Four years ago I reread Gone with the Wind (1936), the bestselling novel about the Civil War and Reconstruction South.
I hadn’t intended to, but I did. I’d loathed it in my teens, and deeply regretted the time I’d wasted reading the 1,000-plus page tome — Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and famous four-hour motion picture adaptation (which I also disliked) notwithstanding.
This strong aversion had nothing to do with race, which was not on my radar screen, or ideology, or North versus South, or slavery, or anything of that nature. (more…)