The Wind Done Gone. - Review - book review

The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randal Houghton Mifflin, June 2001, $23.00, ISBN 0-618-10450-X

The astounding literary invention The Wind Done Gone clearly has the makings of controversy. It revisits Margaret Mitchell's American classic Gone With the Wind. Alice Randall's tale of the antebellum South (from an African American point of view) has inspired both sprited discussion and litigation from Margaret Mitchell's estate. Anytime an author approaches a revisionist story based on a classic, there is bound to be criticism. In this case, however, The Wind Done Gone rises to the occasion and crafts a compelling story based on an already familiar setting from a perspective yet to be explored before now.

If Scarlett O'Hara had an illegitimate mulatto sister, this is her story. It's the life of Cynara (also referred to as Cinammon or Cindy), written in the form of a diary and told in an engaging and poetic style. Cynara is the illegitimate child of Mammy and Planter, the master of Cotton Farm, a plantation a day's ride from Atlanta. All her life Cynara longs for the love her mother Mammy must give to her white sister, Other. She longs for nurtuing that is by birth her own, but by law belongs to her sister.

Cynara's silent rivalry with her sister, Other continues until death. She feels that Other has taken away her most precious gift ... her mother's love. Cynara wants the love that Mammy has set aside only for Other, Leading to a lifelong troubled mother-daughter relationship.

As Cynara grows into her own, she becomes a well-traveled, intelligent, resourceful woman who has succeeded in separating from the ways of the "Old South", but is constantly burdened by the damaging effects of her early life as a slave. As The Wind Done Gone unfolds, Cynara must look to her inner-self to find answers. She is forced to evaluate her relationhships and see her true self. The Wind Done Gone is a beautifully written story sure to capture the heart and souls of readers. Randall has breathed life into a story silenced for too long.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Cox, Matthews & Associates
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group