I read "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" several years ago. While shopping at Estate Sales, I came across a very good copy so I bought it to reread. I enjoyed it as much this time as before. It was published in 1994 and written by journalist, John Berendt.
It's a true story that is about a respected antiques dealer, Jim Williams killing a local male prostitute, Danny Hansford - who the author describes as "a good time not yet had by all."
The first half of the book is setting the stage, giving the history and eccentricities of Savannah. - A very interesting city, then the killing and the rest of the book takes up the interesting details of the four trials of Jim Williams. The book characterizes the killing as the result of a lovers' quarrel, not a pre-meditated murder.
First of all let me say this journalist has a way with words! He describes Savannah and her inhabitants in such a way as to pull the reader in and he makes you feel as if you are there, with him, experiencing all he is experiencing. The people - his descriptions help you see them and feel as if you know them.
He described the voice of one of matriarchs of Savannah's society with the same description used in "Gone With the Wind" "soft and slurring, liquid of vowels, kind to consonants." When I read "We're a very cousiny people, one must tread very lightly here: everyone is kin to everyone else" I thought this describes my hometown! The county, the state I have lived in for so long!
John Berendt, a journalist, published "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" in 1994 and became an overnight success; the book spent a record-breaking 216 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. His second book "The City of Fallen Angels" was published in 2005.
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