The Emperor of Ocean Park

Rating:
Summary: Slow start, but Great Book!
Review: I'll be honest, it took me over 3 weeks to get past page 50. The book takes a while to get into. Very wordy in the beginning. In some spots, the Author uses words for the sake of words.... But if you can make it to page 117, it starts to pick up and get better.
Again: You must read to page 117 before the book gets interesting. Yes, it's painful, but trust me, it will be well worth the effort!

Rating:
Summary: Too long>>.
Review: This book was entirely too long...If it held my interest it would not have been so bad. I honestly attempted to read this book twice. I have no problems reading, I am an avid reader as a matter of fact. If a book is well written, has astounding characters and an excellent plot, I am usually finished in one week-end. This book, I don't know...I feel it could have been edited much better. Was it really necessary to know what the characters thought about every second.(I thought the main character was kind of wimpy ). I lost interest so many times and by the time I reached page 400 and the book failed to reveal the plot I called it quits. Ususally when I read a book by page 450 the book begins to wrap up.

I hope the movie is better. I heard that the rights have already been sold. When his next book comes out, I will either wait for the paper back version or I will borrow it from the library..The price was entirely to steep for someone like me who did not enjoy this book

Rating:
Summary: Lots of words; little reward
Review: Tedious. Not entertaining. The motto of this epic should be 'If 10 words will do, use 1000.' The author would make a great technical writer. He could give an excellent 500 page summary on how to build a watch. But don't read it if you don't have the time.

Rating:
Summary: Satisfying, but not a revelation
Review: "Emperor of Ocean Park" is two novels in one. The first is the story of a man facing the disintegration of his family and ideals that reads like a reactionary tract (i.e., ambitious, career minded wife who only thinks of money and her job). The second story is a murder mystery/thriller of sorts. The combination of the two themes strikes many as being fresh and unique, but quite honestly, while the racial theme is indeed a breath of fresh air, the interweaving of domestic drama, complex mystery and red herrings by the truckload has been done many times on television shows such as "The Edge of Night" and "As the World Turns." This does not diminish Carter's work, indeed, nobody told a story like "Edge" or "World" in their heydays, but as far as being new and unique, "Emperor" isn't. While these combined themes of family and crime work on the small screen where they unravel for months at a time, "Emperor" tends to feel a bit crammed with subplots and extraneous characters. I had difficulty at times trying to keep all the characters straight, what with the various nicknames, surnames, and familial connections. There are so many characters in this novel (and so many of them unlikeable) that I would often spend several minutes trying to remember whom the narrator was talking about.

This book was enjoyable (if a bit over the top) as a mystery, but the narration of the novel is a bit flat. I can't say I felt much for the narrator, Tal, Talcott, Misha. It's hard to feel much for a narrator who accentuates the negative. The negativity and bitterness in the character sometimes just went a bit too far. Except when it came to his son. Oh lord, he loves his son Bentley, as we learn over and over (mainly because he keeps saying it - methinks the man doth protest too much). Unfortunately, I, the constant reader, came to loathe his son who refers to himself in the 3rd person and says "pwaygrown" so many times that you wonder if Carter was being paid by the word. Hint to all writers: let us now and forever place a moratorium on baby talk and gibberish; it's not cute, it's just silly.

Parts of the novel seemed rather implausible, and none more than the academic dinner party where the Baptist Minister holds court talking about the power and evil of Satan while everybody politely listens. First off: why the odd juxtaposition of guests? Secondly: academics listening politely? Give me a break. The scene was much harder to digest than even the action packed, begging-to-be-a-movie climax of the novel. The entire scene was forced. I sure wouldn't want to have a man expounding on Satan while I am trying to eat my salad.

This is a fair first novel. The writing does keep you guessing, and slapping your forehead with "Oh my gosh, that's who it is!" which is a joy. At the same time, the tendency of Carter to end every chapter on a cliffhanger (a favorite literary device of R.L. Stine in his "Fear Street" books), the (at times) absurd mystery and clues (complete with a "Yes, yes it was me all along and now you die, ha ha ha ha ha!" villain), the negative, reactionary tone and the one note characters, not to mention the mysterious ability of Talcott Garland to not knowing how to "wink" to magically "winking" 100 pages later tend to keep this novel from being truly great. Nevertheless, this a summer read that you won't forget.

