MIDNIGHT LINKS: Transcript of on-line interview
Edited transcript of the @times Auditorium event held on Mon., May 8, 1995, with John Berendt, author of the best-selling book, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." Copyright © 1995 The New York Times.
ElliottNYT: Good evening and welcome to tonight's event. I'm Elliott Rebhun, the editor of @times. Our guest tonight is John Berendt, the author of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."
ElliottNYT: Before we start with the Q&A, here's a bio of our guest.
John Berendt was born in New York in 1939 and graduated from Harvard (cum laude) in 1961. While at Harvard, he was on the editorial board of the Harvard Lampoon. From 1961 to 1969, he was an associate editor at Esquire, and later wrote for David Frost and Dick Cavett.
Berendt served as editor of New York magazine from 1977 to 1979, and has written a monthly column for Esquire since 1982. "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is Berendt's first book, and has been on The New York Times Best Seller's list for 61 weeks.
ElliottNYT: John, welcome to the @times auditorium. We hope you enjoy your first on-line appearance.
JBerendt 1: Thanks.
ElliottNYT: For our first question: Where did you get the inspiration or the idea to write "Midnight?"
JBerendt 1: I fell in love with Savannah. Actually, I was seduced by the city.
ElliottNYT: How did you wind up in Savannah in the first place, and what was it that seduced you?
JBerendt 1: I took a weekend trip to Charleston, S.C., and on the spur of the moment went down to Savannah. The vegetation and the old houses -- those were the things that "seduced" me first.
ElliottNYT: Lulujay asks: How did you go about writing your book? For instance, did you carry a notebook and constantly scribble notes? If so, how did people react to that?
JBerendt 1: Yes, I carried a notebook in my back pocket. During the first year I also used a tape recorder. But the book took seven years to write, and I did not use a tape recorder in years two through seven. People were bemused by my notetaking.
ElliottNYT: Iglehop wants to know: To what do you attribute the enormous success of "Midnight?"
JBerendt 1: The cover of the book. The title. The enchantment of Savannah. The discovery of a "new" town. The terrific characters. The fact that I was not a judgmental narrator. Also, it's a funny book.
ElliottNYT: Tell us about the cover of the book. Who came up with the idea? It's quite striking.
JBerendt 1: The cover is a photograph of a statue of a girl, "The Bird Girl," holding two dishes, one in each hand. The statue is, or was, in Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah. So many tourists trampled the plot to get to it and pose with it that the family spirited it away one night. However, a copy, made from the same mold, just spent two weeks in the window of Macy's.
ElliottNYT: Speaking of tourists, what effect has the book had on Savannah?
JBerendt 1: According to the Georgia Department of Trade and Tourism, tourism is up 46 percent because of "Midnight," and this translates into $100 million into the economy of Savannah.
ElliottNYT: DPReligion, from Virginia, asks: Do you consider yourself a TRUE journalist; I ask because in "Garden" you appear to string together events and dialogue that did not occur word for word or in the sequence you presented it. If you truly did this -- a la Joe McGinnis in "The Last Brother" -- how can you, and should you have, called the book a work of nonfiction?
JBerendt 1: Yes, I do consider "Midnight" to be a work of nonfiction. I did my best to reconstruct dialogue as it happened. When possible I checked with the actual characters. McGinnis actually made up stuff, put thoughts in Teddy Kennedy's head. I did not pretend to know what people were thinking.
ElliottNYT: Here's one from New York: How have the people in your book reacted? Are you still invited to all the parties? Is anyone suing you?
JBerendt 1: Nobody has sued. I am still invited to parties and into homes in Savannah. I have also been given the keys to the city. The reactions in Savannah have been overwhelmingly favorable. Even some of the people who came off not so well in the book have come to like it....sort of. I'm told Lee Adler sent out Christmas cards that had a photo of him standing in his window looking through binoculars at Jim Williams's house.
ElliottNYT: Animaniaac asks the question that many people have posed: Have they started making the movie of Midnight? Who has been cast in the leading roles? When will it be out?
JBerendt 1: The movie rights were bought by Warner Bros. I declined their invitation to write the script. So, John Lee Hancock is writing it instead. I'm told he's terrific, which gives me hope. But I told the producers I am prepared to hate the movie. I hope I don't. I also warned them that, nice as I am, I could turn into Anne Rice if need be.
ElliottNYT: Why did you pass on the chance to write the script? Wouldn't that have given you greater control?
JBerendt 1: I passed on the script because I would not have control anyway and because I know nothing about writing scripts and because I could not face tearing apart a book I had taken seven years to put together.
ElliottNYT: Have any decisions been made about who will play the main characters?
JBerendt 1: There are some names being tossed around. Tommy Lee Jones for Jim Williams and Brad Pitt for Danny Hansford. There is some thought of casting the narrator, me, with Ralph Fiennes.
ElliottNYT: From Hamlet to Berendt!
JBerendt 1: But then, again, I did hear one idea -- since scrapped -- of casting Jodie Foster as the narrator! So you see why this whole movie thing gives me the hives.
ElliottNYT: Hawk50 asks: From your research, do you believe Jim Williams should have been convicted for the murder of Danny?
JBerendt 1: I very carefully left that unsaid. Ambiguity is a powerful tool.
ElliottNYT: Kris10phi wants to know: What an enthralling book! Please tell me what happened to Chablis -- the drag queen -- and where she is now?
JBerendt 1: She is in Savannah, raking in the tourist dollars at Club One. And she is writing her autobiography for Simon & Schuster, with the help of a ghost writer. And she was paid an advance of $100,000. I only got $67,500, and my book was done when I got it.
