Book Review ; Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil

Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil
By: John Berendt

Synopsis:
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 dealer who hands a Nazi flag from his window to disrupt the shooting of a movie. And a redneck gigolo whose conquests describe him as a "walking streak of sex."

These are some of the real residents of Savannah, GA., a city whose eccentric mores are unerringly observed-and whose dirty linen is gleefully aired- in this utterly irresistible book. At once a true crime murder story and a hugely entertaining and deliciously perverse travelogue, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is as bracing and intoxicating as half-a-dozen mint juleps.

Now if you go somewhere out of town and are shopping and eating your way through the city and pick up a book that is in multiple shops. What do you do? When you are looked at multiple times by people who ask if you've ever read this book while conversing about Savannah, Georgia and your answer is "No." and they look at you in shock, what do you do? You buy the book. And in my case, you buy the book based in Savannah while shopping in Savannah. And you buy in on River Street. In between stopping at all the 5 places you will eat that day because the food is so good everywhere you go there isn't enough time to just eat like a normal person and go home after vacation saying you tasted Savannah.

Savannah is the place where they ask you if you want a sweet tea "to-go" when you're done with your meal. Hell, some places do it without even asking. They just know the answer is yes. If you don't eat your way through Savannah you are wasting a trip. Swear.

I mean it. You must eat everything.

Okay. I'm done telling you what to do in Savannah. And I'm not going to ramble about Savannah anymore. Maybe I will do an all Savannah blog post one day about my experiences there.

Annnnnd on to the book review...

Liked this book but wish I liked it more. It's full of southern charm and crazy. Drag queens and voodoo. Debutant balls and high tea. At times it was very dry and at other times I found myself laughing out loud. It did actually take me two tries, to not DNF this book. But I am glad I picked it back up that second time and saw it through. Mostly because I felt I needed to out of the love of Savannah. Not because I was going to regret not finishing the book for the sake of it being a book I started. It's a pretty good read that spreads out some scandalous happenings from an outsider who is amazed and not used to the south I know and love.

There were many characters introduced and some were underdeveloped. I think it may not have been so dry at times if they had been built up more personally. It is a true murder mystery and is written to give some sort of privacy to those involved but it's the south. I'm sure all these peoples neighbors know exactly who is who without having to google a darn thing. Thankfully, the south sure can gossip or this book that lasted 4 years on The New York Times Bestseller list would have never came to be.

"Rule number one: always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's thane you find out everything you want to know."