John Berendt

A Savannah Story

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

As a novel I would say it’s slightly above average, but upon closing the book and discovering its nonfiction I changed my tune immediately and I would say it’s among the best literary nonfiction I’ll ever read! I couldn’t believe it. Along with that, I myself have been charmed by Savannah, so what’s not to love?

Jeremy Boyd

The frank, conversational, and often humorous storytelling contrasts the story being told—a dark procedural drama set in 1980s Savannah. The profiles of the interesting characters that the protagonist meets are more important than the central plot, which doesn’t even start until half way through the novel. The narrator seems to regard each eccentric character with fondness, even as he reveals some of their personality flaws and seedy doings, showing that every person lives in shades of grey. The author frequently reveals the gossiping, lies, and social climbing vanity of Savannah’s socialites as well as the racism, classism, homophobia, and transphobia of the community alongside their humor, grace, resilience, gentleness, and tenacity. I grew up not too far from Savannah, and I recognized some of the famous buildings and historical figures mentioned, but didn’t realize until I spoke to my mother that the book’s plot is based on true events, and depicts many real people, including The Lady Chablis. There also appears to be parts of the story and several characters that are fiction. There are parts of the book I think could have used more sensitivity and care, particularly around race and homophobia. However, in other points the frankness is refreshing. This took me forever to finish, but I don’t think that’s the books fault. It was overall an entertaining read.

constance

A struggle between beauty and darkness, charm and tragedy, creates this lasting image of both the city and its occupants. It is not a book of events, but rather a journey into the core of human nature and society, so it has to be read by every person interested in the intricacies of the human experience. Whether it be true crime, Southern culture, or character-driven narrative, all mixes into one that makes Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil something for any reader, thus ensuring its place as a modern classic.

Doyenne

Ryan Mateyk

When I first started looking up books on the internet like... 20 years ago at this point (woah!), I always recall seeing this cover. It was absolutely everywhere, and now here we are, nearing 30 years since it's original publication, and I'm finally reading it with my book club. 

At it's core, this book is about the real-life shooting of Danny Hansford, a volatile young man, at the hands of a Southern gentleman antiques dealer named Jim Williams, and the subsequent trials. However, you'll need to read at least a third of this book, if not more, to get to this main conflict. Before we even learn of the crime, we are introduced to a huuuge cast of eccentrics who populate the fascinating backdrop of Savannah, GA. We've got a sinister amateur entolomologist and his wealthy diva of a girlfriend. We've got the boisterous lovable transgender performer. We've got the nationally recognized but locally disrespected husband and wife duo of preservationists. We've got a voodoo priestess. In my mind, this book wasn't so much about the crime and punishment as it was a portrait of a city and those who inhabit it. I think this is partly because I enjoyed the first part much more than the remainder. I found, especially the last 100 or so pages, the story slowed down to a crawl and my interest was dwindling - I'm attributing this to (view spoiler)[literally four trials that I think even John Berendt grew tired of writing about (hide spoiler)]. Overall, good but not perfect, though it was remarkable how it read like a novel... now that I'm done, I find myself shocked to search these characters names and find photos of real people. 

RIP Lady Chablis!

Sarah Sammis

I really enjoyed this book. The fluid prose and lucious descriptions had me forgetting that I was reading non-fiction.

mic shulman

a Savannah story

Midnight in the garden of good and evil

Laura Mauler

Gossip cleverly disguised as commentary upon the citizens of Savannah, Georgia. Mmm, good.

Lizeth Esmeralda

Caroline

I enjoyed reading this whilst under a spooky tree in the town it is set in.

Lara Engle

This book simultaneously made me want to visit Savannah and avoid it. A combination of travelogue and murder mystery, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was most enjoyable when I read it like a series of character-based short stories. Each person the author encounters is a new quirky treat. But under all of those quirks lies real danger and a threatening sort of isolationism and prejudice. In the end, Savannah seems less charming than sad.

Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty,early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt's sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman's Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the "soul of pampered self-absorption"; the uproariously funny black drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, this enormously engaging portrait of a most beguiling Southern city has become a modern classic.

Michael Springer

A long, long time ago, back in high school, I read and loved this book. I've meant to read Berendt's newer book, but I still haven't tracked down a copy. Then again, my list of books I want to read is probably longer than the list of books I've read. 

Anyway, this is based upon a true story. It may even be considered non-fiction. In fact, I think it is. See? I DID read it a long long time ago. Just a moment ago, I stuck it in my general-fiction folder. Guess I'll have to move it. 