Carter has the intelligence and writing flair to keep this novel from being a waste of time. His reflections on the African-American middle class adds a unique twist, one inetresting enough that I hope Carter will explore it more in future (and less pessismistic) novels. "The Emperor of Ocean Park" is not in the league of Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance" or Richard Russo's "Nobody's Fool", but it's a notable debut nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: The most overwritten book I've seen in years
Review: This is a perfect example of today's extremely overwritten book. This book should have been half of its 580 page length. The overall story idea was good, but the execution -- the endless minutiae, the overkill on the themes of the upperclass black -- just turned into a complete mess. The hokey cliffhangers that formed the basis for ending almost every chapter were so amateurish and formulaic I was actually embarrassed for the author.

What's become of today's editors? Why don't they edit (and cut) anymore? What's become of the single detail that commutes volumes about a situation, a character? This was an assault on my patience. I had to bail out after getting half-way through it. Guess I'll have to wait for the movie version to find out what happened.

Rating:
Summary: It was good, but........
Review: Whew, this was a whole lot of reading. Now to condense this 654 page book into a few paragraphs. This can be challenging because there are a lot of characters and a lot of plots, twist and turns.

Talcott Warner or Misha as friends and family call him get word that his father the "Judge" has died of a heart attack. At the cemetery Uncle Jack confronts him about the "arrangement", that his father left. The next day after burying his father, he is confronted by the "FBI" about this same "arrangement". The only problem is that Misha does not know anything about it, the Judge has not shared any information with him. Misha could think of many secrets that the judge may have held, but which one everyone is looking for is beyond him.

Much of the book is devoted to Misha trying to figure out the arrangement. The only clue is for him to decipher the coded note the Judge left for him at the Vineyard house. He could only wonder what Double Excelsior means. He knows it's a chess term but what does it have to do with the arrangement? In his search for answers, Misha has questions for many of his father's friends who are politicians and are colleagues of his at the Elm Harbor Law School. In his search for answers, his behavior becomes bizarre which makes family and friends question is sanity.

Not only is Misha trying to figure out the arrangement, his wife Kimmer is being considered for Judge in the Court of Appeals and is running against one of Misha's colleagues. There is evidence of sabotaging his nomination and Misha is suspected. Misha and Kimmer are in an unhappy marriage and he suspects she is having an affair with her boss. His sister is convinced the Judge was murdered and is conducting her own investigation into his death. There are still unanswered questions revolving around his sister, Abby's death decades ago. People are following Misha; people are turning up dead. Misha believes all these occurrences are connected to the "arrangement". It is a wonder Misha is able to hold it all together.

This book is long, wordy and the reading very slow. It takes too long for the climax, whereas, after about page 450 or so, I was getting tired of reading and just wanted answers, the mystery to be solved and the story to end. Especially since Misha would state he had something figured out and then the reader would have to read another 50-100 pages to find out what it is he has figured out. For example, he figured out who "Angela's boyfriend" was and it was about 100 pages before it was revealed, meanwhile we had to read about visitation with his child, graduation day at the Law School and his commencement speech. Then after all the searching, Misha did just what I thought he would do. The culprit? Yes, I was surprised.

Overall, I thought it was a good read. I will just warn the reader to have a lot of time available to devote to reading.

