n  Bettie's Booksn

I found this one a struggle. Several times I stopped and looked the title up again on Goodreads to make sure it really is non fiction. Surely all those weird characters could not really have existed in one place. Surely there must have been a huge amount of artistic licence going on. The court cases themselves rang true but ended up not being a major part of the book. Two stars because the author writes well. My struggle to read it was based purely on disbelief and not at all on the quality of the book. Disappointing.

We are going South, Deep South … and here we like to keep them things as they always were, when our fathers fathers fathers build Savannah. After all this are the 80-ties and we may have heard of the outside world, but we´re not gonna go there!

Yearh, there may be an alarmingly high murder rate, but it´s nothing to do with us decent people, we have our country clubs, our yacht clubs and our good ol´ money in the bank.
So, getting into the social life of Savannah is no easy job.
Either you are ol´ money or you are very well connected, it´s going to be a steep climb to the top layers of society.

But, hard work and skills and not least a rare talent for the antiquity business gets Jim Williams there. Everything passing through the hands of Jim Williams seems to turn into a success.
That is until … seemingly, a murder takes place in Mercer House and there is only one obvious suspect, Jim Williams.

Friends and foes alike are now witnessing the months up to the trial which will determine if Jim Williams is a cold-blooded murderer or an innocent man, only guilty of defending his life, and even the social interest dwindle some in Savannah, the readers are following the next 8 years with trial and retrials.

John Berendt chronicles Jim William´s life over the span of 8 years, but not only that.
We are also given a comprehensive guided tour of Savannah, it´s history, architecture, demographics, sports and a lot of celebrity gossip.

From the coffee shop to the diner to the jazz club and various churches and the all black “introduction ball”, we get to know the charismatic, eccentric and downright weird people of central Savannah.
Are there no “ordinary people” around? Certainly, but John Berendt pays them a little less attention as there are so many colorful characters eager to play a role in the story.

We will meet Lady Chablis, the drag queen, Minerva, the voodoo mistress, William Glover who walks the non-existent dog which entitles him to an allowance. There is the former lawyer, fallen on hard times and the in-high-demand black lady who cooks heavenly. Not to mention the guy with the most poisonous substance outside Russia who occasionally dreams of poisoning the whole town – btw his sometimes lady friend was a glamorous ad model in Life in the 40-ties and 50-ties, not so glamorous anymore.
Now you think this is made up, it cannot possibly be true that so many out-of-the-ordinary characters are all in one place.
I don´t know, but all persons in the “faction” are built on real people, I guess Savannah is extraordinary in that aspect.

Apart from changing sequences a bit here and there, the book describes the actual events and John Berendt does this with great skill.

It is “True Crime” before the genre was invented, and it does not follow the recipe of the genre. Instead, John Berendt is providing us with so much background material that the local tourist board ought to thank him. They do not though, if you take a guided tour of Savannah today, Jim Williams – and John Berendt are not mentioned, only Mercer House.

A solid 5 star experience, in a genre I really did not expect to find so riveting.

Bonus info:
The title alludes to the hoodoo notion of "midnight," the period between the time for good magic (11 pm to midnight) and the time for evil magic (midnight to 1 am), and "the garden of good and evil," which refers principally to the cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina, where Dr. Buzzard, the husband of Minerva, the folk-magic practitioner who figures in the story, is buried. It is over his grave that Minerva performed the incantations to ensure a more successful result in the retrial for the case of Jim Williams.

This has been one of my favorite books since I first read it 20 or so years ago. In reading it now for the second time, I haven’t changed my opinion.

I know that people have all sorts of objections to it: Is it about Jim Williams’s shooting of Danny Hansford, or is it a portrait of Savannah? Can it be nonfiction if the author took some liberties with the facts? Isn’t it a problem that the author has injected himself into the story? The characters are too shallow or too weird. To which I say: Both. Yes. No. And okay, maybe, but they’re a lot of fun.

I love Berendt’s descriptions of Savannah—its architecture, its history, its society, its vibe—and I love meeting the kaleidoscope of colorful characters to whom he introduces us. His friendship with Jim Williams gives him, and by extension his readers, an inside look at the murder case, how Williams handled it, and how Savannah society responded. It’s “up close and personal,” as they say.

To me, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil reads like an extended Vanity Fair article—not surprising given Berendt’s background as a magazine editor and writer (although not for Vanity Fair.) It’s lively, fun, and gossipy. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but it is to mine.

From leisured opening to car chase conclusion, ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’ provokes, entertains and occasionally raises eyebrows in disbelief, with Berendt’s narrative style frequently paralleling Fitzgerald’s Nick Carraway. The characters and their tales jostle and posture throughout and it’s sometimes hard to know just where truth ends and fiction begins.

This is the final book club choice for 2024, for which the monthly criteria limited us to 1994 publications only and some books have certainly aged more gracefully than others.

