Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

I really appreciated the writing style and the slow rambling way the author led us through the city and the story.

I found the murder that centers a large part of the story incidental to me. I liked to read the book a chapter at a time, just little vignettes.

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anna_hepworth's review against another edition

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So, I was not entirely sure that this book was for me at the outset, when it was labelled 'a non-fiction novel', or some other malarkey. What I wasn't expecting was that the narrative voice would dislike all the characters, and yet not pass judgment on racism, dubious use of nazi paraphenalia / memorabilia (and yes, it was called memorabilia, and I should have stopped at that point), or the ongoing destruction caused by a conman.

I could put up with the rambling narrative, with each chapter only loosely linked to the others. I probably could have dealt with the range of shady characters. I could accept the implied level of self-loathing of the narrator, even if it made me decidedly uncomfortable.

But the ongoing racism was starting to wear, and the introduction of Chablis, who is both Black and trans was the point that I was asking myself why I was reading this. Up to a point, Chablis was entirely plausible. But referring to their cis female friend as a 'real girl' and then presenting attitudes to Black men as angry and violent made me realise that I had no desire to be reading this story, and 'realism' (or whatever the descriptor was) be damned, this book wasn't worth reading.

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ginnyb412's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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marisol1990's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

3.75

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sjduncan's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

3.75

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thomas_the_capricorn's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious medium-paced

4.0

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savvylit's review against another edition

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informative mysterious medium-paced

1.5

The voyeur in me loved that most of the content in this book is gossip. I absolutely ate that up and it kept me riveted! However, this book is so problematic on multiple levels.

First things first is the rampant homophobia and transphobia. Early on in the narrative, the author befriends Chablis, a trans woman, but is kind of afraid of her because he finds her attractive. He also never takes anything Chablis says or does seriously, seemingly maintaining friendship with her just to scandalize everyone he knows and have someone "unusual" to write about. As for the homophobia - it is continuous throughout the book, waxing and waning in its severity, with hate crimes being casually discussed and the f-slur being used repeatedly by the characters.

The second problem is the treatment of all Black people featured in this book. Berendt describes Black people that he meets as curiosities, taking a creepy anthropological approach. It's incredibly dehumanizing. Outside of Berendt himself, the people that he gets to know best over the course of his time in Savannah are very bigoted. For instance, the heavily-featured character Joe Odom loves to drop the n-word. Odom's racism is the most overt but there is quite a lot more covert racism throughout. Often, the high society of Savannah seems to be surprised that Black people who don't serve them even exist!

The third problem with this book is its entire elitist approach. Berendt is cashing in on people's very real lives in a way that ultimately paints him as above it all. Everyone is two-dimensional. Clearly, Berendt enjoys merely collecting folks in his life for their writability. As the story progresses, it begins to feel more and more like a mocking story told over drinks at a bougie New York party. (Berendt is from NY). I can see him saying "You wouldn't believe all these wealthy Southerners and their odd habits. Or the crazy gay people I met! Isn't the South so quirky and bizarre? Isn't bigoted behavior & conversation just so quirky and fun?"

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