Jeanette
APOOO BookClub

Rating:
Summary: An Absolute Delight
Review: It is not the destination but the journey that percolates here.
The Odyssey is about Odysseus' journey home; but the meat of the story is in the little side journeys the protagonist takes. Talcott Garland's odyssey is the vehicle by which we get to glimpse an engaging panorama of a certain kind of life in twentieth century America. The novel is touted as being a nice little thriller with rather provocative views of the African American upper middle class; academia in a high strata law school; and the judicial appointment process for the two highest courts in the land. The novel opens with the untimely death of the eminent Judge Oliver Garland. The buzz is that Judge Garland wanted certain rascals exposed in the event that he died under suspicious circumstances. The Judge himself had been denied a seat on the United State Supreme Court because of scandal. The inference the reader is to make is that whatever "arrangements" the good judge left behind will partially answer questions about the so-called scandal: thus mitigating the judge's fall from grace; and possibly exposing or implicating powerful and important personalities in some elaborate scheme of intrigue. Talcott Garland, (Misha to family and close friends, Tal to his colleagues) the youngest of Judge Garland's children, has been pushed or pulled by circumstances to try to find the answer to the riddle of the "arrangements" his Sphinx like father hid. While on his journey, Misha like great Odysseus comes face to face with death several times in several ways: physically, mentally and spiritually. Along the way several characters are determined to complicate obfuscate or otherwise distract Misha from his appointed task. The diversions Misha faces are the stuff of which the energy of the novel hums. These are the little giggles: his fear that his wife Kimmer is unfaithful; the hopeless rapture for his son; the romantic flight of fantasy he takes with a bona fide killer; the various encounters with members of his family; the intrigue among his colleagues at the law school; the awkward meetings with his father's contemporaries. The author spares no opportunity to paint precise and complex character studies with his word choices. The development of each character whether major or bit player is powerful. For example, late in the novel Talcott describes an aunt he has not been in touch with for several years. "...I ring the doorbell, and there is Thera, massive and dark, looking much like the barricade she always tried to build around Sally. She has Sally's fire, but uses the energy it generates to intimidate rather than to charm..." While we don't always "like" some if not most of the characters in the novel they are all personalities we won't soon forget: sympathetic cousin Sally; the mysterious Uncle Jack; the seductive and ubiquitous Maxine; Dear Dana; Dean Lynda; ambitious Kimmer; the reputed spook Scott Colin and all the other cast members. The siren song of Emperor slowly pulls you in and finally doesn't let you go. This Novel is more than a mystery. The vehicle of "the mystery" is merely the ship on which we view one man's journey toward self-discovery.

Rating:
Summary: Black fiction from a middle class perspective
Review: Although black influence may be discerned in many strands of modern popular culture, from sports to stand-up comedy, from music to fashion and movies, one couldn't say that this has also been the case for fiction. Professor Carter's book is a welcome first step in populating a compelling plot-driven narrative with characters we haven't heard from before (or at least, not to my knowledge). In "The Emperor of Ocean Park" black university graduates with high-powered jobs and all sorts of material comforts are resolutely center-stage. In Philip Roth's "The Human Stain", the main character must resign his blackness to achieve success and power in the academical world. Carter's characters never resign their race to be successful in the white man's world. The main voice is Talcott Garland's. He is a lawyer in his forties, a professor of law in an ivy-league-ish university, which in spite of Carter's denial in a post-scriptum is a straigth forward rendition of Yale Law School, where the author teaches. Garland is a complex man, not a cypher, surely a cut above the generic "cut-and-paste" renditions typical of modern popular fiction. He is slightly overweight, not very likeable (he is aloof and emotionally remote), very much his father's son. The father, the eponymous "Emperor of Ocean Park", is Oliver Garland, known in the book as "The Judge", a composite of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Judge Robert Bork and famous intellectual Thomas Sowell. A moderately conservative civil rights lawyer, he is appointed to a federal judgeship in the District of Columbia Appelate Court where he moves increasingly to the right. In the Reagan era he is nominated to the Supreme Court, but he must withdraw his candidacy when certain sordid associations become known to the public. He then joins a Washington D.C. firm as counsel and rakes in fat fees as a very popular public speaker. The Judge has shaped his children sometimes in ways he didn't mean to. The first born, Addison, is a rebel who refuses to be subject to his fathers very exacting standards of emotional self-control. His daughter, Mariah, the cleverest of all, has withdrawn from intellectual life to become wife of a rich white banker and mother of a large brood. Talcott has fled the rough and tumble of political life to become a tenured professor, and is stuck with Kimberley, a woman he adores, although she doesn't love him and may be cheating on him. A third daughter, Abby, died long ago, run over by a car that then fled the scene of the accident. This death is the catalyst of all that happens afterwards. The Judge is dead at the beginning of the book, and Talcott is quickly assailed by all sorts of shady figures who are looking for the Judge's arrangements. Talcott has no idea of what this means, and he struggles till the book's very end to find the arrangements and keep himself and his family alive. There is a complex chess problem (whose relevance is perhaps less clearly conveyed than the author intended) and several sub-plots to keep the reader occupied. Those thinking about buying the book should not be dissuaded by its heft. The book is a page turner and it has the right mixture of plot, action and rumination to keep the reader interested. It is also evidence that a book may be compelling without a single overtly sexual set-piece, without unnecessary profanity and without obsessive concern by fashionable slang or luxury good brands. This book will still be readable in fifty years without a special dictionary.

