Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story

I picked this book from a charity shop..what a lucky day that was! This book is simply amazing, but what characters! Are these people real?...The chances of visiting Savannah and meeting these amazing people (who ARE real) is very unlikely but anyway I've travelled there in my mind. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story (+ travel). Will now be looking to read other books...more

I picked this book from a charity shop..what a lucky day that was! This book is simply amazing, but what characters! Are these people real?...The chances of visiting Savannah and meeting these amazing people (who ARE real) is very unlikely but anyway I've travelled there in my mind. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story (+ travel). Will now be looking to read other books by John Berendt.   hide

"An old house will defeat you if you try to restore it all at once-from roof to windows, weatherboarding, jacking it up, central heating, wiring. You must think of doing one thing at a time. First you say to yourself: Today I am going to think about leveling off the sills. And you get all the sills leveled. Then you turn your mind to the weatherboarding, and gradually you do all the...more

"An old house will defeat you if you try to restore it all at once-from roof to windows, weatherboarding, jacking it up, central heating, wiring. You must think of doing one thing at a time. First you say to yourself: Today I am going to think about leveling off the sills. And you get all the sills leveled. Then you turn your mind to the weatherboarding, and gradually you do all the weatherboarding. Then you consider the windows. Just one window at a time. That window right there. You ask yourself, 'What's wrong with that part of that window?' You must do it in sections, because that's the way it was built. And then suddenly you find the whole thing completed. Otherwise, it will defeat you."- a travelog and a true crime story that reads like a novel; restoring an old house is like achieving any other goal - one step at a time.   hide

all I can say is "ooooh".

I was probably a third of the way through this book before I found out it is non-fiction. It was so entertaining, I would have never guessed! I'll read it again and I can't wait to visit Savannah myself.

I read the book because I lived in Savannah for a while, around the time the book came out. I am completely infatuated with Bonaventure cemetery, which figures prominently in the book. The story is mainly about a murder, but also tells of Savannah society and shares things that native Savannahians are reluctant to reveal. The Lady Chablis also makes an appearance in the book. she is a drag queen...more

I read the book because I lived in Savannah for a while, around the time the book came out. I am completely infatuated with Bonaventure cemetery, which figures prominently in the book. The story is mainly about a murder, but also tells of Savannah society and shares things that native Savannahians are reluctant to reveal. The Lady Chablis also makes an appearance in the book. she is a drag queen and puts on one hell of a show. (I was lucky enough to catch one when I lived there).   hide

This was a fascinating read. Savannah is not at all what I expected of a genteel southern city. The diverse set of characters that mrsgaskell mentioned might be found individually in other places. Savannah seems to produce them on every street corner. And they seem very content to stay in Savannah. I was especially fascinated by Minerva who cast spells throughout the four trials that Jim Williams...more

This was a fascinating read. Savannah is not at all what I expected of a genteel southern city. The diverse set of characters that mrsgaskell mentioned might be found individually in other places. Savannah seems to produce them on every street corner. And they seem very content to stay in Savannah. I was especially fascinated by Minerva who cast spells throughout the four trials that Jim Williams has to face. Williams seems to think that he got at least as good results from Minerva for $25 a day as he did from his high priced lawyers who cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now I'm itching to go to Savannah to see the homes and streets that Berendt describes so well.   hide

Clint Eastwood made this book into a wonderful movie that in some ways is better than the book. The book is a series of long drawn out character studies circling a murder. Set in Savannah, Georgia each character is entirely whole and unique. The book goes wrong when a fourth of the way through, the murder that draws you in practically disappears and becomes a side note to Berendt’s obsession...more

Clint Eastwood made this book into a wonderful movie that in some ways is better than the book. The book is a series of long drawn out character studies circling a murder. Set in Savannah, Georgia each character is entirely whole and unique. The book goes wrong when a fourth of the way through, the murder that draws you in practically disappears and becomes a side note to Berendt’s obsession with the, albeit fascinating people he encounters there. When he finally recovers the plot of his story you are almost uninterested.That said, this is not a horrible story; and perhaps it is not the book that is at fault but Eastwood’s movie. The movie that Eastwood made blends both the characters and the murder in a delightful weave that is captivating. The discovery of the murderer is a fore gone conclusion since we know who killed the boy, what draws you in is the world that they live in and Spacey’s character’s intent to not go to jail for it. The movie is a quaint fairy tale while the book is a lumber some psychological study. It was not a bad way to spend a couple of days but not a fulfilling way either, whereas the movie is entertaining from beginning to end. But it could all be my fault since I saw the movie first.   hide

I visited Savannah recently and left wanting to read this book. I really enjoyed this book. It's full of fascinating characters. It makes me want to move to Savannah.

Truman Capote is credited with having creating that hybrid of writing which combines a factual event with fiction in his novel IN COLD BLOOD. Much in the same way, John Berendt has cleverly interwoven a high-profile 1981 murder case with his vast imagination and created a masterpiece. This book is a terrific read from the very first. Who would have thought that a story based upon homicide...more

Truman Capote is credited with having creating that hybrid of writing which combines a factual event with fiction in his novel IN COLD BLOOD. Much in the same way, John Berendt has cleverly interwoven a high-profile 1981 murder case with his vast imagination and created a masterpiece. This book is a terrific read from the very first. Who would have thought that a story based upon homicide could be so very entertaining and even laugh-out-loud funny? Berendt has brought us just that in his description of Savannah and its juxtaposition of old-world grace and modern-day outrage. He gives us the juicy gossip without being tacky about it and we follow him to parties of every class and color. The characters he brings us (and I would like to think that they are all real!) are three dimensional; not just words on a page. I am so glad to have read this work before seeing it maligned in film.   hide