Great read! This book took forever to receive from the library and it's more than 20 years old! That's how you know a book has some kind of extra quality that takes it out of the realm of popular and into a more sustainable category when it begins to weave a tale of lasting characters and universal truths. Berendt said he was not writing a story about Savannah for Savannah, but rather about Savannah for people who had never heard of Savannah before. And he certainly delivered. In the realm of narrative non-fiction, this book is one of the best. Titillating characters, a murder, a trial, a trial, a trial and a trial - this book wraps them all up and manages to make them all relate to one another.
Berendt visits Savannah on a weekend holiday and decides he needs to set up shop there to really get a feel for the city. He's right of course, you can't visit a city and really understand it, you do have to live there. And on the way he introduces us to a cast of characters that couldn't have been made better even if the book were fiction. In fact, the best part is that none of this is fiction.
Jim Williams is a wealthy, and a bit eccentric, antiques dealer who is charged with murder in the shooting death of his young lover. Joe Odom is a charming penniless piano player/lawyer, and The Lady Chablis is a black drag queen with a huge personality. The first half of the book introduces us to these and other minor characters. The rest of the book details mostly the trial, retrial, retrial and retrial of Jim Williams for the death of Danny Hansford.
The book occasionally started to feel a little stale, but these moments were far and few between. I can see why the book has done so well, and left such a lasting mark on Savannah and people's view of Savannah. After reading the book I set out to watch the movie. Aside from Chablis, who was a real treat, the movie felt kind of flat, which was very surprising. (Watch it yourself here).
4/5 Stars.
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