Wait.
Okay, yes I have.
As a thousand page book, I think it's pretty fair to give some impressions at the halfway mark. After all, there are plenty of books out there that would be two books by now.
Things start off in the south, Georgia unless I'm remembering it wrong. Georgia is definitely among the places where action takes place. Yes, I'm sure it's Georgia. We meet Scarlett O'Hara, and she kinda sucks. As a protagonist she is selfish and stupid, two things that'll definitely turn me off of liking you.
Ah, but it turns out this is one of them bildungsroman books. Where I am now, 4+ years have passed, the Civil War has started and ended, she's gained and lost a husband (not that she cared about the dude, she just wanted to hurt some other guy), has a kid that she barely cares about, been to plenty of social functions with Mr. Han Solo-of-the-19th-century Rhett Butler (despite hating him... him and his swarthy good looks and muscles upon muscles. Hey, it's what's in the book, don't blame me!).
It's been over the last hundred some-odd pages that the biggest changes have occured to Scarlett. She's become the head of the household, now that her mother has died, and her father has kind of lost it, and she is working crazy hard to keep everyone's stomach at bay.
Bonus points for blowing away a yankee thief with her dead husbands gun. Whoa, when did Scarlett O'Hara get so tough?
As it's important, the dude she was trying to hurt by marrying someone else was Ashley Wilkes. He's a gentleman, and a big time dreamer, and philosopher. He immediately recognizes the futility of war, but heads out into it anyways. Bravery? Perhaps. He calls it cowardice. Scarlett called him a coward back before the war even started, when he decided to marry the quiet and nice (but still pretty awesome, actually) Melanie, instead of marrying Scarlett. He was afraid of being tethered to someone who was so very much of the world- she didn't realize that was what she was saying, because she isn't aware like that, but it was how he took it I guess. And it was the truth.
I've got this bit marked from Ashley that I wanted to record:
"It isn't that I mind splitting logs here in the mud, but I do mind what it stands for. I do mind, very much, the loss of the beauty of the old life I loved."
I had a mini freak out, some years ago, that sounded very much like this. Except it had to do with spending all my time in a parking booth. And these days I'd say it about standing guard in a women's clothing store.
Ah, while I'm here, what does "termagant" mean? (It was in the book of course)
Termagant
1. a violent, turbulent, or brawling woman.
2. ( initial capital letter ) a mythical deity popularly believed in the Middle Ages to be worshiped by the Muslims and introduced into the morality play as a violent, overbearing personage in long robes.
All right, now I know.
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