a secret for a few more weeks or months? Yes. It isn't much after that--maybe a few weeks? a month or two? when she hears that RHETT has divorced her. She makes immediate plans to return. She has to tell him about the baby, right?!?!?! But before she leaves Ireland to return to the States, she hears that Rhett has MARRIED AGAIN. I believe she stays in Ireland? Or she might make the shortest of trips back to the States?
Regardless, readers are stuck with Scarlett staying in Ireland for six or so more years. She doesn't just stay in Ireland, mind you, she makes occasional trips about. She meets dozens of people. Are we supposed to care about these people? Maybe. And maybe some readers do. But I found it tedious to have Scarlett coming of age in Ireland. She'll spend a few months LOVING physical labor, working in the fields, the gardens, building the place up, restoring. She's got the role of peasant down wonderfully. She's one with the people. She's in solidarity with them. Earning their like for a bit. BUT when Scarlett's baby is born on Halloween, it's the beginning of the end. The folks just won't accept that Scarlett's baby isn't a witch. Is this logical? No. Of course not. Scarlett moves on from playing the O'Hara and becomes utterly fascinated by horse racing and the English nobility. Or perhaps the Irish and English nobility? Anyway, she decides she likes rich people stuff again. How could she be happy just working the land when she could be going to all the house parties and meeting all the rich men???
Rhett Butler begins popping up here and there in Scarlett's new world. Maybe Rhett has always been interested in horse racing in England and Ireland? Maybe he is coming because she's there?
Scarlett has an affair with a British soldier. Charles something-or-other, I think. It's weird. It's awkward. She's using him. But to be fair, he doesn't mind at all.
Scarlett gets engaged to some noble. A count? A lord? Somebody. His characterization is thin at best. But again, readers know he won't matter even slightly. We do know that he cares a little too much about Kat (or Cat?) Scarlett's daughter. He thinks Scarlett will give him a son. (She can't.) And he wants it to be feisty and independent like Cat (Kat?). Though will he really want a son that he can't dominate??? I have questions.
Meanwhile, after a famine or drought, the peasants have gone on strike and have turned against everybody. EVERYBODY. Anybody with money is an enemy. Is this oversimplifying it???? Yes. Is it complex in the book? Maybe slightly more than I am giving it credit for. Is it still mostly shallow? YES.
Meanwhile, for the past five or six hundred pages, Scarlett has been having 'revelations' about how life and how to live. But they seem to be more fads than character changes. THAT BEING SAID, Scarlett does seem to have learned to love another human being more than herself. True, she hasn't learned to love more than one person more than herself. But for Cat (Kat?) she does seem to be selflessly inclined to put her daughter first.
Does Scarlett ever think about Wade and Ella? No. No. NEVER. She wouldn't dare feel maternal towards her other children. After taking up a LOT of text about how Scarlett has learned that she will NEVER EVER EVER EVER put Kat (Cat?) in a box and make her do anything she doesn't want to do, never try to shape her into being someone else, of following rules and fitting into society, she has the audacity to lecture Wade about WHO he has to be. Scarlett who has never valued education in the slightest is SHOCKED that Wade refuses to go to college. He must, he must, he must. Why? No one knows. It takes up more pages. Eventually, Will persuades her to let Wade be Wade and stay a farmer at Tara. Ella, well, poor thing she might get five mentions in the entire novel. Though that might be generous. Scarlett does not care even slightly for Wade and Ella.
Does Scarlett fight to maintain friendships? No. IF she's disappointed by a person, then that's it--mostly. She's not able to accept complex people with complex relationships. That being said, I found almost all her cousins annoying too. I don't blame Scarlett for being upset with the main person she's upset with. HE repeatedly lies to her, tricks her, uses her. His lies outweigh his truth.
The ending. Well, it ends. After eight million pages of NOTHING, it ends.
My main problem with the book is that it could have been a book around three hundred pages and it would have been decent. Not great perhaps but it could have been decent. I think the author WANTED a book as long as Gone with the Wind. But Gone with the Wind has PLOT, STORY, CHARACTERS. It has substance and depth. It has complexity. It has moral complexity. It has life. It was well-researched. It lives. Scarlett--the sequel--is SHALLOW and obnoxiously long.
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