ElliottNYT: Any chance she'll be in the movie?
JBerendt 1: She will be screen-tested as will any of the REAL characters who want to play themselves. That is one thing I made the producers promise.
ElliottNYT: Iglehop asks: Where was the book headed before the "incident?"
JBerendt 1: This is the one storytelling license I took: The murder had already happened when I arrived in Savannah. All the facts are true except the "fact" that the narrator gets there before the shooting. I thought that it would be best to introduce the reader to all the characters before the shooting. Then they would be as surprised as all the Savannahians were when it happened.
ElliottNYT: Many audience members want to know what's next for you? Bas616 asks: Mr. Berendt, if a story creates itself, will you write a sequel? Your book was great!
JBerendt 1: I will not write a sequel to "Midnight." But I will write another book. I am looking actively for another topic, story, setting... In the meantime I have written a piece for the New Yorker (published Jan. 17, 1995) and I have just finished a piece for Vanity Fair on the writer Pat Conroy, which will be in the July issue.
ElliottNYT: GlvBxGd1 asks: Mr. Berendt, seeing how there don't seem to be many cities like Savannah, are you thinking of writing another book like "Midnight" on Charleston, S.C.?
JBerendt 1: There are rumors in four cities: Charleston, Nashville, Charlotte and New Orleans that I am hard at work on books about those cities. None of the rumors is true....
That is not to say I won't do a book on one of those cities sometime. I have no plans to do one now.
ElliottNYT: How do you compare cities like Charleston and New Orleans to Savannah. Are they at all alike?
JBerendt 1: Charleston is a much more cosmopolitan town, not as isolated as Savannah. It is also marvelously beautiful. New Orleans is far crazier than either of those two cities.
ElliottNYT: TommyT109 wants to know who your favorite authors are?
JBerendt 1: Flannery O'Connor.
ElliottNYT: Did you try to evoke O'Connor or anyone else in "Midnight?"
JBerendt 1: No. I tried NOT to be like anybody else. I also should say I admire Truman Capote's narrative style. And I would recommend that people read Tennessee Williams's short stories. They are overshadowed by the plays, but they are wonderful.
ElliottNYT: RachelTRu has this straightforward query: How many copies of the book have sold?
JBerendt 1: To date: 531,000
ElliottNYT: When's the paperback version due? Will it have the same cover?
JBerendt 1: It was supposed to have come out in January. Then it was postponed to March. Then May. Then June. Then July. Then indefinitely -- because the hardcover is still selling quite well. It will be a trade paperback, published by Vintage.
ElliottNYT: DStroud asks: Where is Jim Williams buried? Who now owns Mercer House and what has happened to his mother? She was a very nice, quiet, genteel lady, as I remember her during the trial.
JBerendt 1: Jim Williams is buried in Gordon, Ga. His sister lives in the house now. And his mother still lives in Gordon, Ga.
ElliottNYT: How did your research affect your notions of voodoo?
JBerendt 1: I'm charmed by voodoo, but that's about all.
ElliottNYT: What's it like living in two cities as different as New York and Savannah? Which do you prefer?
JBerendt 1: I preferred Savannah while I was writing the book. But actually, New York is more my style and pace.
ElliottNYT: Leftish asks: In addition to reading "Midnight," which I loved, I recently heard your comments about Nashville, my hometown, on NPR. I was surprised at your seeming distaste for the more earthy parts of the South. Don't you like biscuits as much as caviar?
JBerendt 1: I did not have "distaste" for the country music side of Nashville. My point was that the Old Nashvilleans were embarrassed by that image of their CITY.
ElliottNYT: Moonmo asks: Is one able to tour Jim Williams's home now?
JBerendt 1: No, you cannot tour Mercer House. But you can tour the Hamilton-Turner House, and if you knock on Sonny Seiler's door -- the huge Armstrong Mansion -- I am sure he'll show you around. You can take one of several competing "Midnight" tours offered by the local tour companies.
ElliottNYT: Bassano wants to know: Speaking of ambiguity and powerful tools, did Danny Hansford's mother ever get a settlement over her suit?
JBerendt 1: Yes. She got about $15,000, which she had to share with her lawyer. I met her and liked her enormously, but after my interview with her, she gave me a lawyer's letter refusing permission to publish anything she had told me. I left her out of the book, naturally. Then I sent her a copy of the book when it came out, and she sent me a lovely letter saying she loved the book and was sorry she had behaved "so badly." I told her not to worry.
ElliottNYT: We have time for a few more questions for John Berendt. Here's one from JIMMYOLSON: What is it about the South that attracts writers to it?
JBerendt 1: The story-telling tradition, for one thing. Also the South tends to encourage eccentricities. Why I don't know.
ElliottNYT: JMacbmac asks: How did the book get published? Was it rejected by any house?
JBerendt 1: It was not rejected by any of the four publishers my agent sent it to. But my original agent DID reject it. She told me it read very well but that it was just "too local." This book that was "too local" is being translated into Japanese, German, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian and Portuguese. It is also a bestseller in the U.K. -- England, Ireland, Australia and South Africa.
ElliottNYT: Moon212 asks: Are you and your friends still making those trips to different cities that led to this book?
JBerendt 1: Sadly, no. The air fares have gone back up.
ElliottNYT: John, for our final question, can you tell us a bit about what you're working on now?
JBerendt 1: I'm working on an answer to that question.
ElliottNYT: John, thanks for being with us. We've enjoyed having you!
JBerendt 1: And I've enjoyed being here.
ElliottNYT: Thanks for coming, everyone. And goodnight from The Times!
