Ruth's Journey: The Authorized Novel of Mammy from Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind

by Donald McCaig

Authorized by the Margaret Mitchell Estate, here is the first-ever prequel to one of the most beloved and bestselling novels of all time, Gone with the Wind. The critically acclaimed author of Rhett Butler’s People magnificently recounts the life of Mammy, one of literature’s greatest supporting characters, from her days as a slave girl to the outbreak of the Civil War.

“Her story began with a miracle.” On the Caribbean island of Saint Domingue, an island consumed by the flames of revolution, a senseless attack leaves only one survivor—an infant girl. She falls into the hands of two French émigrés, Henri and Solange Fournier, who take the beautiful child they call Ruth to the bustling American city of Savannah.

What follows is the sweeping tale of Ruth’s life as shaped by her strong-willed mistress and other larger-than-life personalities she encounters in the South: Jehu Glen, a free black man with whom Ruth falls madly in love; the shabbily genteel family that first hires Ruth as Mammy; Solange’s daughter Ellen and the rough Irishman, Gerald O’Hara, whom Ellen chooses to marry; the Butler family of Charleston and their shocking connection to Mammy Ruth; and finally Scarlett O’Hara—the irrepressible Southern belle Mammy raises from birth. As we witness the difficult coming of age felt by three generations of women, gifted storyteller Donald McCaig reveals a portrait of Mammy that is both nuanced and poignant, at once a proud woman and a captive, and a strict disciplinarian who has never experienced freedom herself. But despite the cruelties of a world that has decreed her a slave, Mammy endures, a rock in the river of time. She loves with a ferocity that would astonish those around her if they knew it. And she holds tight even to those who have been lost in the ravages of her days.

Set against the backdrop of the South from the 1820s until the dawn of the Civil War, here is a remarkable story of fortitude, heartbreak, and indomitable will—and a tale that will forever illuminate your reading of Margaret Mitchell’s unforgettable classic, Gone with the Wind

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Civil War, Southern, Audiobook, Book Club

384 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2014

About the author

Donald McCaig was the award-winning author of Jacob’s Ladder, designated “the best civil war novel ever written” by The Virginia Quarterly. People magazine raved “Think Gone With the Wind, think Cold Mountain.” It won the Michael Sharra Award for Civil War Fiction and the Library of Virginia Award for Fiction.

Donald McCaig wrote about rural American life, sheepdogs, and the Civil War. He also wrote poetry and wrote under various pseudonyms.

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept of continuing someone else's story is interesting. Gone with the Wind is such an epic and many people feel the ending left the story unresolved. So even 75 years later, people are looking for more pieces to the puzzle. And I think, as fans, we also just enjoy another chance to spend some time with characters that we've come to know and love. Unfortunately these additions to the original story are difficult to write. They're not going to please everyone and they'll probably even make a lot of people angry. No two people ever read the exact same novel. We view the story and characters through the lens of our own experience and worldview. And I think that is the crux of why I wasn't a fan of this novel. Because Donald McCaig and I clearly didn't view Gone with the Wind or it's characters in the same way. So I wasn't able to embrace his speculation about their histories.

The opening would have lost me had I not been so excited about this book and intent on seeing it through. The first half was incredibly wordy, slow, and boring. I was frustrated as well because it didn't seem like RUTH'S journey. It wasn't even always told from her perspective. And when we were viewing things from her perspective we weren't given any deeper insights into her particular experience or thoughts than we would've been able to perceive from any other point of view. The only things about Mammy that I learned that I didn't already know were that she got married and had a child and subsequently lost them both. I would have thought Ruth would have more sense than to marry the type of man she did. We learned a lot about Solange and her three husbands, her children, and other various white planters in the Savannah and Charleston areas. I was interested in seeing some of Scarlett's grandparents, but it just got to be too much. I felt that portion went on needlessly long. I also didn't feel we were getting any really interesting or worthwhile insights. The inordinate amount of detail about disgusting bodily functions did not succeed in distracting me from the lack of insight and detail in the rest of the novel, It did repulse me several times however.

I stuck it out because I wanted to see where he took the story of Philipe and Ellen. Yet again we didn't really get much that we didn't already know. I was excited to see the O'Haras and especially Scarlett from Ruth's perspective, so I knew I had to make it to the end. The book didn't really start to feel like it was genuinely from Ruth's perspective until around 70% of the way through. The story ends on the day of the barbecue that takes place at the opening of Gone with the Wind. It was fun to see all the old beloved characters at first. Unfortunately, however, they were all portrayed so very far OUT of their original character that it just become ridiculous and frustrating. Scarlett racing horses in men's clothes! The Tarletons Union sympathizers?! How on earth do you get there? It was also insinuated that Ashley was much older than Scarlett when I'm pretty sure that GWTW says they were children together. Regardless, I'm not a complete stickler for details. I realize things will get changed, rearranged or even mistakenly forgotten. However these characters were so far out of the realm of plausibility it didn't seem like there was a reason to even try to connect them to Gone with the Wind.