I’m told the film version is a winner too.

"An idea was beginning to take shape in my mind, a variation of my city-hopping weekends. I would make Savannah my second home. I would spend perhaps a month at a time in Savannah, long enough to become more than a tourist if not quite a full-fledged resident. I would inquire, observe, and poke around wherever my curiosity led me or wherever I was invited. I would presume nothing. I would take notes.
Over a period of eight years I did just that, except that my stays in Savannah became longer and my return trips to New York shorter. At times, I came to think of myself as living in Savannah. I found myself involved in an adventure peopled by an unusual assortment of characters and enlivened by a series of strange events, up to and including murder. But first things first."

Man, it must be great being John Berendt. He can just decide, seemingly on the spur of the moment, to move to another state or country and spend years living there, apparently doing nothing except wandering around meeting all the weird locals and writing stories about them, which he then cobbles together into a loosely-connected narrative and publishes for lots of money. I am extremely jealous of this. (and, on the off chance that John Berendt is reading this review: Mr. Berendt, consider this my application to be your sassy young assistant. Can we go to Prague next?)

When I saw the movie version of this book, I had a hard time believing that it was based on a nonfiction book. Surely real life could never work out so perfectly: a big-city writer moves to a close-knit Southern town full of eccentric rich people, and then one of those eccentric rich people shoots his gay lover after an argument that no one witnesses, leaving a suspicious crime scene and even more suspicious circumstances. Also there's a Voodoo priestess and a drag queen, because why the hell not.

Even after finishing the book, I still have a hard time believing that Jim Williams actually existed, that he actually shot his lover, that he actually spent eight years in and out of court trying to prove that he didn't plan to murder anyone, and that at the end of his ordeal he died suddenly in the same room where he shot the man, in the same place he was standing when the original argument occurred. Surely you can only make this shit up, can't you?

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a fun read. The characters are endlessly quirky and odd, the events Berendt witnesses have to be read to be believed, and the murder mystery that the book revolves around will delight any detective novel fan. Even Berendt himself emerges as a minor character in the story - even though he refrains from giving his opinions of the events or people described, he's a constant presence in the story, describing his conversations and actions as if the book really is just a fictional account narrated in first-person. Many of the book's chapters, it should be said, don't relate at all to the murder mystery, but they were so interesting it didn't even bother me. (perhaps I should have read this book before trying Berendt's newest book, The City of Falling Angels, because I remember being frustrated that more chapters didn't relate to the Fenice fire - but then again, they weren't as good as the stories in Midnight)

And Now A Note on the Movie: I won't say it's better than the book, but it's a pretty good adaptation. Jude Law was a great choice for Danny, as he's a perfect mix of sexy and unstable, and Kevin Spacey was very well cast as Jim Williams. Two gripes only, and they relate: the character of Mandy in the book is a minor one, and although she's blonde in the book, mentions that she was Miss BBW Las Vegas - so not the skinny blond piece portrayed in the movie. Also, she and Berendt's character are never even close to romantically involved in the book because, as I learned from another review, John Berendt is gay. I really really wish they had kept this detail in the movie (or rather, added it, since Berendt makes no mention of his own sexuality in the book) because first it would have eliminated the stupid romance subplot, and also because it would have put John Cusack's interactions with Lady Chablis in a much more interesting light. But we can't have everything.

There was a lot of hype around this book a few years back, but in this case I think it is actually deserved. For one, Berendt is a skilled writer who understands how to tease a compelling story out of the material he’s working with. And, oh, what material! The true-crime mystery at the center of the book—whether the social-climbing, closeted gay antiques dealer shot his lover in cold blood or self-defense—is interesting enough, but Berendt decorates that story with outrageous character portraits of Savannah’s very oddball residents. Whether he’s discussing the quirky, old-South rituals of the Married Women’s Card Club or the disturbed local genius who may or may not be plotting to poison the town’s water supply, Berendt kept me so engaged I relished every moment.

Be wary of the movie version of Midnight, though. Good actors, bad adaptation. If you like the book, however, you may want to watch it just to see the notorious drag queen play herself. Sometimes, truth really is better than fiction.

Ok, I didn't love this. In fact, I don't even think I liked it like I thought I was. I know I will be MURDERED for this, but this is a book I want to like more than I actually like. I ADOOOOOOOORE Berendt's writing style and some of the moments in this book are truly phenomenal. However, this book is just SLOW. I am usually a guy that likes a book that takes its time. Having "Moby Dick" in my top 5 favorite books of all time is living proof of that. Though the difference was that "Moby Dick" was telling a story with an ultimate goal of some sort the WHOLE WAY THROUGH. Even if they add smaller goals or even goals of the same scale, they still have clear objectives. "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is just awesome writing with no clear story for half the thing and when stuff does finally happen, it evaporates just as fast as it came. Simply put, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is a hit and a miss for me. When it hits a target, it hits a complete bullseye. However, when it misses, it doesn't even come close to the target. Honestly, I would only recommend to those that are interested. If you love this book, go for it! I am not here to halt your opinion at all. However, this book, while still good to me, was just not the great book I hoped it would be.

