First, I must say that Donald McCaig's little dig at the author of the book "Scarlet" by Alexandra Ripley was very unprofessional as an author and presumptous to have made the following statement:

"McCaig chooses to disregard the novel Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley. He does not acknowledge its existence in the canon of Gone with the Wind nor does his novel incorporate any of its characters. He thinks that the Margaret Mitchell estate was "thoroughly embarrassed" by Ripley's novel".(from the Wikipedia)

The Margaret Mitchell estate did authorize Ripley's book to be written as well, so McCaig's statement casts a shadow on the man's character.

Rhett Butler's People though does tie up loose threads as to the background of Rhett's family. McCaig was able to tap into the personality of each character to a "T". He also brought to light the relationships to all of the family's mentioned in "Gone With The Wind". He played on the rumors of Rhett having a child, somewhere, due to Rhett's cad like behavior and still kept it steeped in mystery as to his feeling for the child's mother.

If this was a book to fan the flames in the wind then this is a must read book. Now where's my mint julep?

Novel gives background on Rhett Butler's entire life and all the people he knew both before and after the time frame of "Gone With the Wind". We agreed that Clark Gable & Vivian Leigh were pictured in our minds as we read this. Character of Melanie Wilkes was fleshed out more and she was not as sickenly sweet as in GWTW.

The book moved slowly, but was an interesting perspective on Rhett Butler.