The thing about writing a sequel is you're looking into the future. You have some liberty there because people can change. But this book was all history. We already know where the characters are headed and where they're going to end up. Their journey to that end needs to be plausible, and for me this just wasn't. Honestly a good part of reading this felt like MY journey to try and get through it. I was hoping for a lot more insight into Ruth/Mammy's world.

*I received an ARC from NetGalley and Atria publishing in exchange for my honest review.


www.wanderingthepages.tumblr.com

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am reading all the negative criticism about this author,for this book and his previous one about Rhett Butler, but you have to remember this author is not going to write exactly like Margaret Mitchell.I would put him exactly in the same class as all those authors, who love Jane Austen's books, and are now writing about/continuing her Pride and Prejudice novel. They are not writing exactly like she did.They can't! They are writing about her characters and saying, that maybe this happened to them before the novel began and maybe this happened to them after the novel ended. There is nothing wrong with that. They all write very credible novels and these novels are enjoyed by many Austen fans.If you can't possibly enjoy any little deviation from the original, then you will never like this sort of book. Don't read it then and don't knock the author and if you do read this sort of book, don't judge it as compared exactly with the original, judge it on how well it is written as a stand alone book.That being said my review will follow shortly.

[Kim McGee · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is very difficult to take a beloved story such as "Gone With the Wind" and draw out the story of one of it's characters. This is the story of Mammy, faithful servant to Solange, Ellen and then Scarlett and her sisters. I enjoyed the beginning of the story which shows us a different side to the slave trade, that of the sugar plantations in the islands. Mammy, who began as Ruth,started her life there before traveling to the states with her first owner. The reader sees what life was like for the house slave and understands how dependent they were on their master's world. Everything that affected the master affected the slave's life. If the plantation was sold or the family moved on to a different location, slave families would be torn away from family or dumped into a world they knew little about. Even the free men and women of color had little freedom. For those that cherished "Gone With the Wind" Mammy's history will delight. It reads like summer in the south - slow, sweet and gentle with a occasional hurricane thrown in for good measure. Thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gone with the Wind was the first adult book that I read when I was young and it remains one of the few books that I re- read every few years. I was excited to find out about this book and the potential opportunity to learn more about Mammy, one of the key characters in GWTW. Wow was I disappointed. I thought that this book was poorly written and the characters were very one dimensional. I don't know much more about Mammy now than I did before except that her real name was Ruth. I truly think that authors should quit trying to add on to earlier novels - they should just leave those characters alone. Major disappointment!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meet Scarlet O'Hara's Grandmother, Solange

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.

[Carmen · Rating 1 out of 5]

If the god awful 'Scarlett' by Alexandra Ripley didn't exist, 'Ruth's Journey' would be the poster child for why sequels written by someone other than the original author shouldn't be allowed.

If you're going to write a book called 'Ruth's Journey,' it should focus on, oh you know, Ruth. Not the boring ass, poorly-written white people around her. When the story did focus on the title character, McCaig managed to make her story boring and ridiculous as well. I'm mad I wasted time on this novel.

tl;dr - McCaig cannot write female characters and a re-read of GWTW would be time better spent.

[PopcornReads - MkNoah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read Donald McCaig’s 2007 novel about Rhett Butler and did not like it, so you might wonder why I bothered to read Ruth’s Journey, a novel Margaret Mitchell’s estate authorized about Mammy from Gone With The Wind. There are a couple of reasons: 1), Mr. McCaig has since won two awards for his Civil War novel, Jacob’s Ladder, which has been hailed as the best novel written about that war; and 2), the character of Mammy has always fascinated me because she is such a strong, almost elemental force of a woman – in my opinion a far more admirable woman than some others in Gone With The Wind.

Hattie McDaniel, who was the daughter of former slaves, won an Academy Award for her excellent portrayal of Mammy, the first ever awarded to an African American. She played Mammy with a dignity and strength that I’ll never forget. I had to see if McCaig did this character justice, and I’m happy to say that I believe he did a pretty good job of it. Whether you’re a Gone With The Wind fan or like historical novels featuring strong women who persevere in even the hardest times, Ruth’s Journey might just be one you’d like to add to your TBR pile. Let’s find out at http://popcornreads.com/?p=7781.

[MD · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish this book, didn't even make it half way through. Very hard to follow, bored out of my mind, way too much detail in the beginning. I was realy looking forward to this one.

