52 in 2011
May. 4th, 2011 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumineaux38. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Usually I avoid standard best-sellers like the plague. However, many moons ago, I picked this one up in the Detroit airport while stuck there for far too many hours, and found it quite the enjoyable read. It's a fictionalized non-fiction book about Berendt's stay in the city of Savannah, Georgia in the 1980s, and the quirky characters he meets there. It's also the story of Jim Williams, a local Savannah notable, who shoots and kills his much younger gay lover. Williams is tried four times for murder. The first three convictions are reversed due to prosecutorial stupidity, and Williams is eventually acquitted based on a dubious self-defense argument. The book is more of a sketch than a detailed true crime analysis. Berendt is more interested in people than forensics or legal argument. He devotes at least as much page time to Williams' voodoo priestess friend as to his lawyer and his lawyer's bulldog.
Upon re-reading, I was surprised at how dated some of the attitudes portrayed in the story are. I had to go back and confirm precisely when these events took place -- the shooting happened in 1981, and Williams' final acquittal came in 1989.
Usually I avoid standard best-sellers like the plague. However, many moons ago, I picked this one up in the Detroit airport while stuck there for far too many hours, and found it quite the enjoyable read. It's a fictionalized non-fiction book about Berendt's stay in the city of Savannah, Georgia in the 1980s, and the quirky characters he meets there. It's also the story of Jim Williams, a local Savannah notable, who shoots and kills his much younger gay lover. Williams is tried four times for murder. The first three convictions are reversed due to prosecutorial stupidity, and Williams is eventually acquitted based on a dubious self-defense argument. The book is more of a sketch than a detailed true crime analysis. Berendt is more interested in people than forensics or legal argument. He devotes at least as much page time to Williams' voodoo priestess friend as to his lawyer and his lawyer's bulldog.
Upon re-reading, I was surprised at how dated some of the attitudes portrayed in the story are. I had to go back and confirm precisely when these events took place -- the shooting happened in 1981, and Williams' final acquittal came in 1989.
