Gone With The Wind

And so, I have finally finished the 1010 page epic novel that is Gone With The Wind! Jeez, am I ever proud of myself. Without a doubt, it is the longest book I have ever read, and it was most certainly the best! I know I say that in almost every post I write, but seriously, this is my favourite book, along with The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and David Copperfield. I kid you not. Just a warning, don't read this one if you haven't read the book or seen the film and are planning on doing so. A lot of the major plot twists (of which there are many!) are revealed...

I shall open this paragraph by saying  I LOVE RHETT BUTLER! There we go, all out of my system now. He is just too amazing for his own good! This may be a total cliche, but to be honest, nothing matters but the fact that I am absolutely and completely besotted with him. Yes, he may have a drink occasionally (and that occasion may crop up more and more often as we near the end of the book), and he may be tempted by the flesh once in a while, but he is a wonderful father to his child, Bonnie, or more formally, Eugenie Victoria, and he loves Scarlett dearly and with all his heart. I can only hope that I find a man in my life anything like him. Katie Scarlett O'Hara, or, in the order of her numerous husbands, Scarlett Hamilton, Scarlett Kennedy and Scarlett Butler, is an interesting sort of a character. Before the war, the most important issue on her mind is what dress to wear that will suitably show off her 16 inch waist, or what colour hair ribbon to wear to the dance. During the war, she becomes hard-hearted, and willing to shoulder a "man's" burden at a moment's notice. After the war, she becomes vulgar, snotty and brash, throwing off all of her old friends at a moment's notice to be able to associate with those with money; they are known in the book as "Carpetbaggers" (Yankees who have moved down to the South with all of their belongings in a carpet bag) and "Scallawags" (old Southern Democrats who took the Republican vow for personal gain). This change is an interesting one to witness, although it's only after reading it that I noticed how odd it was for her to take up so many responsibilities at the drop of a hat. One can only put it down to the love of her home, Tara, and the desire to save it from the Yankees at whatever cost it may come to herself.

My love, Rhett

The book gives you an insight into the lives of Southerners at the time of the American Civil War. The majority lived in poverty, scrimping and saving to buy the necessities, and not knowing where their next meal would come from. To the surprise of many, a lot of the noble characters in the book who would heretofore never stoop to such work, begin baking and embroidering and taking in lodgers in order to make some money. It was only the lucky few, like Rhett Butler, who had any money at all, and he only made that money from blockading and speculating, a dishonourable occupation in the eyes of Atlanta and the rest of the South. The book tells us of the struggle many Southerners went through to rebuild their lives and their fortunes.

Many people would say that the Southerners don't deserve our sympathies, that they horribly mistreated black people and that they were racist, immoral people. Some of this is true, some of it isn't. What Gone With The Wind does is alert us to the perspective of the Southerners during the Civil War. Yes, they supported slavery, and yes, they did have some ignorant attitudes towards black people, but their morals were high and their etiquette greatly honoured. I am in no way defending their behaviour, merely offering a different side to the story and a reason for the behaviour so frowned upon. They were scared of the Yankee invasion of their homes, and the Yankees, being demonized by the Southern press, acted in no way to be able to disprove these roles that they were given. I want to make it clear at this point that I am not a Redneck nor do I ever intend on becoming one. I am in no way supporting their behaviour to others, but I can understand why they did it. Not to be confused with supporting. At all.

The twists and turns in the plot, the intricate detail of the characters, the fantastic backdrop (I actually learnt a little about the Civil War!) all combine to make for an amazing book. If you only read one book about the American Civil War, make sure it's this one. In keeping with the theme of the Deep South, I shall be reading The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. I'll keep you posted!

The Night Cleaner

I reviewed this for The London Student, who have very kindly agreed to publish it in their next edition, so forgive the formal style...!

The disastrous economic climate at the moment is one that is affecting everyone. The crisis that essentially, kicked off with the collapse of the US housing market ended up having an effect, whether small or big, on the economy of many countries. One of these countries – often overlooked when we talk about the 2008 recession – was France. ‘The Night Cleaner’ by Florence Aubenas, tells the story of a successful journalist who decides to go undercover as one of the hundreds of thousands of France’s unemployed in order to get the inside story on this global phenomenon.

Florence Aubenas is a French reporter who has written about many politically difficult situations. In 2005, she was captured by a group of guerrilla fighters in Iraq, and emerged after 157 days of captivity relatively unscathed. Soon after this, Aubenas decided to immerse herself in the life of the unemployed, and determined to uncover what for many people was the reality of the economic recession. She spent six months as “Madame Aubenas”; a woman aged forty eight with only one qualification – the French Baccalaureate. She posed as a woman who had never worked before, who had just split up from a long-term relationship with a man who had been the sole provider, and who refused to continue to pay for her needs after the split. Ingenious disguise though it may have been, it meant giving up her entire way of life for six months in order to keep her real identity safe; that meant that she couldn’t draw any money from her bank account or ask anyone she knew for extra financial help. This led her to the decision of going to stay for six months in Caen, a town in Normandy and a town where she was anonymous. She intended to stay in a furnished room, look for any amount of temporary work until she was offered a permanent job somewhere.

Florence Aubenas

“Among the rules I’d established for myself, one was that I would bring this experiment to a halt as soon as I was offered a permanent job.” Aubenas says in the book “I didn’t want to block anybody else’s chances of a real job.” The result of the experiment, as she so terms it, is the writing of a conscientious observer to a situation so engulfing of every type of person. On her first visit to the job centre, it is established that, as her character, she must be patient when looking for work, as her lack of a vehicle and her status as a single woman over forty five with no recent pay-check will put her to the bottom of an employer’s list of priorities. 

After six weeks of searching for a semi-permanent job which would help her to pay the rent, Aubenas applies to be a night cleaner at the Ouistreham Ferry Company; a company infamous for its low wages and appalling employee care. She is told upon entering the world of the unemployed to avoid working for them at all costs. Although the situations of many were worse than Aubenas’ none would dare to go near such a place. After working with the ferry company, she gets a job, for a few hours a week, as a cleaner at a holiday site. This leads to several offers for a few hours here and there from the same company, until she is finally offered a job at the ZAC, an office block.

The book itself is very revealing of the difficulties an unemployed person can face. One must spend one’s time waiting for job opportunities, driving to and from far-off places to work for just a couple of hours, attending workshops held by the job centre, figuring out how to pay the rent, and, crucially, working for those few hours every day, doing backbreaking work for a scanty wage. Aubenas’ ability to be able to empathise with the people she meets sets this book apart from all others of its kind. In every respect, it shows just how problematic being unemployed can be, and reveals the human side of the economic crisis, one which not many of us would know about unless we ourselves had experienced it. Humans have a tendency to avoid looking at the difficulties in a situation, and Florence Aubenas has made the difficulties of this particular situation obvious and unavoidable. She makes people face up to reality, and she is to be applauded.

So, next, I'll be reading Gone With The Wind, by Margaret Mitchell, so look out for more updates!