[Suzette Harrison · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ruth, aka Mammy, proved a perplexing character for me. I considered her a bystander to whom life happened, not an active, involved individual whose story was told. Rather, for me, she became the voice and mouthpiece by which other persons' lives were proclaimed. I am very cognizant of the time/era and circumstances under which Ruth's life evolved, i.e. slavery, bondage, being a "war refugee." I am also careful not to cast my modern, "free woman" sensibilities onto her. I take no issue with the fact that she was a slave incapable of charting her own existence. My issue is the story did not afford me to the opportunity to delve deeper into her personal, unique, individual existence. I had the sense of being an outsider wanting to be allowed in. Glimpses! That's all I gained: glimpses and glances of Ruth's internal, true, masked self. At best, for me, her character can be described as subdued, waiting her chance to breathe and be. Her marriage--its passions and pains--prove a quick, byline, as does her motherhood. Her expressions of grief when losing both her husband and child are those of an automaton and, thus, unbelievable. In short, Ruth is a shadow hidden behind the vibrant plumage of the persons, the families, to whom she belongs. While the book's intent or effort may be laudatory, that is drawing the reader into the life of the unsung, it didn't quite make it for me. Perhaps the book's cover should have proven prophetic: Ruth's countenance or visage don't matter. A rear view of her in uniform atop the plantation house porch are indicative of her position, the only important context in which she exists. Subdued and ignored, Ruth (who in her early twenties declines her own name and fully embraces the label of "Mammy")serves as a backdrop. Perhaps that is the toll of slavery, the price African Americans were required to pay: blending into the scenery while others shine and dominate both their stories and their lives.

[Virginia Myers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book for free from the publisher as a Book Browse First Impression in exchange for a review. This did not influence my opinion

As I began reading this book, I had the impression that the book would be the story of Ruth who was known to the world as Mammy in the fantastic novel and movie “Gone with the Wind”. If I had not been anticipating this, maybe the first 2/3 of the book would have been more satisfying. Thinking about it later, I wondered if possibly the author had begun a novel but had laid it aside for some reason; then when authorized by the Mitchell estate to write a novel about Mammy he remembered that old unfinished novel and decided that its young black girl could be turned into Mammy. So he finished the earlier work by throwing in familiar names from GWTW that we all knew and loved at the end. I say that because most of the book is not about Ruth/Mammy. The book is about the French woman who turns into Scarlett’s grandmother – detailing this woman’s thoughts and her life experiences. I could even theorize that it is because of the need to shift the premise of the book from that earlier unfinished novel to Mammy’s story that the last 1/3 is suddenly told in first person from Mammy’s point of view.


In that last portion of the book, Mammy suddenly becomes a child of the south picking up the dialect of those African children who were born and raised by slave parents on a plantation in association with other slaves. This seems out of place for the child who at the approximate age of 4 is found and raised somewhat as half-daughter and half- aide -de-camp in the household of an educated French woman. I question where this dialect came from when she apparently had little association with other black servants or slaves until she was a grown woman.

When the book finally takes us to Tara and we once more find our familiar characters from GWTW, I found some of earlier life of these characters to be surprising and quite creative. Many were described far differently than I would have unexpected. It sort of makes me want to go back and read GWTW again and see how these new persona fit in.

In order to end on a positive note, let me add that I found out after I completed the book that Denmark Vesey was a real person. That made me curious to now go back and read the portion of the book where he was active in the life of Ruth. Historical fiction is my favorite type of book and the civil war era especially appeals to me but somehow in all that reading I had not met up with Denmark Vesey until now. I liked that the author wove this historical information into his novel.

[Jen Six · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a lot of the reviews here because I just finished reading this (took me less than a week) and had some of the same concerns that everyone else had. Not enough time spent on Mammy since it was her book and that there just could have been more. Yet, the book has also captured something, and I'm not entirely sure Mr. McCaig did it on purpose or if it just came about as natural. No mincing words on this but as a huge GWTW fan you have to realize that it portrayed slavery and it was not a fairy tale for the people who actually were slaves. Times were tough, if not deadly, as we saw with Mammy's daughter - the hardest part in the book for me. As the scene played out where Martine is sold and her hand simply slipped from Mammy's hand I felt all the air go out of my lungs. She lost her child, who we later learn died. He didn't want to glorify or preach about the South and what had happened there, Mr. Caig had to tell the story of a woman who was treated like property, who wasn't recognized as a whole person, and it's very interesting to me that everyone complains about her lack of story and view point but it is almost true to life that we didn't get it all because that was the South and how people who weren't white were treated. They weren't allowed to be people, let alone have feelings or have their own story.

Ruth was strong in a way that was different than Solange, Ellen, or even our cherished Scarlett. She simply kept going. She suffered through the loss of her husband and daughter and she didn't give in to any of the hatred that others may have had. She found a way to not break. I told a friend in the middle of reading this that she herself was never beaten or harmed, though she had lost her husband and child. When you read history you know that things could have been written for Mammy that could have ripped our heart out, that would have left us wondering why McCaig would hurt such a beloved woman. He had to toe a line of giving us Ruth's story of how she became Scarlett O'Hara's Mammy without bewildering us with the truth of what could have been. I think in light of that, he did a great job. I think he did her character justice, because she was part of those around her, she was part of the South, just as much as Scarlett was a part of her surroundings, we saw what made Ruth into Mammy.