I'll just mention I thoroughly enjoyed it, and say it's an evocative and mysterious book set in Savannah, Georgia, with well-written characters and an expert sense of place.

Colleen

4 Stars
 
*A strange yet absorbing combination of memoir and True Crime*
 
I picked up Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil because of its title. It was such a catchy, evocative title that it sparked my imagination. This is a book I have heard mentioned many times, but I knew almost nothing about its content other than it had to do with a murder case in Savannah, Georgia.
 
This book had much less of a True Crime element than I was expecting. In fact, the murder isn’t even mentioned until about half way through the book. The first half follows the author’s experiences in Savannah and a cast of eccentric locals that he meets. That part was entertaining and interesting but was essentially just a memoir, thus very different from my expectations. Nevertheless, Berndt’s writing is vivid and engaging. He captures the spirit of each person he writes about to the point where you could almost imagine you would recognize them if you passed them on the street. During the first few chapters, I felt more like I was reading a Bailey White story than a true crime book. Still, I frequently wondered what an antique dealer, a local drunk, a socialite, a jazz singer, a conman, a voodoo priestess, and a drag queen had to do with the murder. And as it turns out most of them had only a tangential relation to the case and a few had none at all.
 
In the second half, you finally get to read about the murder though it’s much more focused on the court case and people’s reaction to the case. Because the murder in question was one I had never heard of, I was able to read along and had no idea how the case would turn out. Berendt did a great job of parceling out information so that seemed like the case could go either way. His writing seems mostly impartial though in reality he must have ingratiated himself somehow in order to get so exclusively imbedded in the case.
 
My main issue with this book didn’t arise until I read the author’s note at the end. It turns out that the way the book is set up is misleading. With the first half of the book meandering through the daily lives of several characters with no mention of the murder, it makes it seem like the author just happen to be in Savannah writing a book when someone he was interviewing committed murder. And that he then decided to follow the case and its effect on the lives of his interviewees. Sure, it seemed odd, but I thought perhaps it was like an Ann Rule type of coincidence. But the truth is that the author didn’t go to Savannah until the murder trial was under way, and that he went there entirely for the purpose of writing a book about the case. There were many of the scenes from the beginning of the book that seemed like they occurred pre-murder with the author present, but it turns out they were either being relayed to him after the fact or they occurred post-murder. Although Berendt said that he structured the book that way in order to allow readers to get to know the characters before discussing the murder, I still felt that it was misleading. It made me question a lot of things.
 
I also questioned the author’s reliability because of some questionable ethics concerning the way he got so entangled in the case. I won’t give away exactly what, but I don’t believe it was a coincidence that the book didn’t get published until after the suspect had died and the statute of limitations had passed.
 
The other odd thing about the book was how often the author provided detailed descriptions of other people having sex. It was too voyeuristic and gimmicky.
 
Despite that, I have to admit that Berendt is a talented writer. He absolutely brings Savannah, it’s culture, and its citizens to life. The story was easy to read and engaging. But at its core, it is more of a memoir of living in a vibrant, unique city than a true crime book. Most of the book felt more like a series of essays on Savannah life than a cohesive book. I’d take the whole thing with a grain of salt, but it was certainly entertaining.
 

RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 5 Stars
Writing Style: 4 Stars
Level of Captivation: 4 Stars
Attention to Details: 4 Stars
Emotional Level: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 4 Stars
Objectivity: 3 Stars

Lacy W

this is part of my Mom Monday's blog segment. You can find information about that here!

tw: racism (microaggression and outright racism), racial slurs, homophobic/transphobic slurs 

Preface before I get into the actual review: Mom and I picked up this book solely because it was based in Savannah and we recognized where the cover picture was taken. Savannah Georgia is the birthplace of the founder of Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low. Why does this matter? I was a Girl Scout for 12, 13 years? Basically forever. Going to Savannah was the first major trip I’ve ever taken and it was the first trip Mom and I took together. This place will always hold a special place in our hearts.

I honest to god have no idea what I just read. I think it was a story about the author’s life in Savannah? That’s what I am going with and what the author’s note said. But it was still one of the weirdest and most interesting books I’ve ever read.

This book was actually really interesting, like I mentioned above. I will admit, the synopsis was so so and I wasn’t super into it but that quickly changed once I realized that it was a character driven story. I am so weak for character driven stories. Seeing the progression of growth throughout the course of the book is the best.

