i can’t believe how much i truly enjoyed this book.

needless to say, i avoided it all my life because as a southerner, i thought it was a racist piece of claptrap about the civil war and the slaves and the slavemasters. and it is about the war between the states—but not really. the war is a backdrop to the torrential love life of scarlett o’hara and rhett butler.

and really, what makes it all so fascinating is that their relationship and how it devolves is a microcosm of love and how it’s supposed to work, and how people can sometimes get in their own way and unhinge it. the war parallels a lot of what happens between them. it’s surprisingly well-written. and it’s not racist, per se. it’s in keeping with the way people functioned back then and actually gives the reader a hard look at black people’s lives during reconstruction.

i think that this is a book that every american should read.