Many people have commented on the detailed rendition on the specifics of middle class lives. The big surprise is that these lives are similar to those of their white counterparts. Middle class blacks are hard working achievers, sometimes hindered by emotional distance and obsessive self-pondering. Perhaps one key point is that this is not the middle class as such that we are regarding, but the upper-middle class, with their large townhouses in Washington D.C. ("the Gold Coast") and their summer places in the Vineyard and the Hamptons.

We should expect this book to be slaughtered in the movie version, with Denzel Washington as Talcott, Morgan Freeman as the Judge, Hale Berry as Kimberley and Angela Basset as Maxine. Gene Hackman would be a good Justice Worthington. Read the book before you see the inevitable movie. It will only spoil the fun if you do otherwise.

Rating:
Summary: A bit on the torturous side
Review: I usually don't go for the books with all the buzz; I prefer to find the unexpected treasures. But in this case, the buzz was SO loud, and SO favorable that I picked up a copy. If only I had stuck with my instincts.
See, I have this theory. A very well-respected, and by all accounts intelligent professor wants to write a treatise on race relations in America. However, he fears that his opinions will be dismissed by the general public, and he will be seen as angry and racist--labels he has worked to avoid. So instead, he hides his theories in a so-called mystery novel, and the public goes nuts. He's the great American writer, and everyone goes to bed happy.
Well, not this reader. Not only is this novel ponderous and over written--it could be about 400 pages shorter and we'd still get the point--not a single character is sympathetic, or heck, even likeable. Towards the end, you almost want Talcott's life to fall apart, because he is such a sniveling little toad that you want to punch him.
The Emperor of Ocean Park is not a myserty novel. A mystery novel is a Ridley Pearson, a Conan Doyle, a carl Hiaasen. This is not a mystery novel--it is a nonfiction tome in mystery clothing.
I give the two stars to Carter's publicist and agent though--stellar job with the promotion. If only some titles worthy of the praise could garner the attention this book received.

Rating:
Summary: Emperor of Tedious and Boring
Review: Consider the following: A law professor at Yale University after writing several non-fiction books decides to write a fiction book. The author is paid $4 million for the title and the book is hyped for months, one publication going so far as in March to call it "the best book of the summer." Then the rights to the movie are optioned. And finally consider that John Grisham selects this book as the first selection of the Today show book club. Sound familiar? Well, unless you've been living out of the country or under a rock you didn't hear or watch this scenario play out and are not familiar with the book The Emperor of the Air or the author Stephen Carter. I for one had read so much about forthcoming book and couldn't wait for it to be available and gulp it down. Now that I have read it I do wonder what where all the cheering went to and if I missed something which others saw in this larger than life novel. Yes, the first few chapters intrigued me, but was 600 pages of detailed characterizations and an improbable scenario, ("Was there an editor," I kept asking) worth my time and effort? Not to me I'm sorry to say. And before you think I was scared off by the size of the book or the many themes including current political race relations, I say again that I really did look forward to this book.

The book begins with the death of a Black judge. Well known and well liked for the most part, this judge retired soon after his nomination for the position of Supreme Court judge in part because of his association with a well-known Mob leader. His last days are spent dividing his time between his home in Washington and on Martha's Vineyard at Oak Park where he has long been considered an emperor. But shortly after his death the judge's daughter reveals to her brother Talcott and the main character that their father was killed and she's determined to find out why and who did it. Enlisting his brothers aid won't be easy as Tal's wife is involved in her own nomination for a government position and their marriage isn't all that stable either. Now the stage is set for what should have been a hair raising roller coaster ride of a book which quickly took on many convoluted plots and went downhill quickly. As one reads on and on they begin to wonder what the author was really trying to say. Was the book really about whether a judge died naturally or was killed or about his bid to become a Supreme Court Justice or was it really about another of the judge's daughters hit and run death and his attempts to find out who did this vile act or was it about Tals and his wife's marital problems and who is Angela and her boyfriend. Finally was this really an attempt to explain to whites about prominent blacks living on the Gold Coast and the Vineyard. Any one of these themes might have filled one book alone but in this case all these subjects were discussed and the book moved along at a tedious pace leaving me to wonder why I spent my time on this title.

Perhaps law professors are more verbose than other writers and if this is the case, then other readers knowing this may very well enjoy this title. But, despite all that I have said and my awarding this title with only one star which I rarely do, there were parts of the book which were somewhat interesting and well written. Unfortunately there just weren't enough of them. Now I will be curious to see what Carter writes next if he decides to return to the world of fiction. Despite all that I have said I would be willing to give him another chance hoping the next book would be much better than this one.