Of course, there is a plot. There are two parts to this book. The first part is getting to know the characters. There are many side characters and it was hard to keep track of them all at first. Luckily, each character had such different personalities, it was easy to catch on after a few pages. The second part was the trial of Jim Williams, who was convicted of shooting Danny Hansford, which are two of the several different cast of characters.

I much preferred the first part over the second part. I’m not really into court proceedings unless it’s about something really interesting. Not that saying murder isn’t interesting. This paragraph is a nightmare. Basically what I’m saying is, the trial details were kind of boring since they were rehashed so many times.

The author portrays Savannah so well. Savannah is seriously so amazing and the author captured the small town feel of it well. It is very believable that he actually lived there. His descriptions of the houses and the squares were on point. The squares of Savannah are incredibly important and they are what makes Savannah what it is. If that wasn’t mentioned, this book would have gotten a lot lower rating than 4 (four) stars.

I must talk about some negatives, however. This book will offend people. Like I mentioned in my trigger warning, there is a lot of racial slurs along with homophobia and transphobia. The use of the n word and the f word are very much present. I’m not excusing the use of the language. I’m just letting you all know that it is there. Practice self care if you do choose to read this book.

I must also note that there will most likely be some people that will be upset with how a trans person is portrayed. It is a very stereotypical portrayal and I know that it will upset people. The author’s note in the end of the book says that each character is a real person and that the only things that were changed about them is looks and names, to protect them. So this may be how she actually is, but I can’t say for certain, hence why this paragraph exists.

Overall, I am pleased as punch. This was one of the most interesting books I’ve read and I certainly will not be forgetting it anytime soon. It makes me miss Savannah and now I want to go back. As usual, I end my posts with who I would recommend the book too. This one is hard. I’m not really sure who to recommend it too. Maybe if you have visited Savannah and want to learn more about it, this might be the book for you. This book does talk a lot about the history of Savannah and major events that happened at different time periods of Savannah. Maybe if you like character driven books that don’t necessarily have a plot, then this might be the book for you.

Kirsten Simkiss

This book was a solid 3 star read for me. It took me nearly three weeks to muscle my way through this book because I just couldn't find it in me to care. That's not to say this is a bad book, I just found it to be slower than I would have liked. If you've seen the movie, you will find that the movie is faithful to the book in it's own way, but it doesn't even begin to prepare you for the fact that this book documents the FOUR trials Jim Williams goes through to prove his innocence in the eyes of the law. Needless to say, it gets a little repetitive. 

And oh lord is it slow. I mean the first third of the book is nothing but character studies so you know the characters going into the first murder trial. Even after that, it feels like character after character study surrounding the murder. Some of it almost seemed unnecessary to be learning at that point. I wish it had been better intermingled between the trials as opposed to all at the start of the book. The start of a book is meant to set the pace of the book and I really think that should have been a warning to me. I'm not much of one for history books, but this did remind me of one in spots.

All in all, if you like slower paced books, you will probably be fine with this book. It's not a bad read at all. On the contrary, the content was actually quite interesting. It just had trouble keeping my attention for more than a chapter or two.

Lilian M

It's the first interesting true crime book I have read.

Sara Turner

Classic and beautifully written. I listen to half of this book on audio, and I’m glad I did. The voices really made it come to life. I loved the characters and the plot line. All around good book.

Elizabeth Moore

Good story and great characters! I'm guessing I'm in the micro-minority here, but I actually liked Berendt's City Of Falling Angel's even more.

I wish there was even more of Lady Chablis because she was awesome.

Kendra Leigh 

This book just gave me Great Gatsby and New Orleans vibes and it made me want to visit Savannah sooo badly. I would definitely recommend it as an audiobook- the narrator is fantastic!

Sarah Vaughan

I really thought I would enjoy this book. Not just because I loved the movie, but because I have heard from so many people that it is a very accurate description of the town of Savannah, a town I have always loved. But unfortunately, after being almost a third of the way and 115 pages into the book, I'm still reading descriptions. Not descriptions of the town, but individual people. I'm not even sure how these people will eventually come to play out in the story at all, or if they will. But at this point, I've become so bored with reading about the individual characteristics of the people that I can't bring myself to finish the story. 

Case in point: The most recent chapter I finished is about a drag queen named Chablis who is dating a white man who is a heterosexual mechanic who is aware that Chablis is a man but continues to live with him. Over and over and over throughout this chapter her exact words are "yes child. Y-e-e-e-s child. Yes baby. Mhm baby. Yes bitch!" I'm sorry but there's only so many times (at least 75 in ten pages by my count) that I can read that before I have to stop. I think three times would have been sufficient. 