I will definitely keep the copy I bought and reread it again just as I do GWTW.

[Elizabeth of Silver's Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who can forget Scarlett O'Hara, Tara, and of course beloved Mammy. Ruth's Journey is a tale of Mammy.

Mammy was born in the Caribbean Islands, was the only survivor of an attack on her household, and made her way to Savannah with the Forniers. As their "child" she was treated well, but was sold to another family.

Mammy Ruth moves from one famous Southern family's ​home to another as we the reader follow her and find out what made Mammy the mammy she was. There are many happy situations, but there are also many sad ones.​ The O'Haras are mentioned throughout the book ​and,​ of course​,​ that is where ​Mammy ends up.

RUTH'S JOURNEY was very well researched, but unfortunately difficult to follow and enjoy until the book was almost over.​

I loved GONE WITH THE WIND, but RUTH'S JOURNEY had something to be desired. It didn't get interesting until way into the book, and most specifically not until Mammy got to Tara with the O'Haras. Visualizing Tara and hearing chararacters' names from GONE WITH THE WIND made the wait worthwhile.

I enjoyed learning about Mammy, but RUTH'S JOURNEY wasn't a favorite read...it was a bit tedious even though the writing was outstanding.

You will love Mammy Ruth and feel sorry for her, and ​you will love learning about ​her strong will​ and her love and loyalty for the people she cared for and ​kept her going on through all her many losses. Mammy Ruth was an interesting person, and a character​ everyone most likely loved and will never forget especially in her dealings with Scarlett.​ ​ 3/5

​This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation in return for an honest review.​

[Mom · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really wanting to like this book and share it with my friends, but once again I am sadly disappointed. It is an interesting concept but executed completely wrong. Why men think they have the capacity to write women's novels is beyond me. It is common knowledge that men do not know anything about women and shouldn't try to pretend that they do. Ruth's Journey lacks the gentility, warmth and pacing that made Gone With The Wind so treasured and enduring. It was hurried in some parts and totally lagging in others, dragging on and on with details or incidents that didn't follow or relate to the story. The beginning was brutal and graphic and I almost quit reading after page 30, but continued against my better judgment. Most abhorrent to me was the degradation of character to Scarlett's mother and grandmother, reducing them to adulterers and seductresses. It also took liberties with certain characters' backgrounds, changing them to fit his version of events, and grafting history onto the fictional story. While this may serve to make it more accurate and fully representative, it was poorly done and the result is more like a clumsy Gone With The Wind fanfiction than like a fully realized novel taking a different, less romanticized look at the events and people in Gone With The Wind.

[Raegan · Rating 2 out of 5]

-Disclaimer: I won this book for free through goodreads giveaways in exchange for an honest review.-

Quite the interesting read.

McCaig does really well with setting the scene. That is really the only thing I actually liked about the book. I was really excited to read this but it was not what I expected. Very boring and dull after ten pages. The whole time I was like "Get to the point already!" He rambles on unimportant things 3/4 of the book. Good but not anything like the classic.

[The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gone With the Wind made the antebellum South into a genteel Disneyland, complete with mint juleps and cotillions. Oh, and Scarlett O'Hara. Of course, it also made slavery into a technicolor dream where all the Black folks were oh-so very grateful for their state until those "evil Yankees" came and messed up everything.

So now we get Mammy's story. Really? A negative archetype Black women are still contending with? I don't know who thought this was a good idea, but no.

[Naomi · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was authorized? What was the Margaret Mitchell estate thinking?

Dry. Flat. Uninteresting. A wet rag. Boring, unlike the character of Mammy. Just sad. Doesn't do her character well at all.

Highly disappointed. My only plus out of this is that I reviewed for the publisher so I didn't spend hard earned money on it.

[Stella Marone · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to skim read …I wanted to love it so much but it’s a hard read. I just can’t. Not interesting at all.

[Michelle]

Ruth’s Journey is nothing more than fodder for fans of Margaret Mitchell’s classic. If anything, Ruth’s actual journey shows just how small the South actually was given with whom Ruth interacts, when, and why. All of the key figures of Ms. Mitchell’s novel are here, and fans will have a blast connecting the dots between them and seeing certain famous scenes through someone else’s eyes. Without this singular interest however, readers unfamiliar with the O’Hara and the Robillard families will find Ruth’s Journey rather dull.

For one thing, while Ruth is in almost every scene, she is most certainly not the main character during the first half of the novel. The first half is all Solange Fornier Robillard. In it, readers discover that Scarlett comes by her obstinance and tendency to flout society rules not just from Gerald’s side of the family. The similarities between Solange and Scarlett are undeniable and makes a lot of sense when trying to build a bridge between two novels. Yet, the whole thing is just too expected and therein lies the rub. In trying to create a novel that connects to a much-beloved classic, one expects certain connections and discoveries. There is nothing terribly surprising about anything that happens in the novel, and all of it feels repetitive. Solange is a perfect stand-in for Scarlett, even down to the number of children she has as well as the number of husbands.

