Solange, a French
heiress, travels to Saint-Domingue with her new husband to claim the
sugar plantation that is part of the marriage settlement. When they
arrive, the island is in chaos. The slave revolt has driven the
French planters into the main city of Cap-Francis. The newly weds get
little from the island. The plantation is in disrepair and
uninhabitable. However, Solange takes in Ruth, a child orphaned by
the slave revolt. Solange and Ruth form a symbiotic relationship that
extends from her childhood to encompass three generations of the
family.
It's not easy to
write a prequel. The main characters whose lives you have to connect
to are already established. However, the progenitors are fair game. I
thought McCraig did a good job with Scarlett's grandmother, Solange.
She has the same feisty spirit, desire to succeed against the odds,
and an attractiveness that gains her three husbands.
Ruth, or Mammy, is a
much less well defined character. As a child at the beginning of the
book, she is Solange's accomplice, and a very successful one.
However, I felt we didn't get to know her
well. The emphasis was
on Solange. We do learn more about Mammy's history, but for me it
wasn't completely satisfying. I particularly disliked the amount of
dialect the author used when Mammy was telling a story. It was hard
to read and diverted my interest from the story to trying to figure
out the pronunciation.
I won't spoil the
ending, but the characters you loved in Gone With the Wind have
changed rather dramatically at the end, which is the barbeque scene
from the original book. I also have trouble with the characterization
of Scarlett riding about the countryside in men's clothes. She was a
hoyden, but I thought that was a bit extreme for the South in that
time period.
The book is an
interesting read to see how another author envisions the events
leading up to Mitchel's novel. I wasn't particularly impressed, but
if you read it, you may feel differently.
I reviewed this book
for Net Galley.
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