I realize this is nonfiction, so there's not really anything I can say about the plot of the story since the author is in fact just recounting these events as he saw them. However, I find it completely unnecessary to spend this much time on descriptions of people. I don't have any sense of a story actually unfolding here at all. And that's not to discount Berendt's writing. In fact, I think his writing is almost TOO good. I think only a reporter could manage to cram that much descriptive info into 115 pages and still have more to say, and that's quite impressive, but definitely not fun to read. Maybe I'll end up picking this one up again in the future at some point.

Carol

This classic had been on my list for a while, it definitely was not what I was expecting. For a 'true crime' novel, surprisingly little time is spent discussing the murder and the legal case. Instead, the book reads more like a contemporary novel describing the unusual characters our protagonist meets on his travels. I found some of the tangential stories/anecdotes charming and entertaining enough that it didn't really slow down the pace of the book too much for me. Also loved the lush descriptions of Savannah in the book, it seems like a very interesting and beautiful city that I would love to visit someday.
 
One thing I have to point out though is that the discussions surrounding race and LGBT, considering how relevant the issues are to the plot and the characters, are incredibly lacking. Some genuinely horrific things are said by some of the writers "friends" in this book that go completely unchallenged he makes some awkward remarks himself when dealing with Chablis. I'm mindful that this book was written in the early nineties and the events took place in the South in the late '80s, but it's also not *that* long ago. That said, as affectionately as the writer describes these people, I reckon it's an accurate portrayal of high society in Savannah in which case I'm more critical of the culture than the book itself.

I’m not totally sure how to feel about this book. It was well-written and portions were entertaining, but I got tired of some of the character chapters. Reading about all these rich people who are mostly nuts just got pretty grating after awhile. The only person I truly enjoyed reading about was Joe Odom, and that’s because he was SO crazy but not stuck up like most of the others. His antics were ridiculous and I’d despise him in real life, but he was fun to read about.

The true crime portion didn’t even start until halfway through, and even then it only makes up about 1/3 of the book. The trial parts were very interesting, but at the same time I don’t understand how some of it went down. I’m no expert on law, but it seems like some best practices were blatantly ignored. I’m curious to look up the case and see if the book got some things wrong or if it really was this big of a shitshow.

Also on the subject of authenticity, I found the author’s quotes of several characters, especially Chablis, distasteful. I assume that he did not record all of these conversations and quote the characters verbatim, so his use of the n word and his exaggeration of the black characters’ accents when the white characters did not have a noticeable accent really bugged me. This book was likely regarded as progressive when it was published, but reading it in 2019, the issues are glaring. He wrote quite a lot about the race relations for being a white man, and frequently referred to “the blacks,” which was quite jarring.

Overall, I understand why this book is so popular, and I don’t regret reading it. However, I do think it’s difficult to read from a progressive standpoint today, and in general it was too bloated by the rich white people problems. Also, the ending was pretty anti-climactic!

Tanya Sutton

This book is a rough read, and (in my opinion) very little like the movie (which I preferred, oddly enough...)

Read #2: I don't know why but the second reading of this book was world's apart from the first one. Maybe it's because I realized it was a nonfiction book that just  felt  like a novel, but I loved the characterizations, the descriptions of Savannah, and the trial itself. Now I feel like I need to rewatch the movie to see if I like it as much as I did the first time around.

Pam Sartain

Non-ficton that reads as though it is fiction. 

Stephen Fry mentioned this book in 'Stephen Fry in America', whilst talking about the town of Savannah, which is where this book is based.

The author is a jounralist, who visits Savannah one day, and likes it so much that he decides he is going to live part time in Savannah, and part time in New York. He starts meeting people, and in the midst of all the fun, someone is murdered. He then charts the progress of the case, and of the subsequent prosecution.

All in all, this was a very good book, and gave so much detail that I can understand why the tourist trade for Savannah has suddenly gone sky high as other people want to go and walk down the street in John Berendt's shoes, and try to meet the people he talks about - especially the Lady Chablis - child, she sounds fabulous!

Emma Bickford

I really struggled to finish this book. The plot started out interesting, but I felt like it dragged a lot by making commentary on lots of various aspects of Savannah and people that didn’t connect to matter to the crime. Chablis was the most interesting character to me, but I still felt like I was pulling my feet slowly through the Savannah swamp to finish this one off.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil A Savannah Story

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