Then there is Ruth herself. This is not the Mammy from the novel or the movie. It is supposed to be how she came to be so feisty and outspoken, but one never sees Ruth adopt that persona. Even before she moves to Tara with the newlyweds, this version of Mammy lacks that spirited bite with which she attacks her duties. Throughout most of the novel, Ruth is a follower; she is meek, mild, and bound by a slave’s code of silence towards her white owners. At her lowest point, she remains quiet and implacable. The Mammy from the original book is anything but quiet and certainly not implacable.

There is more to Ruth’s life other than her time with the O’Hara’s, especially with Scarlett and her sisters, but that ends up being the part of the story readers will remember the most. In many ways, this is fitting because Mammy only became famous because of Scarlett O’Hara. One wants to see young Katie Scarlett and how she grew into the formidable woman she became. However, that portion of her life is such a small portion, that for readers not to remember or care about the path of her life prior to Tara is a disservice of the author.

Mr. McCaig tries to maintain a fan’s interest by throwing in well-known names and faces – ones that play a large role in the original story. This only works for a time before it begins to test a reader’s patience. The coincidental meetings between Ruth and the Hamiltons, the Butlers, the O’Haras, and pretty much everyone else who factors into Scarlett’s adult life only works to a certain extent before they become too convenient and nothing more than a plot device to keep a reader’s interest.

The final lasting impression of Ruth’s Journey is not one of marvel at everything she endures. Rather, it is one in which readers will wonder at everyone’s ages in Gone With the Wind. Ruth meets all of the supporting cast years before Scarlett’s birth, which drives home her incredible youth and the acceptability of Southern women marrying men twice their age. It is definitely not the impression one imagines Mr. McCaig was hoping to make when he started the novel, but it is there nonetheless.

In the end, it becomes too difficult to reconcile Ms. Mitchell’s Mammy with Mr. Mccaig’s version. They do not have the same voice or the same spark. While one knows that Ms. Mitchell’s Mammy has eons of experience under her kerchief, one gets the uneasy sense that what happens in Ruth’s Journey is just not it. While fans, like this reader, will continue to flock to anything remotely related to Ms. Mitchell’s masterpiece, it is best to start Ruth’s Journey with the understanding that it is a paltry substitute for the original. Only then can one sit back, enjoy the story, and get a tiny thrill every time a familiar name crosses the page.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a strange relationship with Gone With the Wind.

There was a time in my life, many years ago, when I didn't particularly like nor dislike the movie. I had seen it, it didn't do much for me one way or the other, and I basically forgot about it beyond seeing references in popular culture. I hadn't read the book on which it was based.

But then I married a person who had (and has) a Gone With the Wind obsession. She has seen the movie dozens if not hundreds of times since childhood, collects any and all sorts of memorabilia, read the original book several times, she even went to Gone With the Wind cons and events to meet the still-alive-then actors connected with the production. I have been forced to view this movie many many, many times myself.

We are divorced now. Those two things have barely any relationship, but it's not no relationship.

That's a long way into my review to say I have a complicated history with the work on which this book's characters and universe are based.

I didn't think I would like this at all. It's not my normal type of fiction read, and as I say, I have GWTW issues. I honestly only read it because the publisher was kind enough to send me a free copy in exchange for a possible review, and I felt an obligation. At that, I picked up and completed several other new books after this arrived in the mail, each time reminding myself that I really needed to just read it.

The writing is much better than I expected. McCraig is obviously talented, and his strong familiarity with the original work, and his ability to weave this longer tale of Mammy Ruth into it is impressive. The actual history referenced seems well-researched, if often a little too much a recitation of historical touchstones, especially in the first two parts of the book, which take up over 200 pages.

McCraig's Mammy is an extremely intelligent, morally centered, and very wise woman. One of the problems with this book is that she is just too much so - there is not nearly enough flaw and realistic reaction to suffering to really make Mammy Ruth come alive as an actual person for me. She is perfect.

Then there is the dialect issue. The last hundred pages or so of the book are written in first person from Mammy's point of view, and is written in dialect. I have no earthly idea how accurate this dialect presentation is. For all I know, McCraig has done extensive research in how someone from Mammy Ruth's background may have actually spoken during this time period, and it's entirely possible, from my almost completely ignorant standing, that he nailed it.

But it felt weird. Despite having no basis other than just my general feeling as I read, this often felt like some old white dude writer trying his damnest to sound like an 1865 South Carolina Mammy, and it very often pulled me right out of the story (I deliberately didn't look up McCraig's bio before this review to confirm or refute his white-dude-ness). Much of Mammy's vocabulary is crude and limited - right along side other internal dialog that referenced large words and complicated phrase structure. It just felt... off. To be completely honest, it often made me cringe and feel embarrassed, and I recognize that is as much my own baggage as a white-dude reader as it is McCraig's failure to engage me fully.

