John Berendt Heads to Venice
Posted on September 29, 2005
Over ten years ago it wasn't The Da Vinci Code atop all the bestseller lists. It was John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Vintage) that perched there for four years while more than 3 million copies were sold. The book was was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize. But the author didn't publish another book until this month, a nonfiction work about Venice entitled The City of Falling Angels (Penguin). Berendt talked to the Stamford Advocate about his hiatus and why his new book is set in Venice.
"Well, 'Midnight' came out in January 1994," the author says, speaking by telephone from his Manhattan home. "For two years, I was taken up with the aftershocks. I always wanted to write another book, so I had to back up and ask, 'What worked?' It was characters, place. So I thought, 'What other place?' "We're glad he's got a new book out: it's definitely on our "To Be Read" list.Berendt gravitated to the city of canals and black gondolas because, as a frequent visitor, he was mesmerized by Venice's grandeur, history and intrigue. "To me, Venice was not merely beautiful; it was beautiful everywhere," he writes. He saw parallels with Savannah in that "they're both isolated cities . . . geographically, emotionally and culturally. They're both steeped in history and tradition and inwardly looking." Just as Savannah locals view themselves as a breed apart, he says, "Venetians look to themselves as Venetians first and Italians second."
There were problems. The deadline for "City" came due two years ago. Berendt admits he finished the book just months before publication. "You have to allow for laziness," he says. "And I bought a house, and before I knew it, it was 11 years."