Scarlett by Alexandria Ripley

 I finished reading Scarlett, the Gone with the Wind sequel at 4am this morning. After that 900 page monster, I have a deep seated satisfaction knowing that love will prevail over all. I was worried at first about whether or not the book would end well, and it did, perhaps a bit too hastily.

The book starts off at Melanie's Funeral, with Scarlett making an ungraceful error that ruins her social standing in Atlanta. After moving to Charleston and failing to reconcile her marriage to Rhett Butler, she reunites with her Irish relatives in Savannah, who persuade her to visit her native land in Ireland. She is quite taken by the Irish plight and moves there, becoming the family matriarch and providing financial support to her loved ones. In Ireland, Scarlett discovers that she is pregnant with Rhett's child, but is caught offhand when Rhett divorces her and remarries before Scarlett can reveal her pregnancy. She unknowingly funds a peasent Irish uprising against the English that erupts when she begrudgingly accepts a marriage proposal from a shrewd English Earl. During the firefight, Rhett swoops in to save the day, confesses his love for Scarlett and his secret daughter, and they live happily ever after.

This book is a very good rival for the original. The tumultuous relationship defined by Scarlett's immaturity and Rhetts emotional betrayal is still true to Margrett Michell's vision. The writing style weaves a clear picture, detailing every lace collar and period mannerism, illustrating a true command of the south and the era. The book also wrapped up some of the tension that made the first one great. Scarlett grew into a mature responsible adult, learned to love her chidren, and ultimately ended up with Rhett.

The only problem was the pacing. There were about 400 pages right in the center of the book that came to a staggering halt. She was in Savannah getting to know her cousins, seeing houses.. getting to know people's names.. hanging out with her grandpa... going shopping, eating breakfast... and thats about it. I understand that this author might be an absolute authority in period lifestyle, but at the end of the day, her plight with her grandfather contributed nothing to the plot. She got nothing at ouf it and it did not fuel anything later in the book. This period also took an uneven proportion of the temporal scale. Her time in Savannah must have only been 6 weeks, enough time for her pregnancy to gestate without her knowing. The rest of the book took place over the course of 6 years.

The situation with Rhett also felt synthetically paced. He would pop in randomly in strange intervals as if the author was trying to remind us that he was still here and not to be bored by whatever is going on. This didnt seem so bad until the very end, when he sort of just showed up and wrapped up the plot in the last 20 pages. After I've been hanging on for 900 of them, I didn't want things to just start ending once the author realized that we've been doddling along.

But the bad wasn't so bad. I felt a little cheated at the end by the adrupt ending, but I was more enchanted by the outcome. I loved hearing about every piece of furniture in her house, every lace on her corset. My materialism was appaised by Scarlett's vanity. It was more about the ride than the story. And if she ends up with Rhett at the end, who cares?