I did like it more than I thought I would. And I know what my ex-wife is getting for Christmas from this year.

[Tri-crafter · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I see the number of positive reviews for this book on Goodreads, I have to wonder if those people read the same book that I did. Ruth's Journey is a terrible book.

I can only guess that the author and the publisher counted on a built-in market of GWTW fans to ensure sales of this book and in so doing forgot the little details that make for an enjoyable story. Details like proper editing; internal consistency; historical accuracy; believable situations; and last but not least, multi-dimensional characters.

The few reviews that I have read that were critical of this book, complained that the early chapters were focused on characters that we did not know from GWTW. Because these were intended to be forbears of the characters that we all know and love, I was not bothered by that aspect of the book.

However, I was bothered by items of poor editing, such as characters being described as building a large house on Oglethorpe Square in Savannah, but mere paragraphs later, the construction work is said to be on Reynolds' Square. To have missed this inconsistency within the space of a few paragraphs reveals sloppy editing. Similarly, the narrator tells us that Scarlet O'Hara is supposed to be heading to ladies' school in the fall, but in the next chapter, it is fall and Scarlett is still at Tara. (But her younger sister IS at finishing school? What?) There are numerous situations like this, where the timeline or location is inconsistent with previous events.

There is a sudden, inexplicable change in narration. The first 2/3 of the book is in the third person, the last is a first person narration from Mammy's point of view. (In a difficult to read dialect that is completely unbelievable considering the upbringing that we are told the character had as a child.

Several reviews also described Ruth's Journey as being "well researched." I can't fathom where they got that idea. The descriptions of the national politics as the country headed toward civil war were accurate enough, as were descriptions of antebellum Savannah and Charleston. But many people who read historical fiction are also fans of historical costuming. For such people, a statement that a woman's place in the world means "putting on their bustles" reads like fingernails on a chalkboard. (Bustles did not come into fashion until AFTER the Civil War.) Like the plot and character inconsistencies, this is just one egregious example among many.

Character development in Ruth's Journey is laughably poor. All the characters that pre-date GWTW are one dimensional. Even those characters who are from GWTW don't have many of the skills and traits from Margaret Mitchell's story until the timeline in Ruth's Journey catches up with that of GWTW.

Is it believable that slaves would use the white masters' euphemism for a whipping in a casual joking way? And don't even get me started on the scene where Ruth and her husband (who has purchased her from a previous owner) make seductive pillow-talk that he, as her owner, is forcing her to have sex with him, as many white masters did to female slaves!

The only positive thing that I can say about Ruth's Journey is that it has made me want to go back and re-read GWTW again.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

McCaig, authorized by Margaret Mitchell’s estate, has written a Gone with the Wind sequel, Rhett Butler’s People, and this prequel. The novel opens in the early 19th century with French couple Solange and Augustin, who move to Haiti to tend her father’s sugar cane plantation. Four-year-old Ruth, her mother murdered during local warfare, becomes Solange’s servant.

When the family relocates to Savannah, Ruth works as nanny to several girls – lastly, Ellen Robillard, who marries Gerald O’Hara and is mother to Scarlett. “Ruth took to child rearing naturally” and before long is known solely as “Mammy.” With Part III the book shifts into the first person, allowing Ruth to narrate in pseudo-Creole dialect: “Master Gerald, he beamin’ like a damfool.”

Ruth declares, “I done lost most them I loved.” That tragic tone intensifies as the South secedes and war threatens. Ruth appears prophet-like, uttering, “War comin’ worse than what Babylon done to Jerusalem. I sees fire and blood.”

Readers take an eye-opening journey into forgotten corners of an upper-class tale. Conditions for women and African-Americans, so different in earlier centuries, are on clear display. After reading this, you’ll never think about Gone with the Wind quite the same way again.


(Featured, along with Juliet’s Nurse, in my BookTrib article on this fall’s literary spinoffs.)

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so very excited to see this show up the day before I started my vacation. Gone With the Wind has been one of my favorite books for years and I read it anew every two or three. I was please with both Scarlett and Rhett Butler's People, making me relish the new experience all the more.

The beginning was a little slow. Very little about Ruth and more about the time and circumstances of the people surrounding her. (If you are a little worried about this as you begin, hold tight! All of this is excellent background for the characters you will grow to enjoy.) Slowly we move from phase to phase, watching how time and events affect the characters, turning them into familiar friends. While the book focuses on events that change Ruth as she grows, it also gives you a brief look into the families featured in Gone With the Wind, including Ellen Robillard O'Hara and events that changed her life and draws us into an young Scarlett.

