Major hallmarks of your writing style are?

Now, The City of Falling Angels brings Venice aliveįor readers the way Midnight did for Savannah, Georgia. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil marked your style of nonfiction as What they meant was that the people I write about tend to be very strange. Time magazine said I had become 'a state-of-the-art weirdo magnet.' My best guess is that what appeals to readers most in both books are theĬharacters. Have you been surprisedīy their success? What do you think attracts people to your work? Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and The City of Falling Angelsīoth multi-list bestsellers and widely acclaimed books. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else.Interview John Berendt describes the stylistic links between Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and his more recent book, The City of Falling Angels, and the aspects of Venice he most enjoys after living there on and off for nine years. The story is peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman's Card Club the turbulent young redneck gigolo the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah the aging and profane Southern belle who is the 'soul of pampered self-absorption' the uproarious black drag queen the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. Berendt interweaves a first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. John Berendt's narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. ~ Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. This portrait of a beguiling Southern city was a best-seller (though a flop as a movie). A sublime and seductive reading experience.

Berendt john