MITGOGAE is a widely read book for good reason. I don’t think I have read many books (countable on my fingers) that have such a sense of place as this “mystery” novel set in Savannah Georgia in the mid 1900’s. I won’t review the plot here, just provide some observations.

Does the book go overboard ,at least a little, on describing the details of the city, right down to its record setting number of town squares? Yes it does.

Does the mystery central to the book lack the edge of your seat suspense? Yes it does.

Is the book written in a simple way that a middle schooler could follow? Yes.

It is a unique well written book that doesn’t take itself all that seriously despite some occasionally mature subject matter. There is a magic voodoo woman, discussion of homosexuality and AIDS, some genuine dramatic violence, incompetent police, whimsical juries and at least three very well drawn characters. To boot, if you’ve been to Savannah, the imagery of this novel is relatable.

4.5 stars, a very rewarding read that didn’t feel like homework.

This is a book about the shooting of a young man in a rich guy’s fancy house, but the real crime is how boring this story is!!! Ayo!

I do not know what happened here.

I mean, this book has EVERYTHING:
- old rich people
- gossip about the aforementioned old rich people
- the history of the city of Savannah (famously interesting place, not even being sarcastic, and yes it is concerning to me that my earnest thoughts read as irony)
- drag queens
- alcoholism
- historical restorations
- feuds
- murder
- voodoo (especially of the middle-of-the-night-and-done-in-cemeteries variety)
- scandalous old women
- courtroom thriller storylines
- prison
- historical figures and who they had affairs with (cough, Judy Garland, cough)
- mentions of Moon River, a very good song that has the added benefit of reminding humanity about Audrey Hepburn

AND it’s under 400 pages. AND it had the longest uninterrupted stay on the New York Times bestseller list.

And somehow it is boring. Like truly a punishment to get through. Took me 5 times as long than I expected and that still felt like a long walk through a pond of Jell-o.

And not even a good Jell-o flavor.

Bottom line: WHY MUST I SUFFER.

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dedicating my life to figuring out how this book, which contains murder and voodoo and gossip and scandal and courtroom plotlines and drag queens and ornery old ladies and Savannah, could be so goddamn boring.

review to come / 2.5 stars

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thrilled to finally find a way to combine my two biggest passions: reading and gossip

This book is all about the different and interesting characters in Savannah. If, after reading this you don't want to go to Georgia and meet them, I would be surprised.

Savannah is an interesting place! The best things about this story is atmosphere and characters. I enjoy reading true crime pieced together with narrative.

If you can read this book and not want to immediately hop a plane to Savannah, Georgia, then I do not know what to say to you. I read this book several years ago (and even remember reading a huge chunk of it in the laundromat and another huge chunk of it outside the same laundromat, which had closed up but I could not stop reading), because it was pretty much surgically attached to my hand the entire time. Berendt brought these eccentrics to life in a way that made the entire culture mesmerizing and almost endearing. A really unfortunate film was subsequently made of the book and was a complete and utter failure in its attempt to grasp what Berendt knew early on. This is not a story about people, not a film about secrets or oddities, voodoo or murder. This is a love story between the author and the town of Savannah, herself, a town that ultimately becomes the most important character in the book, and Berendt fleshes it out in a way that still leaves me feeling like I have been there when, in fact, I have not. Oh, but I will...

"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is ostensibly about the macabre truths that lie behind Savannah's gentile facade. As you might expect, these are of a distinctly Gothic nature. Imagine a travel guide written by Tennessee Williams. We are invited to marvel at some familiar grotesques: the homosexual in a smoking jacket, the socialite drunk at noon, the young hustler with a Red Camaro, the outrageous trannie, the witch doctor. All of this is presented with a light touch, even as the parade of anecdotes transitions to an expose of a celebrated murder case. It makes for a fun read, and it's easy to see why this book reinvented the Savannah tourist scene and stayed on the best seller list for five straight years.

But as with Capote's "In Cold Blood", it's interesting to explore exactly where this memoir diverges from the truth- what lies hidden behind the narrator's engaging facade? Berendt comes across as a good-natured everyman, a writer newly settled in town, just taking a look around. Of course, he was a good deal more than that: the famous ex-editor of New York Magazine, and more importantly, perhaps, a gay man. This background explains his easy entree into the life of Jim Williams, the anti-hero of the book. Rich, handsome, secretive, and gay- a man not too dissimilar from the narrator:

He was tall, about fifty, with darkly handsome, almost sinister features: a neatly trimmed mustache, hair turning sliver at the temples, and eyes so black they were like the tinted windows of a sleek limousine - he could see out, but you couldn't see in. We were sitting in the living room of his Victorian house. It was a mansion, really, with fifteen-foot ceilings and large, well-proportioned rooms. A graceful spiral stairway rose from the center hall toward a domed skylight. There was a ballroom on the second floor. It was Mercer House, one of the last of Savannah's great houses still in private hands. Together with the walled garden and the carriage house in back, it occupied an entire city block. If Mercer House was not quite the biggest private house in Savannah, it was certainly the most grandly furnished.

Much has been written about Berendt's many elisions and emendations of the strict truth: the way he rearranged the timeline of the murder at the center of the book to narrate it in the first person, the "degaying" of the murder victim, the changing of names and invention of composite characters. This is all worth thinking about, but I'm more interested in a different class of distortions: what hidden biases does a rich, gay northerner bring to a description of the South?

