Murder in Savannah.

My parents recently passed along the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. My mother had definitely read it and my father is pretty sure he read it at one time. They both seemed to have remembered enjoying it, but their recollections were vague at best. I think I asked them out of curiosity what their motivation was for passing it along to me (as in why they thought of me and brought it, as opposed to any other book, across four States to put it in my possession), but my memory of their response is...vague at best. Maybe its genetic; this familial tendency to wander about in an apparent haze of apathetic ambiguity.

As I was reading it though, I felt a real connection to it. Not because of its nonfiction story set in Savannah, Georgia, which I've driven through, but never really spent any significant amount of time in, but rather in the author's connection to Savannah and his recounting of his experiences there as a form of storytelling travelogue. John Berendt is a writer who lived in New York who, after visiting Savannah, Georgia, ended up returning more and more until he found himself making it a second home. These are his words: "Over a period of eight years [...] my stays in Savannah became longer and my return trips to New York shorter. At times, I came to think of myself as living in Savannah. I found myself involved in an adventure peopled by an unusual assortment of characters and enlivened by a series of strange events, up to and including murder." As Berendt recounts his experiences, focusing heavily on a high-profile murder that took place during those eight years, it becomes evident that he was making it a point to "soak up" as much of Savannah and its people as he possibly could. Or, to use a phrase I'm fond of for explaining my time and focus in North Carolina, he wanted to "milk the area and the experience for all it was worth". This is where I really felt connected to Berendt and the story.

Similarly, Hendersonville, North Carolina was a place I visited with no intention of living during my time residing in Los Angeles, California and between moves from L.A. to Tokyo, Japan. An initial trip during that time turned into several small "visits" of varying lengths of duration. When I made up my mind to return to the States from Japan, for the first time I found myself thinking of Hendersonville as a place to live for awhile. Like Berendt, I moved from a major world city to a much smaller town and a drastically different lifestyle in the Southeast United States and chose to make it a home in an affection for the area and a desire to know it personally and on a deeper level. Also, like Berendt, my identity as a writer plays heavily into my time here and my focus.

Before my local friends and acquaintances become extremely self-conscious and wary of me let me say that I'm not currently planning on writing a specific memoir that would focus on and take place in Hendersonville and if I one day do so I will change names and protect friends as I do in my blog. I have no interest in airing anyone else's dirty laundry and I am the sole fool and laughing stock of my adventures. If anything I will one day tell a less focused story that would cover my time and experiences in Western North Carolina. Sure, Hendersonville and its inhabitants would play strongly in the tale, but it's not a current project. I'm also here as a vagabonder who wants to "milk the area and the experience for all its worth" outside of any writing motivations. It is inevitable, however, that as a writer it will find its way into my work whether directly or indirectly.

It was in this way though that I felt connected to John Berendt and the story he was telling in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Maybe my parents subconsciously recognized this connection even though they couldn't articulate it when I asked. Maybe they didn't recognize it at all, but it was one of those books that was suppose to find its way into my hands to better illuminate the path that I am meant to walk. Either way I'm glad I read this book. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in Savannah, the Southeast and southern living, real-life crime, travel and travel writing, or vagabonding with a purpose. I wouldn't recommend it to those who demand their crime and mystery novels be full of gunfights, espionage, government cover-ups and involvement, and international crime syndicates. To assuage any literary concerns though I will pass along that Midnight... is a multi-year national bestseller.

If you've read this book I'd love for you to drop a comment and let me know what you thought of it. If you haven't read it do you think you ever will? I look forward to hearing from you.