This is, by far, my favorite book of all time. There were some characters that I disliked, but not for a lack of knowing them. It was getting to know them that got me to disliking them. If that makes sense at all. I took my time with this book and really absorbed it all… and will always recommend it to anyone.

I am not a fan. It was really long, some slow parts, some really good parts. I had never watched the movie and had never heard how it ends. As an unrealistic romantic…i was disappointed.

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.

I haven’t been this emotionally involved in a book in years. My feelings were all over the map, too; I hated all the racist, misogynistic customs of that time; loathed Scarlett at the beginning, which devolved into mild annoyance after the middle section, and eventually completely identified with her in the last 1/3 of the text; I’ll reluctantly admit that I totally swooned over Rhett Butler – fuck Ashley!; the ending both delighted and infuriated me.

I enjoyed it like crazy. Definitely the best fiction I’ve read all year, and possibly one of my favorite books of all-time.