Quote:
Originally Posted by Katti's Cat
105 pages in and I give up. I just can't get past the characters - although colourful described I dislike them. And I just can't be bothered reading this book again when I dislike the characters so much.
I will however follow the discussion as I am interested as to why everyone thinks this book is so great.
Soz, total failure here  |
I think characterization is actually one of the great successes of this book. Obviously a bunch of the characters are thinly defined but the main characters - Scarlett, Rhett, Ashley, Melanie are complex in the extreme if you follow their development throughout the book. Their actions and statements are layered with meaning and different potential motives behind them. No one is all good or all bad (and yes that includes the supposedly sainted Melanie Wilkes). Who uses who? What are the consequences, intended and accidental, what are the intentions stated and secret, the book is one big psychological knot begging to be unravelled.
I also think that the book is worth reading for its portrayal of the south its heydey and fall, the war and its strategems, the effects of the war on the unprepared, the statements it makes about politics, feminism, classicism and racism and the origins of the ku klux klan even if you never end up being that interested in the characters.
Mel