I am giving this one a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (revisited after several readings since 1998)

I am teaching this non-fiction masterpiece to my college students; and felt that they needed exposure towards two elements of literature: a good courtroom yarn and mystery; and exposure towards a non fiction text that was entertaining enough that it could be only called fiction; though it definitely isn’t. I first read this book when I was a wee 15 year old; struggling with my sexuality, and completely falling for the sadistic and snobby Jim Williams, who ends up shooting his part-time gigolo lover, Danny Hansford in a fit of passion and rage.

I was entranced with what John Berendt had experienced and gone through- and the characters or inhabitants of a diverse and eccentric Savannah that could only be seen as entertainment of the highest order- the Southern grotesque come to life. Joe Odom, Mandy, Chablis, Serena Dawes, Luther Driggers, the Married Woman’s Card Club, Minerva the priestess, the Adlers; Sonny, the defense attorney- all jumped right out of the page as the supporting cast to Berendt’s watchful eye; and of Williams’s existence.

It is good non-fiction: enthralling and beguiling, seductive and hilarious; and darkly sinister. It’s also a celebration of life in a small city that refuses to change; stubborn its ways, and subversively perverse and comically intentional.

Like other glorious works of non fiction that reads like a novel, (In Cold Blood, The Devil and the White City and Killers of the Flower Moon come to mind) Berendt captures a city that is intoxicating and set in its ways that make it a unique travel destination and a wonderful place to stay. It’s images are haunting, filled with echoes of Johnny Mercer’s songbook, both melancholy and beautiful.

In terms of teaching students rhetoric, especially how Berendt establishes a haunting and melodramatic mood throughout this book it’s excellent in teaching students how his diction is important in both teaching a primary plot- the Williams trial; and subplots regarding those wonderful oddball denizens. Students of mine love The Lady Chablis, Luther Driggers, Serena Dawes to my delight, and it’s a wonderful book to talk about setting, archetypes, and the study of ethnography.

"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is not a detective story and not exactly a thriller, although it has features of both. Who and under what circumstances killed is known in advance, the intrigue is whether the punishment will be incurred and how severe it will be. Agree there is a difference between a life sentence and a clean acquittal. A colorful and charming entrepreneur from a once noble family, such a mix of Ostap Bender and Ratt Butler, the owner of a beautiful house for which Jacqueline Onassis (yes, the same Jackie Kennedy) offered two million dollars - this guy kills his butler.

The trial will last eight years, the support of the accused will be carried out by a voodoo witch, half a dozen side lines and the brightest characters with the pearl transvestite Lady Chablis will be woven into the main story. Later, Clint Eastwood will make a movie based on this story with Kevin Spacey and Jude Law. They say it's a very good film, Chablis will perform a cameo in it.

Конфедераты
Саванна не интересуется тем, что происходит за ее пределами. Эрик Клэптон,и Стинг, выступали в Саванне в полупустых залах.Саванна всегда была милостива к приезжим и чужакам, но сохраняла иммунитет к их достоинствам. Она никогда ничего так не хотела, как того, чтобы ее оставили в покое.
Он нью-йоркский журналист, а Нью-Йорк город, подверженный приступам гастрономической лихорадки. В разгар очередной, сидя над меню в ресторане и без энтузиазма глядя на суммы, в которые оценивались радости гурмана, он поймал себя на том,что все эти колонки цифр: 49,99, 109,99 напоминают что-то, виденное совсем недавно. И да, то были прейскуранты авиакомпаний, как раз в это время предлагавших немыслимые скидки на перелеты по стране.

Буквально какое-нибудь блюдо стоило как билет в один конец, а по цене ужина можно было провести недурной уик-энд в другом штате, в иной климатической зоне, погрузиться в незнакомую культуру. Не знаю как вы, а я его понимаю. Начав Саванной, ею же и кончил. Потому что город совершенно околдовал Джона Берендта и в следующие выходные он опять прилетел туда. И в следующие за следующими. А потом договорился об аренде жилья и вовсе стал жить на два города, благо работа журналиста уже в начале восьмидесятых позволяла работать удаленно, сдавая материал по факсу.

