this book has a lot of fans. that makes some sense. magazines are certainly very popular, and this is magazine writing at its most polished. Berendt knows how to create an atmosphere. he knows how to describe things in a style that is careful, subtle, and enfused with a deadpan but rather mischievious irony. he can certainly describe the way a rich man's house looks - so well that you could then describe it to someone else as if you've been there. characters are sketched with an expert's hand - using a combination of physical details and the telltale mannerism or two - "objective" but rather sympathetic. the mystery at the heart of this novel is an absorbing one. and the book's central figure - the maybe-a-murderer - felt like he was an iteration of the film JFK's Clay Shaw, as played in an unusually fancy style by Tommy Lee Jones. which i liked, at first.

so why only 2 stars? well, it is polished magazine writing. it does not transcend, it does not delve deep. there is the slow but increasingly annoying realization that Berendt sees our anti-hero as a kind of social peer, which for some reason really bothered me. who knows, maybe i just automatically hate the rich & parasitic. Berendt writes about a whole gallery of characters, all characterized briefly but adroitly, and eventually i realized i was reading a classier version of a tourist-eye's view of Southern grotesques, a drive-by tour of weirdos. how aggravating! who knows, maybe i just automatically empathize with the weirdos and am annoyed by the normals. and then there is the sad fact of THE LACK OF BLACK PEOPLE WHO COME ACROSS AS REAL PEOPLE. yes, they are there (several) but for the most part they are part of the gallery of grotesquerie. this novel takes place in a part of the country that has a huge black community and i found the lack of this demographic - even ones who, i suppose, Berendt would consider non-grotesque - to be perplexing and troubling.

No matter the rating - it’s worth the read. If you remind yourself this is nonfiction, you’ll enjoy the telling of the events. People who forget it’s NOT fiction will likely rate it lower for not being more like other works of fiction.

I fully became engulfed in this story and the author did a great job in detailing the events. This was an effortless read and was easily transported via the rich descriptors.

If you love true crime and based on true events, you’ll like this.

Popsugar Challenge 2021 - A book with an oxymoron in the title

This is a non fiction true crime story on the shooting of Danny Hansford by his employer and the subsequent four trials. I hadnt heard of this before so I went in without any prior knowledge at all.

Written in narrative style it's easy to forget that this is non fiction, it very much feels like a slice of life fictional novel.

The cast of characters are electric. A Drag Queen, a Witch, an Antiques Dealer, a piano playing lawyer. There's an abundance of alcohol, gossip and ambition in a town with an unwillingness to change.

You need to prepare yourself for a slow start in this one. Split into two sections, part one is pre murder, you're meeting the residents one by one, understanding how they fit both individually and as a collective township. Part two is the murder, the trials, the corruption, the aftermath. It takes a while to get going but chapter by chapter I felt myself getting immersed in the story.

It's hard to reconcile in my head that this is a true story as it feels like a cast from a sitcom but I guess there is something about that saying that the truth is always stranger than fiction and this is stranger than fiction indeed!

Well researched and written in a way I felt I was living in Mercer House, playing the piano with Joe and dragging it with Chablis, I enjoyed my time in these pages.

Just because it's an oldie, doesn't always mean it's a goodie.

Just because it...

- still holds the record for longest stint on the New York Times Bestsellers list for nonfiction at over 4 years (216 weeks)
- won the Boeke Prize
- was a 1995 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for nonfiction
- was adapted into a hit movie starring John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, Jude Law and directed by Clint Eastwood
- was required summer reading for many schools over the years

... doesn't mean it's going to be an entertaining hit nowadays.

I ventured outside of my genre comfort zone and into the world of nonfiction. I live close to Savannah and have visited on many occasions. In addition to it's high accolades, the idea of a true crime story based in Savannah was compelling.

This was beautifully written and a gem for character building and atmosphere. Sad to say, when it comes to story, this just doesn't compete with the edge-of-your-seat thrillers and true come novels of today. I know, I know... I shouldn't compare two vastly different genres. But here we are.