My only complaint would be that the last third of the story is told from Mammy's point of view, in her dialect. I was engrossed in the characters and storyline by that point. After about ten pages I fell into a flow, but it wasn't as easy to get lost in the story as I had to stumble through my grammer nazi issues.

Overall, an excellent read! Thank you, Atria Books for the preview!

[Caroline Ferguson]

A very good book! We need both sides; Mammy's history is necessary to fully understand the O'Hara family's. It adds a whole other layer of depth.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ruth’s Journey: The Authorized Novel of Mammy from Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind is written by Donald McCaig. I am probably not the best reading critic around as I deal mainly with the emotional effect on me as I read; but I do know what I like and I really like this book. From the time I first saw the film, Gone With the Wind¸ when I was in seventh grade in the early 60’s, I was hooked on the story. I don’t know how many times I have read the book since seventh grade; but it has been a lot. I always wished Margaret Mitchell had written a sequel; but had to live with the fact that she didn’t. Instead, I have read all the prequels and sequels I could get my hands on as well as the biographies and autobiographies of the actors and actresses who played in the film. Unfortunately, until just recently I have never read Donald McCaig’s books Rhett Butler’s People and Ruth’s Journey. I was definitely missing a gold mine. Both of these books are incredible and even sound a lot like what I imagine Margaret Mitchell would have sounded like had she written them. Of the two, I believe I like Ruth’s Journey the best.
Solange Escarlette knew where her destiny lay, she was to marry Augustin Fornier and they would take a ship to Santo Domingo where they would take possession of her father’s sugar plantation, Sucarie de Jardin. There, she would be the reigning leader of island society while living in the life of luxury. The only problem with this dream was that there was a slave uprising on the island and Augustin was going as part of the military force to bring the island back under control. They were able to go to her plantation one time during which they came across a hut where it seemed everyone inside had been killed. Only one basket hadn’t been turned over and destroyed. When Captain Fornier pushed it over, a naked little girl about five years old was found beneath it. She spoke to them in French welcoming them to her house and offering refreshments. Then, she looked at Solange and Augustine and asked to be taken with them. Solange was taken with the child and took her under her protection. When they left Santo Domingo and were brought to Savannah as refugees, Solange had her christened Ruth.
Ruth became Mammy to Solange’s daughter, Pauline. She then left Solange for a few years and returned in time to finish helping raise her daughter, Eulalie, and then to become a surrogate mother to her daughter, Ellen after Solange died in childbirth. After Ellen married Gerald O’Hara, Mammy went with Ellen to Tara as a wedding gift. Here, she was to become Mammy to Miss Katie Scarlett (Scarlett), Miss Susan Elinor (Suellen), and Miss Caroline Irene (Carreen). It was here that Gone With The Wind begins.
Throughout the book, Mammy is the speaker and it is if she is telling her story to someone else. So, everything is from that one view point. However, what she didn’t actually witness or do, someone told her about it. As I got into the book, I began to be pulled into the book itself with Mammy telling me the story. I could visualize her sitting on a porch like the one at Tara and looking out over the land as she told me the story. I could even imagine the story being told in Hattie McDaniel’s voice as Mammy. It was magical being taken back to Savannah, Charleston, New Orleans, Tara, and Twelve Oaks with her.
Though Donald McCaig was restrained by the perimeters of Gone With the Wind and what was presented in that book, he was still able to create a realistic young Mammy who was more personable than in the book. He took Margaret Mitchell’s characters and just added to them with realistic details. Emotionally, the book grabbed me. I had to stop reading several times because my emotions took over and I had to stop and compose myself. I thought the book was incredible and can easily see myself rereading this book several times as well.

[Clarissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story of Mammy from Gone With The Wind. I think I’ve posted before how much of a “windie” I am. When I had first heard this was coming out, I was absolutely delighted. Mammy is one of the central characters in the well beloved original and I love her. I thought to myself, “Oh boy! We’re going to get a good backstory on her! We’re going to learn this and that…blah blah, so forth and so on.” I had read Donald McCaig’s ‘Rhett Butler’s People’ and honestly, I enjoyed that, so I had no worries about Ruth’s Journey.

I should have taken it as a sign when I was denied for the ARC. (Fortunately, my local library has it and I was able to borrow it.)

I wanted so much to love this book. I wanted to be able to look back and know where Mammy had come from and why she was the way she was. Yet, even though we’re given a backstory, it’s just not what one expects. The first few chapters leaves one befuddled and I admit–I didn’t finish and I don’t think I am going to. I skimmed through the rest of the book to get a feel for it, thinking that maybe the beginning chapters were just really slow, but it just never picks up. I was SO disappointed. I was, however, very glad that I hadn’t spent a dime on this one.