First, there is the previously mentioned delight in the grotesque. This is a tendency of all northern authors to reduce people in the South to types. Berendt does some of this, and while the reduction makes for good story-telling, you can't help but wonder what kind of truth it leaves out of the picture. Second, as a white northerner, the author has little access to the Black culture of the city- and apart from a short chapter about a Black cotillion, the only Black faces we see in the story are trannies, witch doctors, and servants. This probably misses some deeper truths about the city. Finally, as a wealthy gay man, Berendt's sympathies seem clearly biased towards Jim Williams, with whom he shares more than a little in common (Berendt currently lives in a mansion on the Upper West Side decked out not-too-different than Williams' house in Savannah.) How does this change his story? I'm not sure- but it would probably be better if he addressed it himself when he was writing it.

So what are we to make of all of this? Capote's "In Cold Blood", despite its flaws and half-truths, told a profound story of human nature and the depths to which people can sink. "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" tells an entertaining story about the degree to which you can beat a murder rap if you have a house filled with a couple of million dollars worth of antiques. That doesn't mean it's not worth your time: it's just not as important a book as its fame would suggest.

i’m sorry, your honor, i just saw the cover and the title and then everything went black and the next thing i can remember is that it was to be delivered on thursday…

For me, Savannah's resistance to change was its saving grace. The city looked inward, sealed off from the noises and distractions of the world at large. It grew inward, too, and in such a way that its people flourished like hothouse plants tended by an indulgent gardener. The ordinary became extraordinary. Eccentrics thrived. Every nuance and quirk of personality achieved greater brilliance in that lush enclosure that would not have been possible anywhere else in the world.

I should preface this review by saying that I was born and raised in Savannah, Ga. I lived there for 30 years before my husband's job took us to live in another state. I will also say that I'm a little embarrassed that this is the first time that I have read this brilliant non-fiction novel based in my hometown.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil largely centers around a famous murder case in which Jim Williams, owner of the Mercer House, shot and killed his lover, Danny Hansford in 1981. The book is a long narrative of different people that the author has connected with who live in and around Montgomery Square. To say that the places mentioned in this book was reminiscent of my childhood is an understatement. I lived off of Abercorn Street, spent my summers going to Tybee Island beach, and my prom date took me to the Pink House for dinner.

I loved the 'full cast of characters' the author introduces in this story. One almost forgets that it is a work of non-fiction because some of the stories are so outlandish, and the flow of the book reads like a work of fiction.

Although the story mainly covers the murder of Danny Hansford, I loved how readers get a sneak peek into the lives of others living in the community at that time. My favorite person in the book is the voodoo witch, Minerva. She's a hoot, and it's hard not to love her. The story makes it impossible to deny that she didn't have a hand in the outcome of Jim Williams' court verdict.

It took the author seven years to finish the story, which was indicative of how well written this book is. Berendt truly captured the heart of Savannah and its people. I have added this book to my favorite shelf and look forward to watching the movie.

A fun read about Savannah, Georgia and many of its irrepressible characters. The travails of an eccentric antique dealer, James Williams, is the binder of the book. It was an engaging true story and very well written. While mostly just an entertainment book it does have some flashes of insight about people, places and history.

A true crime story with a difference, this isn't a gripping case following police procedures or trial lawyers, but a character study of a city and the eccentric cast of people within it. The crime is secondary to the place and the people, who provide Berendt with rich material to work with.

One advantage of bringing fresh eyes to an old town like Savannah, Georgia, is that the newcomer can cross social, racial, religious and economic lines with relative ease. Reporter John Berendt made the most of it in this bestseller. Midnight is a penetrating look at Coastal South culture that is zestily written and a hell of a lot of fun to read.

While I enjoyed the ensuing movie very much, I like the book even more because it can take more time doing its job -- basically following a very bemused New York reporter (Berendt) around in search of answers to a controversial murder, as he crosses paths with Uga the "Damn Good Dog," meets Luther the "fly man," gets special permission to visit the Married Women's Card Club, learns about the hustler who was "the good time not yet had by all," dabbles in hoodoo, and of course makes the acquaintance of Lady Chablis, who had to tape her "Thing" down before she appeared in public. And for all the eccentricity, you'll actually learn a lot about Savannah!

The book under review, which is not to be confused with AFTER MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL by a different author, is worth seeking out specifically. Used copies are plentiful, too, even in hardcover. I, for one, consider this MIDNIGHT among the very best of investigative crime NF with a "creative non-fiction" flair, and would rank it at or near such works as IN COLD BLOOD or John Cullen's COLUMBINE. Go for it!

DNF page 210/390. I wanted to love this. I’m a huge true crime fan, this has been recommended by so many people and it was a bestseller for I don’t even know how long. Unfortunately, I couldn’t even bring myself to finish this. It’s a 390 page book that should have been (at most) a 100 page serial article. Berendt isn’t a terrible writer, but it felt like he didn’t really know what his story was. I shouldn’t have to read 200 pages of a true crime novel to get to the crime! People talk about how he really captures Savannah, but honestly, I never felt that either. I was bored throughout all that I read and I wished I had given myself permission to DNF it earlier.