I can't overstate enough that the characters here are fantastically portrayed, unique, and endearing. Even more fascinating because they are n  REALn people. Put these real characters in a riveting piece of fiction, and you have a real recipe for success! HA! who am I kidding, this was a Pulitzer finalist! I'll just see myself to the door...

Cheers!

'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' is actually non-fiction, but the book reads a little like a fictional 'Miss Marple' Agatha Christie mystery. However, 'Midnight...' has quite a dollop of thick Southern postbellum syrup spread on its infamous mix of greens-and-purple cabbage garden of a story, with a twist of Red Queen Wonderland tomatoes.

The book's real-life Savannah, Georgia characters and 'plot' are handled by the author John Berendt with an amused grin and a tolerance usually only moms have for their wayward delinquent kids. The maybe murder is well known, but everything happened decades ago. Perhaps you have never heard of the story, so, I recommend looking up nothing before reading this book.

Berendt walked into the murder story by accident. It appears his original plan may have been to write this book as a travelogue. But after meeting several rich idiosyncratic people who had thrived so well in Savannah they had become important philanthropic boosters in restoring Savannah's rotting old houses, one of them, a millionaire, self-made, with an 'old-South' demeanor and a seller of antiques, committed a crime Savannah couldn't forgive.

Almost all of the characters Berendt profiles in 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' habitually color outside the lines of propriety way beyond normal, which shocks the genuine old proper Savannah families, especially the ladies. However Savannah does not often condemn people for their sins, only for making them public. As long as the polite social forms are meticulously followed, whatever goes on behind closed doors is perfectly ok. But some nouveau rich are leaving their front doors open a crack enough for a peek inside. The horror!

When 'Midnight...' was first published, it was a blockbuster. People flocked into Savannah on their vacations to see the infamous locations mentioned in the book. Savannah, always genteel and accommodating where money is concerned, set up official tours. Readers, you still can find tours! Plus, documentaries were done, a movie was made:

https://youtu.be/bUvm4Yd4ebA Trailer to the Clint Eastwood movie.


The current tour:

https://mercerhouse.com/


Below is the Wikipedia entry for 'The Mercer House', now infamous for the deadly gun battle between the young street hustler, Danny Hansford and a wealthy older gentleman of Savannah, Jim Williams. But do not read this link if you wish to be unspoiled, difficult as that may be.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merce...


I won't say more, except to note there isn't a lot here about Black-Americans, other than how a few intersected with the white nouveau rich and old Savannah families as beneficiaries of white philanthropic efforts, despite the fact Black-Americans were the majority population in Savannah. Berendt mentions a few Black-American oddballs he met, who despite their poverty, had come to the attention of the owners of the mansions in Savannah's historical districts. Being slightly insane apparently helped to gain the affection of old white Savannah. The city seems a bit insane itself, ingrown as it is with a type of generational snobbery.

The book chronicles the events surrounding the Mercer House and its owner in a tone of gentle amusement. The people in whom John Berendt has chosen to interest himself are truly characters who should be on a stage. Was Jim Williams guilty? I think no. I think Williams' homosexuality was on trial in Savannah, not his shooting of a violent, unstable prostitute. Maybe it was manslaughter, though.

If not Georgia as a whole, I'd had Savannah on my mind for quite some time. So, passing by a bookshop in New Orleans' French Quarter in mid-January, I ducked inside.

Ok, truth is I would have gone inside anyway, I'm powerless to resist the lure of an unfamiliar bookshop, but once inside the owner was so persistent in his "Can I help you find anything particular?" that I felt obligated to name a title, any title, and the first one that came to mind was "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." I'd never read it, but my mind was still somewhat on Savannah, which I had been researching for a possible weekend trip, before I opted for New Orleans instead, deciding it would make for a better January destination.

Accommodation in NOLA for January appeared far cheaper than the rest of the year, while everything I read about Savannah suggested mid-to-late Spring was the best time to visit.

The bookshop owner was comically disheveled, his shop seemingly as disorganized as he was. Books were stacked twice as high as their boxes which were themselves squeezed between narrow shelves already overflowing with titles. Trying to step over and around them while browsing could have qualified as some kind of Olympic sport.

