Vintage Books List of the Best Reading Group Books (36)
You'd have to be a complete wet blanket not to have
a good time reading John Berendt's Midnight
in the Garden of Good and Evil.
-Charles Taylor,
Salon Magazine
Apparently, I am that proverbial wet blanket. Throughout the 80's,
John Berendt, an Esquire columnist living in New York, took advantage of
cut rate airfares to travel the United States before determining:
An idea was beginning to take shape in my mind.
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.
It was his enormous good fortune that on May 2, 1981, Jim Williams,
a colorful (but then who in the book isn't?) antiques dealer, shot and
killed his hotheaded young boyfriend Danny Hansford. The subsequent
legal tangles give his story a mild plot line, though by the time all of
the trials have concluded Savannah and the author seem to be pretty tired
of it, and the reader certainly will be. But the real point of the
book is to display the vast collection of truly bizarre characters the
author found in this gothic Southern town. As The Lady Chablis, a
black transvestite, says: "The South is one big drag show."
So if you find staring into a moral cesspool amusing, this is the book
for you. Personally, I felt like I was in the Coliseum watching Nero
feed Christians to the lions (see Orrin's
review of Quo Vadis?). As our economy continues to crank
out bread, our culture seems more and more to offer us circuses like this
one. Of course, the difference is that in this case there are no
Christians. In fact, the book should really be called Midnight
in the Garden of Degenerate and Evil--there's no Good that's readily
apparent. There is a significant strain of thought in Right Wing
ideology, particularly among the Christian Right, that we are in the end
of days, that Western Culture has become so decadent that it's demise must
be imminent. I am much more optimistic than that, but reading this
book certainly made it seem as if the doomsayers have a point.
(Reviewed:02-Jun-00)
Grade: (C-)
Websites:
Book-related and General Links:
-BOOKNOTES:
Author: John Berendt Title: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Air Date: September 28, 1997 (CSPAN)
-EXCERPT:
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil By John Berendt Chapter One:
An Evening in Mercer House
-INTERVIEW:
Getting Deep in the South: John Berendt's dark bestseller about Savannah
has been made into a film. He talks to Quentin Curtis (April 8, 1998
-- London Daily Telegraph)
-INTERVIEW:
NY Times OnLine
-CHAT:
Chat Transcripts: John Berendt, author of: Midnight In The Garden
of Good and Evil (July 8,1998, Lycos)
-ESSAY:
OUR FAR-FLUNG CORRESPONDENTS: HIGH-HEEL NEIL At some of the finer
spots frequented by Southern society, one Republican businessman stands
out for his love of adventure -- and a Well-cut dress. (JOHN BERENDT, The
New Yorker)
-ESSAY:
Savannah (John Berendt, Esquire)
-Midnight
in the Garden of Good and Evil (Random House)
-Midnight
in The Garden of Good and Evil Site (SavannahNOW and the Savannah Morning
News)
-We Love
Midnight
-John
Berendt: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Book Browse)
-DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS: Questions for Discussion on Midnight in the Garden of Good
and Evil by John Berendt
-AUDIO
ESSAY: SAVANNAH BIG TIME -- NPR's Elizabeth Arnold visits Savannah,
Georgia...the setting for John Berendt's best-selling "Midnight in the
Garden of Good and Evil." The non-fiction book tells the story of a murder
and the real-life characters surrounding the crime. It's been on the best
seller list for almost 3 years and has led to an increase in tourism and
retail in Savannah (Morning Edition, NPR)
-ARTICLE:
Yankee Who Captured Savannah Is Its Hero (KEVIN SACK SAVANNAH,
NY Times)
-ARTICLE:
ABOUT NEW YORK; 'Midnight': It's Morning For Author (Michael
T. Kaufman, NY Times)
-ESSAY:
Dawn in the Garden of Good and Evil : Georgia's founding father knew
best, but Savannah didn't stay unsinful for long (Smithsonian)
-REVIEW:
of MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL A Savannah Story. By John
Berendt (Glenna Whitley, NY Times Book Review)
-REVIEW:
(Lavender Salon: Reviews of Gay & Lesbian Books)
-REVIEW:
Narratives of Race and Sexuality John Berendt's Midnight in the
Garden of Good and Evil (Katja Kanzler, Twin Peaks)
-REVIEW:
Good versus Evil in the sordid streets of Savannah (Andy Blossom, TJ
Today)
-REVIEWS:
(Epinions)
FILM:
-Official
Site
-INFO:
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) (Imdb)
-REVIEW:
(Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
-REVIEW:
(Charles Taylor, Salon)
-REVIEW:
(-Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix)
GENERAL:
-Savannah
Morning News
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