🦃 Nonfiction November

Heading South for the winter; Buying a house—in this economy?; No one's reading; Everyone wants to read; and much more...

Nov 02, 2025

Your Inside Voice is a curated cultural newsletter brought to you by Pragmatic, the IP/literary scouting advisory that helps film & tv producers find, acquire, and develop material for the screen.

THE MAIN COURSE

MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL by John Berendt | Random House

The South is having a moment. Bloomberg said so back in August. The New York Times gave the region the full three-talking-heads video treatment in October (which, weirdly, posits that America loves to hate the South?). And The Wall Street Journal might have been first out of the gate when, last year, it alerted its readership to the fact that (relatively) affordably priced colleges in (relatively) warm climes exist.

But the South has long been the foundation of much of popular culture in America—from the Confederate flag–adorned Dukes of Hazzard in the early ’80s to the chokehold that Southern rap (by way of Houston, Atlanta, and New Orleans) had on ’90s and 2000s music—even if the way it’s received by the rest of America is changing (see also: Hunting Wives).

It’s almost impossible to have any conversation in contemporary America without talking about politics because, well, you know. But seeing Southern culture primarily as an avatar for—or in service of—a particular political moment, as many of these hot Southern takes do, is to minimize the most interesting and fruitful part of any discussion of its place in American history or contemporary culture.

To really begin to grasp all that’s going on beneath the surface in what’s arguably America’s most layered and complicated cultural milieu, one must start with its characters.

And that is just what John Berendt did thirty years ago with his New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize finalist—and this month’s book pick—Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Originally published in January 1994 and adapted by Warner Bros. into the (forgettable, some say) 1997 Clint Eastwood–directed film starring John Cusack, the book was reissued by Random House last year with a new foreword by Berendt.

Squarely in the Southern Gothic tradition, Midnight is a lush, slow-burn true crime set in Savannah’s shaded courtyards—a portrait of vanity, charm, and moral rot. At its center is the shooting of a young man by a prominent antiques dealer, a crime that unravels the city’s polite façade one secret—and one eccentric character—at a time. Berendt embedded himself in the community for the long haul, and he’s as much a character as any he found in Savannah. The nonfiction account reads like a sumptuous novel, and to finish reading it is to wish the experience weren’t over.

Whether it’s your first time encountering the book or your third, the ride you’ll go on while turning its pages is singular. The characters Berendt meets would be enthralling enough in their own right. But brought together in this narrative—by this writer, in this setting—you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more immersive, enjoyable, and yet still layered and complicated nonfiction read. In many ways, it was ahead of its time. It’s capital-T, capital-C True Crime, published twenty years before Serial Season 1 murder-pilled the podcast industry.

YOUR SOMMELIER’S PAIRING

BEST OFFER WINS by Marisa Kashino | Celadon | November 25, 2025

This is the first weekend since the ninth season of Selling Sunset dropped on Netflix on October 29. And if you’re a Sunset-head (is that a thing?), you’ve undoubtedly burned through every episode already. Still craving some of that real-estate-backed backstabbing magic the reality series does so well? Might we suggest picking up Marisa Kashino’s upcoming novel, Best Offer Wins, to scratch that same itch?

The novel is a send-up of the real estate market, following one woman pushed to extremes in pursuit of her dream home in the hypercompetitive D.C. suburbs. There’s an affair to contend with, of course, and a key character reveals herself to be utterly unhinged—in the best possible way.

THE CHEESE COURSE

🤹🏼

DESSERT

Fewer People Are Reading for Fun, Study Finds - The New York Times

No one’s reading.

“A Uniquely Portable Magic”: Why Book Publishing Has Hope | Bain & Company

Just kidding! Gen Z is so tired of screens that they’re packing analog bags. Book publishing, please step into your light and seize this day by setting trends rather than following them—sooner rather than later.

Why Everything Became Television by Derek Thompson | Substack

Scrolling is the new flipping channels (on steroids, six different kinds of uppers, and hallucinogens all at once).

DIGESTIF

@itsvanesem AND I OOP 🥴 not me being at the scene of the crime #paris #louvremuseum #louvre

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