The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 30 November 1999
by John Berendt
After a glittering Christmas party in 1981, the city of Savannah, Georgia is shocked by a mysterious murder (or was it really self defense?). In this non-fiction novel, New York reporter John Berendt visits Savannah and opens up an entire colorful world. That beautiful city is carefully preserving its quiet corner of the Old South: the landscape, one of America's finest urban statements; the people; the quirky characters; the structure of its patrician society. Berendt's book is supremely entertaining. Jim Williams, antique dealer, host of the great Christmas party, and overall curmudgeon is accused of murdering his young protoge. The four trials that ensue open up the whole can of worms of Savannah's ability to overlook the quirks and darkness behind its inhabitants, to maintain the beauty and calm of its social life. But the star of the book is the city itself. It is beautifully described. The people are vividly brought to life. Everyone from calmly cool Jim Williams to the remarkable and colorfully bold Lady Chablis. Berendt arrived on the scene well after the murder, so many scenes are constructed in a fictional manner (not to mention the many changed names), but the story is essentially true, and in that lies its beauty. This book is hard to put down. (Clint Eastwood directed a flat but colorful movie version of the tale. The movie and the book have sparked a renaissance in Savannah tourism, to which the city has ambivalently responded.)