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Book Review: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Title: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Author: John Berendt
Published: New York: Vintage Books, 1999 (1994)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 386
Total Page Count: 83,802
Text Number: 240
Read Because: personal enjoyment, borrowed from my parents
Short Review: After a New York magazine writer visits Savannah in the 1980s, his prolonged stay in the city introduces him to a cast of unique characters, from a beautiful black drag queen to a charismatic freeloading tour guide to a prominent antiques dealer—the last of whom throws Savannah into turmoil when he shoots and kills his gay lover. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a nonfiction text with a cast of characters so colorful as to barely be believed, a combination which doesn't make for the most effective storytelling but nonetheless creates a captivating, entertaining book. It's hardly the best thing I've ever read, but I enjoyed and recommend it.
Midnight falls into two approximate halves: an introduction of the cast of characters, and the actual true crime plot. The figures that populate Savannah are colorful to the point of exaggeration, but the book's grounding in nonfiction makes them fairly convincing—and they are always fascinating, such that the first half of the book is quite addicting. The pacing falters for want of a plot, and the voice smacks of magazine writing, with fact-finding jostling uncomfortably against amusing vignettes. The second half dives headfirst into storytelling surrounding a murder and the resulting court cases. While the book benefits from finding a plot, turning its collected short stories into a better integrated tale, the slew of trials make for a repetitive story. When the plot slows, there are a few more colorful characters and history vignettes to pick up the pace, but it does fell like the book would benefit from better integration of its two halves.
Which isn't to call Midnight a disappointment. It's not. Would it have been better with the murder introduced earlier, the character vignettes more evenly spread through the text? I think so, yes. I also would have preferred the storytelling to be a little more polished, because it reminded me a bit too much of the clever-but-uninspired writing that I'd expect from a New Yorker article. But I enjoyed Midnight just as it is, laughed aloud a few times, and found Berendt's view of Savannah quite fascinating. He may have been a stranger there, but Berendt seems to have had an eye and the luck to glimpse some of the heart of Savannah, and what he saw was a beautiful, crazy, well-aged city with a character all her own. It's an interesting city, a decent story, and competently told. I recommend it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: John Berendt
Published: New York: Vintage Books, 1999 (1994)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 386
Total Page Count: 83,802
Text Number: 240
Read Because: personal enjoyment, borrowed from my parents
Short Review: After a New York magazine writer visits Savannah in the 1980s, his prolonged stay in the city introduces him to a cast of unique characters, from a beautiful black drag queen to a charismatic freeloading tour guide to a prominent antiques dealer—the last of whom throws Savannah into turmoil when he shoots and kills his gay lover. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a nonfiction text with a cast of characters so colorful as to barely be believed, a combination which doesn't make for the most effective storytelling but nonetheless creates a captivating, entertaining book. It's hardly the best thing I've ever read, but I enjoyed and recommend it.
Midnight falls into two approximate halves: an introduction of the cast of characters, and the actual true crime plot. The figures that populate Savannah are colorful to the point of exaggeration, but the book's grounding in nonfiction makes them fairly convincing—and they are always fascinating, such that the first half of the book is quite addicting. The pacing falters for want of a plot, and the voice smacks of magazine writing, with fact-finding jostling uncomfortably against amusing vignettes. The second half dives headfirst into storytelling surrounding a murder and the resulting court cases. While the book benefits from finding a plot, turning its collected short stories into a better integrated tale, the slew of trials make for a repetitive story. When the plot slows, there are a few more colorful characters and history vignettes to pick up the pace, but it does fell like the book would benefit from better integration of its two halves.
Which isn't to call Midnight a disappointment. It's not. Would it have been better with the murder introduced earlier, the character vignettes more evenly spread through the text? I think so, yes. I also would have preferred the storytelling to be a little more polished, because it reminded me a bit too much of the clever-but-uninspired writing that I'd expect from a New Yorker article. But I enjoyed Midnight just as it is, laughed aloud a few times, and found Berendt's view of Savannah quite fascinating. He may have been a stranger there, but Berendt seems to have had an eye and the luck to glimpse some of the heart of Savannah, and what he saw was a beautiful, crazy, well-aged city with a character all her own. It's an interesting city, a decent story, and competently told. I recommend it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.