Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt is a slightly fictionalized history of Savannah, Georgia. “Savannah’s resistance to change was its saving grace. …The ordinary became extraordinary. Eccentrics thrived.”The book has two parts: a catalog of eccentrics and a murder that was tried four times.
By a quirk of geography, Savannah has been isolated from its surroundings. It avoided most of the consequences of the Civil War. It also avoided the growth and modernization of the latter half of the twentieth century. While big corporations moved to Atlanta GA and Charleston SC, Savannah stayed isolated. They even avoided prohibition.
Savannah had Jews, blacks, voodoo witches, gay hustlers, and drag queens. Several of these folks are showcased in their own chapters in part one. While fascinating, in a voyeuristic way, these people are on display as entertaining eccentrics, happy people forever locked out from power.
Part two is about a murder of a young gay hustler. With the life of a rich white guy at stake, most of the part-one eccentrics are ignored and the battle of the powerful is played out. Here it becomes clear who counts and who does not.
Savannah tolerated outsiders such as Gays, Blacks, Jews as long as they stayed in their place. The powerful had their own clubs and social events where these people were excluded
If you are interested in a history of southern privilege, rich white people, parties, and power, all packaged in a narrative strangely devoid of social issues, this is the book for you.
Note: I didn’t realize that this was non-fiction until the author’s note at the end. I liked it better as fiction.
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