Gone With the Wind

"Gone With the Wind" was the first grown up book I ever read, I was 9 years old and it took me three weeks to get through it. I didn't understand a lot of it, but I loved watching the movie with my mom (those clothes!), so I was determined to love the book as well. I've read it a bunch of times, maybe not as many as "Lonesome Dove", but it's pretty close (I caught part of the movie on TV at Thanksgiving a few weeks ago, which prompted this reread). As a teen/young adult I, like a lot of people, imagined what would have happened if Mitchell had written a sequel. Of course Scarlett and Rhett would have gotten back together. Of course they would have lived happily ever after (btw, I hated "Scarlett" by Alexandra Ripley. It was *terrible*). But reading it again now, almost the age Rhett was at the end of the book, I think differently. Scarlett was a terrible person. She treated the people that loved her so badly. I believe Rhett when he says he doesn't love her anymore. I understand how he feels. I loved someone so hard for 8 years of my life, and while it took awhile, eventually it was like a switch flipped and I no longer felt anything for him. I think I know exactly how Rhett felt at the end, after loving her so hard and wishing and hoping she'd return his love some day, and then finally he just gave up and the switch flipped. I hope Rhett found happiness after leaving Scarlett, and I hope Scarlett went back to Tara (not Ireland!) and learned to be a grown up.