Eventually, the book goes into “Ruth’s” voice and thought you can hear Mammy say such lines such as, “Master Gerald, he beamin’ like a damfool.” However, as she spent a great deal of her life with Ellen O’Hara’s mother, Solange (aka Scarlett’s grandmother) who was a well educated woman who spoke French and was treated like a daughter; it’s curious how when you’re finally in the 1/3 of the book that Mammy speaks in, she sounds like the southern slaves, as though she lost all of her learning. What a let down! Also…she never spent a day in the fields, thus, she would retain house speak. I kind of wonder why Mr. McCaig didn’t narrate the entire book from her perspective. I don’t imagine it would help though.

It just doesn’t feel right, truth be told. If you’ve read GWTW, you’ll understand. Every character felt one dimensional to me. Yes…even Scarlett O’Hara herself. Also, if you’re basing a book on Mammy, would it have been so hard to make her the actual main character? She felt like an afterthought. As much as I love the main characters, Mammy deserved a spotlight and this…no. This is not it. All in all a massive disappointment.

Sometimes, one should leave things well enough alone. This was as bad as the travesty that is ‘Scarlett’ by Alexandra Ripley. If you want to meet Mammy and Scarlett, read the original book. You can’t go wrong reading Margaret Mitchell’s book.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruth’s Journey was overall a great book. Ruth was the character of Mammy in Gone with the Wind. This book portrays her life and how she became Scarlett O’Hara’s Mammy. I certainly understand the low ratings of this book from the lovers of Gone With the Wind since it is written in a completely different style, but I thought the book was well-written. I will say that the character of Ruth seemed a little more one dimensional than Solange, Ellen and Scarlett but at the same time the fact that she was a slave would mean that she was used to hiding her personality. I will agree with the other reviewers that the dialect used by Ruth when the writing became first person was more difficult to read and that a woman raised by an educated Frenchwoman would most likely have better language skills than Ruth does. Though once again I could see a slave switching to the local slave dialect so that she didn’t stand out or seem “uppity”!

I enjoyed learning a little about the political situation in Haiti where Ruth came from. It was also fascinating to learn about Scarlett O’Hara’s ancestors, especially her grandmother, Solange, and her mother, Ellen. Both were strong women during a time when strong women weren’t especially appreciated. It was easy to understand Scarlett after learning about these women.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruth's Journey is mostly about the "mammy" character in Gone With The Wind. I was pleased to see that a book was written about Mammy the woman who lived at Tara and took care of the O'Hara children. I liked that she was given a name Ruth and we the readers got a chance to see what her life may have been like. It starts out in Haiti when Ruth is about three years old. Her family is murdered and Ruth is the only remaining family member. Solange, Scarlett O'Hara's grandmother lived there at the time and took Ruth in and raised the child. I liked the fact that Solange treated Ruth with kindness and was more like a mother to her. Eventually they move to Georgia. Ruth marries at about 15 has tragedies along the way. Ends back with Solange and helps raise her children. Eventually Ruth ends up at Tara. It was interesting for me to see the Scarlett character as she grows up. no surprise that she was strong willed even as a child. I was glad to get a chance to see what "Mammy's" life may have been like. She was such a strong character in Gone With The Wind i wondered what her story might have been. We get chance to see that in this book by Donald McCraig. only complaint is a lot was told about the other O'Hara characters. I wish more was concentrated on Ruth. otherwise a pretty well done book.

[Zane Leader · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reads less like, well, a book and more like a bulleted list of things happening, occasionally with “This made Solange happy” and “This made Solange sad” thrown in. You get almost no character introspection or thoughts beyond occasional feelings. 40 pages in I couldn’t tell how much time had passed or even what had happened because there were so few details. It feels like the author jotted down some thoughts and then just turned that into a book without adding anything more.
Ruth watches her family get murdered at 5, is taken in by a passing plantation owner, becomes the surrogate child of his wife who loves her but will sell her if she decides she doesn’t like her anymore, then gets used as her owners helper and spy, and at no point in any of this are we given a single thought she has on the situation. Why make the book about her if you’re not going to provide any insight into how she feels about what’s happening?

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to Atria Books and to Edelweiss for the digital ARC.

As a librarian, I would recommend this title cautiously. While Ruth's Journey may find favor with GWTW lovers, others may be put off by the rendition of Black vernacular (and I found myself thinking that surely a woman who was taken into a French household as a small child would learn grammatically correct spoken French, and then later on should have also been able to learn grammatically correct English, especially as Ruth/Mammy was a house servant and not a field worker). In any case, it was interesting to learn the back story of Scarlett O'Hara's family, even if it did seem at times that the book was more about Solange than about Ruth. I felt that there were instances where the author played fast and loose with GWTW, but overall, I did enjoy the story.

[Christine Sinclair · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, but it was disappointing. The dialect that Mammy speaks throughout is annoying. (I don't mind dialect, but it has to be done right, so that it flows like real speech.) The story itself was interesting, but the writing was too intrusive; you didn't get drawn in to the characters. I love Hattie McDaniels as Mammy, and I don't think this book adds anything to her portrayal or to her characterization by Margaret Mitchell.