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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1995) (edit title/settings)

by John Berendt (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Genteel society ladies who compare notes on their husbands' suicides. A hilariously foul-mouthed black drag queen. A voodoo priestess who works her roots in the graveyard at midnight. A morose inventor who owns a bottle of poison powerful enough to kill everyone in town. A prominent antiques... read more

Summary edit see section history

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is atmospheric and Southern Gothic in tone, depicting a wide range of eccentric Savannah personalities.

The action that serves as a catalyst in the book is the killing of Danny Hansford, a local hustler (characterized as "a good time not yet had by... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is atmospheric and Southern Gothic in tone, depicting a wide range of eccentric Savannah personalities.

The action that serves as a catalyst in the book is the killing of Danny Hansford, a local hustler (characterized as "a good time not yet had by all") by respected antique dealer Jim Williams. Four murder trials resulted, with the final one ending in acquittal after the judge finally agreed to having the case moved away from the Savannah jury pool. The book characterizes the killing as the result of a lover's quarrel, not a pre-meditated murder. The death took place in Williams's home, originally built by an ancestor of songwriter and Savannah native Johnny Mercer.

The book also highlights many other residents of Savannah, most notably The Lady Chablis, a local drag queen and entertainer. Chablis provides both a Greek chorus of sorts as well as a lighthearted contrast to the more serious action.

The book's plot is based on real-life events that occurred in the 1980s and is classified as nonfiction. Because it reads like a novel, it is sometimes referred to as a"nonfiction novel;" a subgenre popularized by Truman Capote and Norman Mailer. (Booksellers generally feature the title in the "true crime" subsection.) It is among the most popular nonfiction releases of all time.

The title alludes to the hoodoo notion of "midnight," the period between the time for good magic and the time for evil magic; in "the garden of good and evil" which refers principally to Bonaventure Cemetery.

The famous Bird Girl statue, originally designed both as art and as a birdseed holder, was originally located at Bonaventure. A Savannah photographer, Jack Leigh, was commissioned to take a photograph for the cover of the book and created his now famous photograph of the statue. The Bird Girl was relocated in 1997 for display in the Telfair Museum in Savannah.

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “But actually," she said, 'the whole of Savannah is an oasis. We are isolated. Gloriously isolated! We're a little enclave on the coast - off by ourselves, surrounded by nothing but marshes and piney woods. We're not easy to get to at all, as you may have noticed. If you fly here, you usually have to change planes at least once...We're a terribly inconvenient destination!”
  • “By morning she was dead. She had not died of starvation or committed suicide by any conventional means. She had simply willed herself to die, and being a strong-willed woman, she had succeeded. She had missed dying on her birthday by two days.”
  • “This town is like Gone with the Wind on mescaline!”
  • “'When you play songs, you can bring back people's memories of when they fell in love. That's where the power lies.'”
    Emma Kelly
  • “"Two tears in a bucket, mother f*c!k it.”
    The Lady Chablis

First Sentence edit see section history

He was tall, about fifty, with darkly handsome, almost sinister features: a neatly trimmed mustache, hair turning silver at the temples, and eyes so black they were like the tinted windows of a sleek limousine-he could see out, but you couldn't see in.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Part One
1. An Evening in Mercer House
2. Destination Unknown
3. The Sentimental Gentlewoman
4. Settling In
5. The Inventor
6. The Lady of Six Thousand Songs
7. The Grand Empress of Savannah
8. Sweet Georgia Brown's
9. Walking Streak of Sex
10. It Ain't Braggin' If Y'Really Done It
11. News Flash

Part Two
12. Gunplay
13. Checks and Balances
14. The Party of the Year
15. Civic Duty
16. Trial
17. A Hole in the Floor
18. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
19. Lafayette Square, We Are Here
20. Sonny
21. Notes on a Rerun
22. The Pod
23. Lunch
24. Black Minuet
25. Talk of the Town
26. Another Story
27. Lucky Number
28. Glory
29. And the Angels Sing
30. Afterword

Errata edit see section history

Page 11, 7 lines up reads "fmr" versus "for." The same error is found in other copies and probably in all the first editions.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in Savannah, Georgia. (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. John Berendt (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Random House Books
Country: USA
Publication Date: Dec-1995
ISBN: 9780679449577
Page Count: 388

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: 933955
  • Dewey: 975.8724

Movie Connections edit see section history

  • Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (IMDb): This panoramic tale of Savannah's eccentricities focuses on a murder and the subsequent trial of Jim Williams: self made man, art collector, antiques dealer, bon vivant and semi-closeted homosexual. John Kelso a magazine reporter finds himself in Savannah amid the beautiful architecture and odd doings to write a feature on one of William's famous Christmas parties. He is intrigued by Williams from the start, but his curiosity is piqued when he meets Jim's violent, young and sexy lover, Billy. Later that night, Billy is dead, and Kelso stays on to cover the murder trial. Along the way he encounters the irrepressible Lady Chablis, a drag queen commedienne, Sonny Seiler, lawyer to Williams, whose famous dog UGA is the official mascot of the Georgia Bulldogs, an odd man who keeps flies attached to mini leashes on his lapels and threatens daily to poison the water supply, the Married Ladies Card Club, and Minerva, a spiritualist. Between being Jim's buddy, cuddling up to a torch singer, meeting every eccentric in Savannah, participating in midnight graveyard rituals and helping solve the mysteries surrounding Billy's murder, Kelso has his hands full.

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • The City of Falling Angels
  • The Monster of Florence
  • Ellen Foster
  • Smilla's Sense of Snow
  • A Walk in the Woods
  • The Cider House Rules
  • Mean Genes
  • Little Altars Everywhere
  • Waiting to Exhale
  • The Water Is Wide

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Savannah
  • Midnight in Savannah
  • Frommer's Portable Charleston & Savannah

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history

   
  • Gone With the Wind
  • Great Circle
  • Treasure Island

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

   
  • Savannah
  • Midnight in Savannah
  • The Book Group Book
  • Dining in the Garden of Good Eats

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