Mr. Butler

It was on my 2008 Summer List. I didn't get to it. I put it on my 2009 Summer List. I still didn't get to it. Well our last-minute trip called for a book and this one was still on the bookshelf in my room in Georgia. So, I finally read Rhett Butler's People.


And well, I liked it. I wouldn't have said that half way through the book, but in the end I liked it. It's not Margaret Mitchell. It's not Gone with the Wind. Don't think of it as a sequel, but I'd recommend it to any GWTW enthusiast.

The beginning seemed just like a lot of set-up . . . set-up to a story you already know - GWTW. But you meet new characters from Rhett's life, including his sister Rosemary (who reminded me a lot of Scarlett, complete with her own Ashley Wilkes romance). The book does extend past the GWTW ending. It’s a little weird, and I didn't like it at first. I think Margaret’s ending is so perfect and classic, allowing the reader to finish their own story. This ending isn’t perfect, but it was what I’d envisioned to some extent and so it grew on me and was nice to read.

And of course there is Scarlett. Just as Scarlett longed for Ashley, this book shows Rhett longing for Scarlett, and in the end Scarlett scheming to win Rhett back.

In keeping with my GWTW blogging tradition, here are a few quotes I like:

Rhett to his sister Rosemary: "Sister, if I leave you with one piece of advice, it is: Live your life. Let no other live it for you."

Rhett, about overhearing Ashley and Scarlett in the library at the Twelve Oaks barbecue: "A better man than I, Rhett thought, would leap up, apologize, and assure the lovers he’d heard nothing as he hurried from the room. Fortunately, I am not a better man."

Scarlett to Ashley: “No, Major Wilkes, I do not. I think most men and women live their whole lives without knowing love. They accept a simulacrum for the real thing. They confuse cold grey embers for a raging fire”

Scarlett: “Love Rhett Butler? That arrogant, insulting, self-satisfied . . . Why would anyone love Rhett Butler?”

Rosemary Butler: “What? Are you mad?”
Scarlett: “On the contrary, I may be, after many years, putting men’s madness aside.” Scarlett went to the decanter and poured a healthy tot of brandy into her tea. “Oh, I know, I know. Ladies don’t drink brandy in their tea. Frankly, Rosemary, I no longer care what ladies do or don’t do.”

Scarlett about Rhett: "Making me smile, and infuriating me at the same time!"

As if by mutual consent, they played the long and happily married man and wife, toying with each other, building tension until the air between them crackled. Last night when Rhett escorted Scarlett into the dining room, the rustle of her crisp petticoats had been electric.
Rhett: “I want to host a barbecue. Just like old times. We’ll invite everybody. Do you remember the barbecue where we met?”
Scarlett: “I am hardly likely to forget.”
Rhett: “There I was, innocently napping, and when I sat up, my eyes lit on the loveliest girl I’d ever seen. And she hurled crockery at me!”
Scarlett: “I’ve always been sorry I missed.”