Seattle Gay News
Issue 24, Volume 39, June 17, 2011
Section 4 BOOK GUIDE
John Berendt The author speaks on the reality he spins into his best-selling novels Graziano Arici
John Berendt
by Eric Andrews-Katz SGN A&E Writer John Berendt has a long list of writing credits to his name. He’s a Harvard alumnus, having worked on the famous Harvard Lampoon, has been both an associate editor and a columnist for Esquire, and editor of New York magazine. But it was a fortuitous visit to Savannah that led to writing the bestselling Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a non-fiction novel that was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize. Another serendipitous trip led to his next literary accomplishment, The City of Falling Angels, which focuses on the dubious 1996 fire at Venice’s Teatro la Fenice opera house. In this book, Berendt again reveals a carefully woven tale involving another reallife cast of eccentric characters. They range from New York socialites to the Rat Man of Treviso, and include Peggy Guggenheim, Henry James, the poet Ezra Pound, and the violinist Olga Rudge.
In celebration of Gay Pride, Ber- made me realize that real life, endt graciously agreed to an inter- the life going on right in front of view. my nose, could be material for a book if handled properly. E r i c My parents were devoted to A nd rews - books. The house was full of Katz: What them. Books and writers were a u t h o r s highly regarded in our house. I first influ- liked the idea of writing, and as enced you I went through school, I develto become a oped a talent for it and enjoyed writer? it (although even now the proJohn Be- cess of writing can frequently rendt: The be torture). Writers who influenced me early on? Dickens, definitely. While I was growing up we had an old l e a t h e r- b o u n d set of his novels with those wonderful [George] Cruikshank illustrations. I read them one after the other, lost myself in them. first would Later on, I came have to be under the thrall my mother. of Southern writShe wrote a ers: Truman Canovel called pote, Flannery S m a l l O’Connor, EuWorld that dora Welty, Tencame out nessee Williams when I was – especially Wil11. It was liams’ short stoabout our family – my parents, my ries, even more than his plays. sister, and me. For me, it served as a dramatic, first person introducsee berendt page 21 tion to the art of nonfiction. It also