This is a piece of fiction wrapped around a single true event. Be that as it may, it is well written and entertaining ( )

This book is just so good. It's funny, full of memorable characters, and completely true. That last actually makes it even more compelling. In short, it's about the author's adventures in Savannah, Georgia, in the 1980s and all the quirky people he meets. It's also about the murder trial(s) of Jim Williams, a wealthy antiques dealer whose annual Christmas party is the height of the social scene. I was drawn in from the very first, and now I desperately want to visit Savannah and see its storied beauty. ( )

Great book...unbelievable eccentrics...UGA - the bulldog - ...murder & mayhem...all true! ( )

Savannah, Georgia, a small southern city known for its history and its hospitality, is both the setting and the subject for John Berendt’s 1994 book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The opening chapters of the book focuses on some of the more unusual citizens of Savannah. There’s Jim Williams, the weathly antiques dealer who once harassed a film crew working outside his house by hanging a Nazi flag so that it appeared in all their shots; Luther Driggers, an inventor who’s reputed to possess a vial of poison that’s so lethal it could kill the whole city if poured into the water supply; Joe Odum, a tour guide and entertainer who opens his rented home to all comers, zoning laws be damned; and the Lady Chablis, a drag queen who is all woman. Berendt’s descriptions of these people are just wonderful. He lets them do most of the talking and doesn’t ever seem to make fun of them or judge them.

At about the halfway point, the book shifts gears as Jim Williams is arrested for murdering his lover, Danny Hansford. This section of the book took me longer to warm up to because I was enjoyed the travelogue so much and wasn’t really interested in listening to a true crime book. However, as the trial—trials, actually—went on, I became engrossed in that part of the story as well. I wanted to hear other characters weigh in on the case, and I was interested in how Williams’s wealth and his sexuality affected the outcome, not to mention whether the voodoo priestess that he hired could work effective magic on his behalf.

The audiobook is well done. The reader, Jeff Woodman, handles the different voices very well, which is important in a book in which the subjects do most of their own talking. The book does feature a short talk from Berendt himself about the writing of the book. In this section, I learned that his account of his own activities wasn’t in fact accurate. I can understand why he reframed the story as he did, but it was still a disappointment to find that he had tweaked the time line so much.

That said, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is still a worthwhile read. If I’m not in fact the last person to read this, you might consider trying it out yourself. I’m sorry I waited so long.

See my complete review at my blog. ( )

After I finished this I noticed it was classified as non-fiction. I would have rated this book 5 stars as a fictional read since it is wildly entertaining with an endearing cast of characters. However classifying a book as non-fiction brings all kinds of questions of authenticity and accuracy into consideration that a fictional book just doesn't have, and that's just where this book falls short. ( )