Ruth’s Journey by Donald McCaig

Title: Ruth’s Journey
Author: Donald McCaig
Read by:  Cherise Boothe
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: 14 hours (12 CDs)
Source:  Review Copy from Simon & Schuster – Thanks!

Ruth’s Journey is subtitled “the authorized novel of Mammy from Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind.”  I am a huge Gone with the Wind fan.  I obsessively watched the move as a kid and then read the book first when I was around 13 and a few times since then.  It is a sprawling masterpiece of historical fiction with a great cast of characters, especially Scarlett, who is a heroine that you often find a hard time liking.  One great character in the book and movie is Mammy, who is one of the only people that truly understands Scarlett and isn’t afraid to tell her what she thinks about her actions.  Ruth’s Journey finally gives a name to Mammy, Ruth, and tells her story from childhood through the picnic at Twelve Oaks where Rhett and Scarlett meet and the very start of the Civil War.

Ruth’s Journey starts in Saint-Domingue which is undergoing a revolution.  Scarlett’s grandmother, Solange Fornier lives on the island with her husband Captain Augustin Fornier.  Captain Fornier finds a young child amongst carnage and the only one left living amongst her family.  He takes her home to his wife Solange and she names her Ruth.  Ruth stays with them as they flee the island for a new life in Savannah.  Ruth has some adventures of her own and eventually becomes Mammy to Solange’s daughter Ellen and then moves up country to Tara when Ellen marries Gerald O’Hara and becomes a mother herself.

As a fan of Gone with the Wind I enjoyed the story and getting more background about different characters, in particular I loved learning about all of the neighbors of Tara and their life before the war.  What I didn’t like is that this didn’t really seem like Ruth’s Journey at all.  It was Solange’s journey with Ruth as a bit side character until CD five when the story abruptly shifts to Ruth as the main character.  At that point I missed Solange as I felt it was her story. The story of Ruth as a wife and a mother was the strongest part of the novel for me.  There was one heart breaking scene that had me in tears.  It’s hard to believe that human beings treated others that way.  When Ruth is no longer a wife and mother and becomes Mammy again the story is once again really about everyone around Ruth and not about Ruth herself.  I wish we could have gotten a more in depth look at Ruth as Mammy and the doings downstairs versus upstairs like the novel Netherfield (Pride and Prejudice told from the servants’ point of view).  I also wondered how this book could have gone if it had been written by Alice Walker or Maya Angelou.

Cherise Booth was a fine narrator and was the voice of Mammy to me.  The audio story kept me interested on my long drives to work. 

Overall, I would recommend this to fans of Gone with the Wind with the caveat that you will find out a lot more about Scarlett’s grandmother, childhood, and other side characters, but not as much about Mammy as you would like.

Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig

I was very excited to receive Rhett Butler's People from my friend Jenn for Christmas. Learning Rhett's side of the story seemed like a great new take on Gone With the Wind.

Rhett Butler's People tells the story of Rhett Butler from an impetiuous youth to shortly after the ending of Gone With the Wind. It also tells the story in fragments of various family members and friends involved with Rhett through the years including the back story of Belle Watling and Rhett's sister Rosemary.

While it was great to get a different perspective on Gone With the Wind, I think my biggest mistake was reading this directly after reading Gone With the Wind again. McCaig has a rather abrupt writing style where he moves from piece to piece of writing, without filling in the details. It was rather jarring reading it at first (especially after Mitchell's great original description), but I got used to it. While the characters in the original novel are described in great detail, the characters in this novel were rather flat, especially the supporting "People" such as Rosemary and Colonel Andrew Ravenal. I wanted to care, but often found myself not caring, waiting to hear about Rhett again. There were many small details that were not correct as compared to the original novel, which was quite annoying. Also, they explain why Rhett was expelled from his family, but there was nothing about taking a carriage ride with a lady and refusing to marry her . . . the original story from the original novel.

What I wanted from this novel was more about Rhett and his adventures. We learn about how in his youth he traveled around the world to exciting locations and made money as almost a secondary, by the way . . . I wanted to know more details about this - and not quick stories about his friends and sister. I liked the ending and thought it was very appropriate. I just wish it would have lasted for a longer period after the ending of the original novel.

One major problem I had with the book was that McCaig decided to "white wash" Rhett. All of the sudden, Rhett is a flaming abolitionist growing up in South Carolina. There is no reason from the original novel to believe this. It is more likely that Rhett was not an abolitionist and was more a man of the time. I know it's more P.C. to make him one now, but it is not historically accurate.

I recommend this book for anyone who is obsessed with all things Gone With the Wind like me, but DO NOT read it directly after reading Gone with the Wind. It is worth a read, especially for the ending. I hope that someone else writes more about the adventures of Rhett someday.