Florence Martus, who spent decades waving at passing ships, is memorialized by this riverside statue.

Savannah has suffered an invasion. It started with a visit by a seemingly innocent writer from New York. He became enchanted with the city and decided to write a book about the people he met there. That book is now referred to in Savannah as "The Book," a pronoun that could be mistaken for none other than John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Because of The Book, Mr. Berendt became the advance scouting party for the invasion, an invasion that takes the form of millions of tourists who flock to the city to join the pageant that is Savannah.

Most cities beset by such an invasion would slam their doors shut and circle the wagons, but Savannah seems to thoroughly enjoy the attention, like a southern lady whose invitation-only party has been crashed by Hollywood celebrities. In recent years, tours of the city have been altered to feature prominent settings in The Book, and there are even citywide tours that focus exclusively on The Book. Shops feature Midnight related merchandise. Restaurants advertise their mentions in The Book, and everyone in town seems to have an opinion about how the real-life events of The Book really happened.

We didn't read The Book until after our visit to Savannah, an approach that has its merits, as it allowed us to form our own opinions about the city. But now that we've read The Book, we can say that Mr. Berendt's insights about the city are so charming and informative that we are drawn back to Savannah so that we can enjoy it from an "insider's" point of view.

If you can't get to Savannah anytime soon, do the next best thing and read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. But be warned, if you do read The Book, you'll probably find that whatever sanity may have prevented you from jumping in your car and driving to Savannah from wherever you are won't seem quite so sane anymore.