Reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt was like coming home. Well, maybe more like coming home to a step sister who gives you a warm hug and then sits in the corner mumbling wickedly about you. The book takes place mostly in Savannah, and this Charleston girl did not appreciate the many unfavorable comparisons the author claims Savannahians make between the sister cities. The wry southern lady's voice in my head kept speaking, "Well, us Charlestonians don't even think about Savannah...let them make all the comparisons they like. And the Spoleto USA festival is a damn good time..." The book mentioned more than once how Savannah got the offer to host Spoleto USA first, and, because of their rejection, Charleston got the honor as a runner up.
Those brief references aside, the book really was delightful. I felt gratitude towards the New Yorker who moved to Savannah and took his time to right this piece of nonfiction (that's right, nonfiction). This novel is like a window into old southern culture, and the author had to go into the house in order to unlock and open it for the rest of the world to peer inside. The author crafts this story with such love and appreciation that a true Southerner will begin to have visceral sense memories of moments in their life that match the tale, and an outsider will marvel at the wonder and begin to love it too. And if there is something a Southerner likes more than telling a tale, it's having others listen and become desirous of the same experience.
The fact that the book was an extremely popular non-fiction book and reads like a novel is just perfect. In the deep south, what is fact and what is sensational are so hand in hand that no one thinks of "facts" as being mostly boring. We see the world through eyes that believe in magic, in the witching hour, in the concepts of legends, true love and honorable deeds. And dishonorable deeds, too, of course, are a large part of that mysticism.
I will not reveal any more than that. I cannot recap the story or outline the plot since the story, like all good stories, must be told the way it was meant to be and in its entirety. But you must read the book. Get yourself some southern culture.
Love,
Clellan