Саванна квинтэссенция американского Юга, которая удивительно мало изменилась не только со времени Трумена Капоте и Теннеси Уильямса, но даже и "Унесенных ветром". Атмосферу вязкого как патока времени хорошо воссоздает Донна Тартт в "Маленьком друге" - в большом мире что-то происходит, а здесь те же аристократы южане - обнищавшие, но гордые, чьим девизом могло бы быть "лопни, но держи фасон", те же постыдные тайны за пристойным фасадом, то же нежелание идти в ногу со временем - пусть все шагают, а мы будем вальсировать или двигаться в ритме танго, а захотим - так и вовсе менуэта. Та же расовая сегрегация, хотя внешне не в столь людоедских формах. Та же белая голытьба.

Католичество ортодоксального толка и вудуизм, смешение культур и карнавальность с демонстративного толка трансвестизмом - пусть на Среднем Западе мужчина, ощущающий себя женщиной, переодевается в платье и чулки с подвязками за закрытой дверью наглухо зашторенного дома - здесь обольстительная Леди Шабли будет блистать в шоу (и все, кто есть кто-то сделают вид, что ее не существует, но все будут знать - еще как есть).

картинка majj-s

"Полночь в саду добра и зла" не детектив и не то, чтобы триллер, хотя с чертами того и другого. Кто и при каких обстоятельствах убил известно заранее, интрига в том, понесет ли наказание и насколько оно будет суровым. Согласитесь есть разница между пожизненным заключением и оправданием вчистую. Колоритный и обаятельный предприниматель из некогда знатной семьи, такой микс Остапа Бендера и Рэтта Батлера, владелец прекрасного дома, за который Жаклин Онасис (да, та самая Джекки Кеннеди) предлагала два миллиона долларов - этот мужик убивает своего дворецкого.

Утверждает, что с целью самозащиты, парень-де напал на него и пытался убить, улики говорят об обратном, но это же Саванна, дети. Не в том смысле, что насквозь коррумпировано, а в том, что полиция, явившись по вызову, затоптала и залапала все место преступление так, что ни Шерлоку Холмсу, ни современным криминалистам уже делать было нечего. Как стадо слонов в посудной лавке.

Разбирательство по делу продлится восемь лет, поддержку обвиняемого будет осуществлять колдунья вуду, в основную историю вплетется полдюжины побочных линий и ярчайших персонажей с жемчужиной трансвеститом Леди Шабли. Позже Клинт Иствуд снимет по этой истории кино с Кевином Спейси и Джудом Лоу. Говорят очень недурной фильм, Шабли исполнит в нем камео.

##американский Юг, восьмидесятые, социо-этнический роман, триллер

And as “the Angels Sing’ justice is finally served !!!

The setting is Savannah, a hauntingly beautiful city, and one of the oldest in the state of Georgia, so how perfect for a gripping crime novel told under a veil of Spanish moss and in shaded squares. Only ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’ is a retelling of a true crime story whilst still possessing all the ingredients and witty dialogue of a fictional story. The characters are deeply drawn and somewhat eccentric, the setting is idyllic, and the plot would draw the envy of fictional writers.

Yet on that day in May 1981 a different veil or cloak hung over Savannah when the shots from the Mercer mansion signalled the death of Billy Hanson. Self-defence or murder?. Jim Williams spent the best part of a decade trying to defend his story of self-defence, whilst the justice system was equally keen to find him guilty. A man of stature and wealth in the community drawing many friends and enemies alike. A first-person account as they learn,

“Rule number one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”

But as “the Angels Sing” in the final chapters, justice is finally served, in a melodious ending for one !!!

Review and Comments

I found the opening chapters a bit slow and dry. So to help re-imagine the scene, the ambiance and backdrop of this famous story I researched pictures of Savannah and the actual building where Hanson was found dead which helped provide the enchanting theatre at the heart of this story. The plot itself is excellent and chilling more so because it is based on true events, trials and testimonies. Apart from this it was the dizzying array of characters that made the book for me, from the hilarious drag queen, to the voodoo woman in the cemetery at midnight, to the piano playing guests. As for Savannah itself

“Savannah was invariably gracious to strangers, but it was immune to their charms. It wanted nothing so much as to be left alone”

A great story, with a remarkable set of characters all of whom are apparently real (apart from a few name changes), however it was the flow, writing style and staid dialogue that prevented me from giving this 5 stars and held me back from engaging with this story fully. As a fictional reader it is worth reading but as a fictional lover I wanted to connect more with the story.

4- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is the story of Savannah, Georgia and the compelling characters who live there. It is a modern-day Southern Saga, and nothing like I expected it to be, but I enjoyed it all the same.

The novel has no real arch; it instead bobs and weaves its way through many different people's lives as they interact with the author, John Berendt, and teach him the ways of their city. Everyone that Berendt comes into contact with is fascinating and has their own story to tell, but the central character (besides the fabulous Chablis) is Jim Williams, a well-to-do art dealer who is accused of murder.

There are multiple twists in this story, but none of them are very jarring or shocking. In fact, this book was a relaxing and quirky read. It makes me want to visit Savannah and listen to Moon River.