Based on his appearance and his manically scurrying this way and that — taking a book from that box and putting it on this shelf, a book from this box over to that shelf — the man all but cried out for intervention of a Marie Kondo kind. A prime candidate for some minimalist advocate's attention.

"Can I help you find anything particular?" He said for the umpteenth time, out of sight behind some shelf around the corner.

This was America. "Just looking" was supposed to fend off these kinds of queries here, but he seemed to want something to do, he seemed to need it — a purpose to momentarily distract from the chaos around him.

I named the book, he named the author — presumably to try and recall which of these shelves held the "B"s — and appeared from behind some shelves.

"Savannah?" he said dipping into a box.

It sounded like a question.

"Yes, I've been wanting to go there."

He nodded, whether out of satisfaction with my answer or because he now brandished the book in his hand, I wasn't sure.

It was a hardcover copy, the paper looked a bit mildewed, and there was someone's name scrawled in the front.

Ugh. Name or otherwise, I hated when people wrote in books.

"You wouldn't happen to have another copy, would you?"

He'd already started walking away by this point, but now turned back to me, a surprised expression on his face.

"No," he said, then, appearing to think this may have come off a bit curt, added, "I'm afraid not."

I looked at the overloaded boxes strewn all around me. How could he really know?

He looked at me, his worried eyes like that of the kid at the school lunchroom, scared he'd be asked to sit somewhere else.

"Alright," I said, looking as I did so at the price inside the front cover.

10.

10 DOLLARS?

That was more than I'd typically spend on a book in this condition, but I bought it anyway, along with the other books I'd picked up while browsing.

He was happy, you could see that, when he placed "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" in the bag.

"Enjoy Savannah," he said, handing it to me. As if we were there now.

The ways in which John Berendt's 1994 book have come to define Savannah are fascinating. To the man in the bookshop, the book and the town were impossible to separate, and he wasn't the only one who thought so.

A couple of weeks ago I did make it to Savannah, because Savannah is best in the spring, and nearly everyone I heard speak more than three lines mentioned the book.

"The book."

Not "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" but "the book." The woman at Bonaventure Cemetery, the waiter at the Crystal Beer Parlor, even the guy who rang us up at the "honey and everything honey-related" shop called the Savannah Bee Company. It was "the book" to each and every one of them.

So maybe Savannah and this book really are impossible to separate, like "Middle Earth" and "The Lord of the Rings." I think that's what makes this book work so well. It isn't about a murder, not really, but about Savannah. And how many other books do you know of that are about, or even set in, Savannah?

You might even argue that, at least for tourism purposes, John Berendt made Savannah.

I haven't read his follow-up, The City of Falling Angels, but I know it never reached the level of fame that "Midnight" did. Maybe that's because it isn't as good, but maybe it's also because it's set in Venice. The problem with setting anything in Venice is that you can't MAKE Venice, you can't own it and have your name spoken alongside it, not when every other book is set in Venice and at least one of them, Death in Venice, is already THE BOOK people associate with Venice.

But Savannah ... who really had heard much about Savannah before Berendt's book came along? I'm not old enough to remember, but I'm pretty certain it wasn't a household name.

Yes, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is really good. Like, really good. A masterpiece, even. But that wouldn't have been possible without Savannah. John Berendt and Savannah were clearly meant to come together, like lovers in a classic Hollywood film, and I'm not sure they'd ever really have been happy (or famous) with anyone else.

P.S. Speaking of films, I watched Clint Eastwood's film adaptation the day after finishing this. I never really like watching the film after reading the book, it always leaves me feeling empty, but Eastwood's film — despite the fine pedigree — just felt so flat. But maybe that's because I had only just finished reading the book. Either way, I can still count the number of truly worthy film adaptations on one hand.

I have seen the movie version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil at least 10 times. Finally, I made time in my schedule to dive into the source material by John Berendt. There are two things which still stick out to me. First, Clint Eastwood did justice to the book. Second, I can't believe how much of this is actually true. It's not all true, at least not strictly true.

