The Wind Done Gone: A Novel

The Wind Done Gone: A Novel
by Alice Randall

The Wind Done Gone: A Novel
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Book Summary Information

Author: Alice Randall
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-04-08
ISBN: 0618219064
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Mariner Books

Book Reviews of The Wind Done Gone: A Novel

Book Review: One of my three favorite novels of all time
Summary: 5 Stars

The WIND DONE GONE acknowledges the rich tradition of American and African American letters even as it offers imaginative revision and innovation of that tradition. Composed mostly of protagonist Cynara's diary entries, Alice Randall's first novel recovers the banished black female (child#, born of the problematic and complex sexual relationship between white slave master Planter (Gerald O'Hara in Mitchell's novel)and black bondswoman Pallas (Mammy in Mitchell's novel). Randall uses Cynara's story to lay bare the complex relationship between slave mother and mulatta offspring and ultimately to deal with the psychological rift between mother and daughter. In relating their stories, Randall complicates and revises both the prototypical mammy figure, especially the one in Mitchell's GONE WITH THE WIND, and the often tragic or victimized mulatta of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century literature. Randall's insertion of Cynara's story into the gaps left by Mitchell's American classic allows her to make visible a subject suspiciously missing from Mitchell's novel--the offspring of sexual relations between Blacks and Whites. In WIND, Cynara's story is intricately connected to that of her mother. As she comes into her own as a subject, she is able to use her life to reverse the effects of her mother's life. Where her mother had served as sexual surrogate who gave birth to a child destined to become property, Cynara serves as a surrogate in order to give birth to a child who whose progeny will have a chance to become President of the United States. Thus, Randall refuses passive sexual victim status for Cynara and Pallas, choosing instead to portray them as radical sexual subjects who seek and find the kinds of "loopholes" in a skewed system that served real life women such as Harriet Jacobs (see INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL). In addition to its success as an astute parody of GONE WITH THE WIND, the novel offers a gendered perspective on the theme of invisibility that is at core of another great work of American literature--Ralph Ellison's INVISIBLE MAN. Its narrative style is a combination of the style used by Gwendolyn Brooks in MAUD MARTHA and that of Alice Walker in THE COLOR PURPLE. I especially appreciate Randall's ability to create a protagonist who exudes a natural, earthy sensuality--much like the character named Hope in her forthcoming REBEL YELL. Cynara's sexuality is as essential an aspect of her self-identity as any other. In this, the protagonist is akin to Hurston's Janie Crawford of THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD, Walker's Celie in THE COLOR PURPLE) and other such characters on their journeys toward self-discovery. As a university professor, I use WIND in a variety of seminars and courses. I recently had my honors students read the novel in conjunction with the film version of GONE WITH THE WIND and some court documents from the case filed by the Mitchell estate to halt release of Randall's novel (see www.thewinddonegone.com), and I have taught the novel in a variety of other courses and seminars. Most notably, I found it especially useful as a central text for my study of property, race, and ethics.Race, Theft, and Ethics: Property Matters in African American Literature (Southern Literary Studies). While it might be a little too complex for the untrained or inexperienced reader, I highly recommend that you at least give it a try.

Summary of The Wind Done Gone: A Novel

In this daring and provocative literary parody which has captured the interest and imagination of a nation, Alice Randall explodes the world created in GONE WITH THE WIND, a work that more than any other has defined our image of the antebellum South. Taking sharp aim at the romanticized, whitewashed mythology perpetrated by this southern classic, Randall has ingeniously conceived a multilayered, emotionally complex tale of her own - that of Cynara, the mulatto half-sister, who, beautiful and brown and born into slavery, manages to break away from the damaging world of the Old South to emerge into full life as a daughter, a lover, a mother, a victor. THE WIND DONE GONE is a passionate love story, a wrenching portrait of a tangled mother-daughter relationship, and a book that "celebrates a people's emancipation not only from bondage but also from history and myth, custom and stereotype" (San Antonio Express-News).

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