Matthew’s Comments (group member since Mar 08, 2015)

Matthew’s comments from the Reading List Completists group.

It is interesting to listen to this book while reading Gone With The Wind at the same time. The dialect used in both is similar. Also, the post Civil War culture of the freed slaves in GWTW and seeing how the next generation fared in Their Eyes Were Watching God is fascinating. I think that my experience with both has been enhanced because of the timing on this.

Discuss Part Four of Gone With The Wind here.

Jan "don't blame me, I also voted for Hillary" wrote: "I read it in 2017. I recommend listening to Ruby Dee read it through Audible.com. It was amazing! Ms. Dee captured the different voices and dialect beautifully. Zora was an anthropologist as well a..."

I was able to get the Ruby Dee audio from Hoopla

This books starts today!

Our poll winner for February 2018 is Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Feel free to discuss it here.

This story is enthralling and brutal. Scarlett is definitely getting a wake up call!

I enjoyed this. A very touching story and I am glad to have finally read this classic.

Click here for my review

Wow! The war is really heading up. (view spoiler)[Atlanta is under full seige now. (hide spoiler)] In the midst of all of this I am trying to figure out if I am finally seeing any cracks in Scarlett's personality? Is she finally growing up? Just when I think she is, she says or does something that makes me think of her from the beginning of the story.

Discuss Part Three of Gone With the Wind here

I am not sure is Scarlett's feelings about Ashley are romantic or psychopathic? Seriously! The way she talks about him and acts like his marriage isn't realty all that important is kind of crazy.

I am wondering if the adults of this time period were normally this short tempered and unreasonable or if it is just done for characteriztion in the storyline?

Janina wrote: "It's hard for me to not see the film when reading this book.
I'm having the hardest time reading the dialogues by the slaves in part one .. it's probably me not being a native speaker, but I have t..."

I think that dialogue would be difficult for anyone!

Anne does talk quite a bit and has a very volitile temper - but a HUGE imagination!

Finally starting today. The best way I can describe it so far is "cute"

Rough ending to Part One for Scarlett. Her silly, boy crazy life that started Part One comes crashing down to Earth with quick decisions made and the onset of the Civil War. Really, most of it happened very quickly in the short chapter that ends part one. Lots of build up for a quick crash landing!

Discuss Part Two here

Janina wrote: "Thanks Matthew.
I've only just started with the book. I read it once before quite a few years ago, but I don't recall how I perceived the depiction of slaves in the book. I think it might have an ..."

Mammy - the O'Hara's slave - definitely talks down about other slaves like they are below her. That might be what you are thinking about.

Regarding the depiction of slaves in Gone With the Wind:

I have heard that this is a controversial topic (which is no surprise). It seems that some people don't like the book because of it. Other people accept it as a representation of how things were at the time.

One thing I am noticing - if they are thinking that the depiction is disrespectful - is that it seems like the author is making the slaves seem smarter, wiser, and more grounded than the owners (even with the attempt to capture the dialect on paper). While Scarlett, the twins, etc. act all silly, pine over crushes, and make ignorant statements about life in general, the slaves watch from the sidelines basically shaking their heads at this behavior. I am only 100 pages in so maybe this changes.

What do others think?

Janina wrote: "I haven't participated in one of the long reads yet, but would like to do so with Gone with the Wind. How do you usually go about this? Do you schedule certain parts of the books for a particular m..."

Hey Janina! Sorry I missed this post until now - silly Goodreads notifications!

When we do these, we just do three months - everyone at their own pace. I will break the discussion down into parts to make it easier to discuss without spoiling.

It would be great to have you along! :)

Discuss Part One Here