I finished the book and decided to do a little digging on where Berendt strayed from the truth. He inserted himself into some scenarios where he was not present although everything did occur. He reports some other things and moved them around the timeline. Ultimately, I am a big stickler for non-fiction being purely non-fiction, but reading the changes made me agree these were acceptable changes to keep the flow of the book moving. They are actually immaterial in the most important way.

The book is not true crime. It is a study of a town cut off from the world voluntarily. I have lived in Georgia (not Savannah) and there is a certain feeling in that part of the country which is described perfectly in the book. I have visited Savannah a few times and the book recreates that decadent feeling. Going back to why the fictional elements are immaterial, the people are real, their actions are real, and that's the story you are there for as the reader. The ratings for the book and movie are lower than I would have expected and I do believe because it had to be marketed as true crime to make it financially viable. However, I think this left some readers feeling that they were misled.

I was prepared to let Berendt take my on a journey without worrying about the trial and asking where it was (since it shows up more than halfway through the text). I also found it interesting how Berendt treated (the freaking amazing) Lady Chablis in 1994. It's a perfect encapsulation of Berendt's willingness to act as an observer for the reader without preaching or passing judgment. He does this throughout the book and it makes for a more thoughtful and accepting narrative. However, I also wonder how the casual racism and homophobia might play today if Berendt reported so non-judgmentally.

If you have somehow missed both the movie and the book until this review, then I suggest going into this book without thinking about labeling it. Go into it open-minded about learning about the colorful people of Savannah with a murder thrown in for a little extra spice. No matter what, though, make sure you read it.

I wanted to like this book. I think the movie is great and I decided to read the book after seeing on Wikipedia that the film is only loosely based on the book. I wasn't hoping to hear the same story told by the movie. I wanted more and different. Of course there is more detail in the book and more back story to some of the people, but the only real difference is that the movie has a narrative structure that makes sense and works. The book does not.

The whole first half of the book is a series of disjointed character sketches The back half is a kind of half-assed true crime story. Berendt is good at capturing character and voice, but doesn't do much to link these interesting people together in a way that has any kind of meaning.

What really made this book a failure for me was Berendt's use of first-person narration. The "I" voice almost never had thoughts or reflections on the events he supposedly witnessed and only participated in conversations to the extent of offering occasional, blandly curious encouragement for others to continue their monologues. I guess he did this so that he wouldn't get in the way of the story, but it felt dishonest to me, like he was imagining he was there after hearing conversations second hand. I found myself wondering over and over again why these people invited this boring Yankee to be there and why they all seemed so eager to spill their guts to him.

Savannah is a marvelous place and I recommend visiting. Unless you're a reader who doesn't care about a book making sense a whole lot, I don't recommend the book. This is one of those rare cases where you should just watch the movie.

One of the best 'true crime' book I have ever read. Every inch of the story is fascinating. It reads like a novel. I actually had to keep reminding myself that it was, in fact, a true crime book. From the very first chapter I felt drawn in. I immediately wanted to go to Savannah and see it for myself.

So often in true crime books the characters are a little flat. Berendt was really able to make them come to life. His writing made the whole city come to life. His ability to infiltrate the seemly exclusive Savannah society and do such an awesome character study was amazing.

The personalities in the book are so bizarre and fantastic. It is almost hard to believe that they all live in a small city together. It had almost the same Southern society vibe to it as Time to Kill. The focus was not so much on the crime but rather the mesh of characters are interwoven into the plot (if I can call it that).

In to my re-read pile it goes!
Just found out that it's a movie with Kevin Spacey. Wonder if it's on Netflix?

Extraordinary story and characters, slow read, some parts for me were a bit hard to get through, that's why four stars and not five. A classic though. Loved it. Now I want to go to Savannah too....

Another early review of mine coming up... how times flies.
Oh my, I loved this book!

Loved this book, loved the story, loved the movie.

This was an excellent blend of micro-history and true crime during the 1980s in Savannah, GA. It read like an episodic novel and painted a vibrant picture of the people and the city.