Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt ---------------- 3.5 Stars

So, I know I'm super late coming to the Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil party, seeing as the book was released 20 years ago this year and spent a record 216 weeks on the NY Times Bestseller list. But, with an upcoming trip to Savannah planned and an understanding that this book has been on my "to read" list for a while, it was a perfect time to give it a try. And, for the most part, I'm happy I did.

The book had a pretty interesting structure. The first third is a variety of vignettes about a half dozen or so eccentric personalities the author met during his time living in Savannah. Some connected with one another, some not, and he does a nice job pulling you into the life of Savannah by sharing these characters backgrounds, traits and relationship to the city. Then the book moves to a true crime focus, with the details leading up to a murder (of course, with a couple of those main characters). Finally, the book captures what happened, the (long) trials (yes, multiple), and the aftermath of that trial and subsidiary characters.

For the most part, the book was quite entertaining. Really capturing the flavor and heart of this interesting city, I found the book an enjoyable read. Going in, I knew a bit about the book and thought it would be much more about the murder and trail, as opposed to being a minority of time spent in the story. But, the other characters and stories about each of them was easy to read and fun to keep up with. I did have occasional frustrations that he didn't spend a bit more time with the murder trail and a bit less on these bit characters, but I understand that wasn't really his main focus in writing this story.

Of course, the movie that came out not longer after the book's release really vaulted this book to a higher level and it's safe to say it was a cultural phenomenon (too strong?) for a couple of years. While I'm about 20 years late to it, I am happy to have finally had the pleasure to see what all the excitement was about. Now to see if the city lives up to it too!