This is a tricky one to review. One the one hand, Ms Mitchell tells a story brilliantly and creates a set of memorable, believable and realistic characters and also wields the tools of literature with confidence. On the other hand she is telling a story of a deeply troubling time, filled with deep,y problematic attitudes. However, quite a bit of her writing and the issues stem from the verisimilitude of her world. Frankly, my dear, I’m more concerned about feeling sympathy for Scarlett on occasion more than I am about the attitudes of some imaginary characters. Fortunately, Mitchell keeps reminding us that these people owned slaves and sometimes killed each other over “honour” and pride, which means that I don’t have to take them that seriously. She also makes the leap of making us feel sympathetic to members of the Klan, although she does keep mentioning that there were deaths involved which should take the shine off any reader thinking that they are in any way heroic or worthy. Look, I loved this book and any qualms I had about what I was reading I was able to brush off with that old high school English class standby of “why did the author use that phrase or write that scene that way?” which has saved me from getting angry with problematic texts in the past. But being a middle-aged white guy, I’m able to do that with few qualms.