80 pages • 2 hours read
John BerendtMidnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1994A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Part 1, Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “An Evening in Mercer House”
The author interviews Jim Williams, owner of the Mercer House, one of the grandest homes in Savannah, Georgia. Jim is affable and open about his modest origins growing up in Gordon, Georgia, and his transformation into one of the richest residents of Savannah. He earned his fortune through both real estate and the antiques business: “Williams had played an active role in the restoration of Savannah’s historic district, starting in the mid-1950s” (5). After finishing restoring the Mercer House, he throws a glamorous Christmas party that soon becomes one of Savannah’s most sought-after annual events of the year.
As Williams takes Berendt on a tour of his home and the grounds, which together take up an entire city block, Williams tells Berendt various stories not only about himself but also of Savannah’s elite. In the middle of telling a story about how Jacqueline Onassis stopped by for an unannounced tour of his home, the two men are interrupted by a young man who comes into the house yelling, “Goddammit! Goddamn bitch!” (17). After the man drinks a full glass of vodka, he storms out, driving away with squealing tires. Williams explains that the man, Danny Hansford, works for him part-time restoring furniture. He says that Hansford often acts this way, and when Berendt expresses surprise that Williams would put up with such behavior, Williams explains that Berendt helps him with his health: “I have hypoglycemia […] and lately I’ve been blacking out. Hansford stays here sometimes to baby-sit me when I’m not feeling well” (20).
Berendt expresses doubts about the wisdom of such an arrangement, especially when he learns that Hansford took one of Williams’s guns, but Williams claims to believe in using “sheer concentration” (22) to improve Hansford’s behavior. Williams then promises to invite Berendt to his Christmas party, revealing that he has two parties, the famous one and a “gentlemen only” party. Berendt asks for an invitation to the party “least likely to involve gunfire” (23).
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “Destination Unknown”
The author provides personal background information and explains how he discovered Savannah. Berendt was a food writer in New York during the 1980s, a time of cheap of airfares. Cheap flights encouraged him to travel around the country on short weekend trips. When he travels with a small group to Charleston, South Carolina, he decides to head down to Savannah on his own to extend his trip. Savannah has fascinated him since he was a child, through his readings of Treasure Island and an old Savannah newspaper clipping lining his wooden chest with the heading “Tango is No Sign of Insanity, Holds Jury” (26).
His fascination grows as he learns more about Savannah from Mary Harty, a long-time Savannah resident. She regales him with stories about Savannah’s unique character and some of the more famous and infamous episodes in Savannah history. She takes him to the grave of Conrad Aiken, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and novelist, where they drink martinis and look out over the river to watch the ships go by. Berendt decides to make Savannah his second home. Gradually, he begins to spend more time in Savannah and less time in New York.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “The Sentimental Gentleman”
The narrator provides some Savannah history, explaining that the historic district of Savannah was built before the Civil War. During the Civil War, the Savannah mayor met with General William Tecumseh Sherman, surrendering the city to him, and in return, Sherman agreed not to burn the city. After the war, Savannah prospered again, but after the financial panic of 1892, Savannah’s economic fortunes declined. Many of the grand homes of the historic district also suffered decline until the 1950s, when residents began working to preserve Savannah’s historic district.
Once Berendt moves to Savannah, he notices piano playing coming from his neighbor’s home at all hours. Eventually, he meets Joe Odom, his neighbor and the piano player, and Odom’s girlfriend Mandy Nichols. Odom’s electricity is cut off during a party, so he taps into his next-door neighbor’s electricity to restore the air conditioning, and his guests cheer. Odom warmly greets Berendt, welcoming him to his home and to Savannah. He explains that he works from home as a tax lawyer and real estate broker. He also explains that he leaves his doors unlocked since he has friends coming in and out of his townhouse constantly: “It got to be too much trouble going down to answer it all the time” (46).
Despite Odom’s theft of electricity, Berendt finds his neighbor charming: “Later, as he saw me to the door, he joked and bantered with such easy grace that I did not fully realize until I got home that in the course of saying good-bye he had borrowed twenty dollars from me” (50).
Part 1, Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The initial chapters of the book are full of unforgettable character sketches. Strange and fascinating people seem to exist everywhere in steamy Savannah. While Mary Harty and Jim Williams focus on the excessiveness, wildness, and violence of some of Savannah’s more infamous residents, the characters in Joe Odom’s townhouse are friendly and approachable. This is particularly true of Odom, who welcomes Berendt, a stranger, to the non-stop party culture of Savannah. While Williams concerns himself with controlling who enters his home, meticulously creating a guest list all year long, Odom has no such concerns, keeping his doors unlocked so that guests can wander in and out at will. Berendt is happy for the invitation to the party, grateful for an entrance into this intoxicating world and charmed by his friendly neighbors, who assure him that they are always there if he ever needs help. And yet, Berendt cannot help but notice the contrast of such warm openness with Odom’s theft of the electricity and casual borrowing of $20 as Berendt leaves the party.
Although Mary Harty emphasizes that Savannah is “gloriously isolated” (29), it does not take long for Berendt to penetrate that isolation and gain admittance to both the highly sought after Gatsby-esque Christmas parties held by Jim Williams as well as the more informal, 24-7 “open house” (45) parties presided by Joe Odom and his cast of unusual characters. But presiding over all these parties is a sense of foreboding due to Harty’s story about Conrad Aiken’s parents. Aiken’s mother was killed, according to Harty, because she gave too many parties and the father was tired of it: “The Aikens were living well beyond their means at the time. Anna Aiken went out to parties practically every other night” (34). This suggests that the prevalence of parties in these early chapters may lead to more violence. The inclusion of Danny’s outburst in Williams’s home heightens the suspense, further suggesting that some future violence is not far off.
