Helpful Score: 3
i agree that the lenght of the book could have been shorter and could have been tighter but this is a good book. reluctant to read it at first because of the lenghth i am glad that i read it. the charachters are well done and it is not your stock book. it is different and a good read
Helpful Score: 3
Very well-told story, good character development, interesting throughout, complex without being difficult to understand or follow. A good read. And, an interesting portrayal of the black middle class. Recommended strongly.
Helpful Score: 2
This is one of the best books I have ever read. By reaching the ripe old age of 70 last month, I can assure you I have read MANY. Introspection into a large, wealthy, educated (some), black family with a mystery thrown in, wraps up a wonderful read
Helpful Score: 1
Intelligent mystery are not words often found together--but this is an example. Stephen Carter is the thinking womann's writer.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a big, juicy book -- Carter drafts a multi-layered tale, rich in detail and deliciously suspenseful. The characters are completely drawn, with real heart. A nice, long read that will hold your attention to the end.
A different but interesting story.
4 cassettes - 6 hours
4 cassettes - 6 hours
An excellent read. The complex plot kept me interested up to the last page.
The game of chess, the law and lawyers, family sagas, mysteries. You will need an appreciation of all of these to enjoy this novel to its fullest. With 654 pages and well over 50 characters, it is helpful to keep a list of character names and the page number where they were introduced so you can go back to remember who they were when subsequently presented. This one will keep you guessing just enough, and make you smile if and when a piece is revealed that you had surmised.
Talbott Garland is a successful law professor, devoted father, and husband of a beautiful and ambitious woman, whose future desires my threaten the family he holds so dear. When Talcott's father is found dead under suspicious circumstances, Talcott wonders if he may have been murdered. Guided by the elements of a mysterious puzzle that his father left, Talcott must risk his marriage, his career and even his life in his quest for justice. A friend recommended this book. I wasn't sure that I would like it but it was a different read which I found very fun and suspenseful.
A mystery, rich for its window to upperclass African American experience.
Great read. Well written and enjoyable.
This is an extraordinary first novel which deals with class, race, and culture. It has a great plot and is extremely well written. A legal thriller of the best kind.
Very different and interesting look into the life of a weathy black family
Great-especially if you know Yale.
A bit slow to start (for me), but by the middle of the story, it became an intriguing quick read. Great for the summer.
A little wordy, but a good read. For anyone who has spent time at Ivy League colleges the setting and environment will be very familiar.
Very well-written and absorbing. I recommend it.
One of my favorite reads of the last two years! It was so well constructed, with a new twist around every corner. Stephen Carter is a well-known and respected socio/political ethicist, and this is an outstanding first gambit into the field of fictional literature. I hope there are many more!
This book is interesting on a number of levels. It is first and foremost a great suspense tale, but it also offers a fascinating insider's view of the black upper class.
This is set in the privileged world of the upper-crust African American society of the Eastern seaboard and the inner circle of tan Ivy League law school. When the Supreme Court justice is found brutally murdered, the main character must risk his family, his career and even his life in the quest for justice. Superbly written and filled with memorable characters, this book is a stunning literary achievement and grand entertainment.
About 200 pages too long. The story itself was very interesting but took forever to get to the exciting ending.
from the book jacket: "An extraordinary fiction debut: a large, stirring novel of suspense that is, at the same time, a work of brilliantly astute social observation. The Emperor of Ocean Park is set in two privileged worlds: the upper crust African American society of the eastern seaboard--old families who summer on Martha's Vineyard--and the inner circle of an Ivy League law school. It tells the story of a complex family with a single, seductive link to the shadowlands of crime. . . . Intricate, superbly written, often scathingly funny, The Emperor of Ocean Park is a triumphant work of fiction, packed with character and incident--a brilliantly crafted tapestry of ambition, family secrets, murder, integrity tested, and justice gone terribly wrong."
A complex, smart mystery filled with intrigue, drama, and more than a little danger awaits in Stephen L. Carter's engaging debut novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park. After the funeral of his powerful father (a federal judge whose nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court became a public scandal), Talcott Garland, an African American law professor at an Ivy League university, is left to unravel the meaning of a cryptic note and carry out "the arrangements" his father left behind. Armed with fortitude and familial devotion--though paranoid of his wife's fidelity--Talcott soon finds himself in an investigation that entangles him with a number of questionable Washington, D.C., denizens, including attorneys and government officials, law professors, the FBI, shady underworld figures, chess masters, and friends and family. All the while Talcott tries not to hurt his attorney wife's chance for a judicial nomination--and their fragile marriage--but the closer he comes to unraveling his father's dark secrets, the more dangerous things become.
Is Racism OK?
Apparently, if the racist is black and the object of his racism is white people, yes. Stephen Carter rails against white people in horrid generalizations and cliches in this book. It's incredibly offensive to anyone who has worked against racism or who has been a victim of racism.
In addition, the book is so depressed and negative about EVERYTHING, I can't imagine why anyone would want to read it. The protagonist hates nearly everyone, and nearly everything he comes in contact with. As he sees it, there are few redeeming qualities in anyone in his life. He loves his wife, but he criticizes her and puts her down constantly.
I couldn't finish it, and I recommend you don't start it.
Apparently, if the racist is black and the object of his racism is white people, yes. Stephen Carter rails against white people in horrid generalizations and cliches in this book. It's incredibly offensive to anyone who has worked against racism or who has been a victim of racism.
In addition, the book is so depressed and negative about EVERYTHING, I can't imagine why anyone would want to read it. The protagonist hates nearly everyone, and nearly everything he comes in contact with. As he sees it, there are few redeeming qualities in anyone in his life. He loves his wife, but he criticizes her and puts her down constantly.
I couldn't finish it, and I recommend you don't start it.
A mystery threads through the novel, but it's most interesting as a look at upper middle class black America and Ivy league academia.
This was at heart a very good story/mystery but the style of writing was sometimes hard to get through.
I enjoyed this book but was not able to saty engaged enough to finish it. It is well written and mysterious enough to grab me initially but there area couple of dry patches where he just lost me.
We're about half-way through it. A compelling story & fabulously written. We're enjoying it very much!
Beautiful Gift copy! A complex, smart mystery filled with intrigue, drama, and more than a little danger awaits in Stephen L. Carter's engaging debut novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park. After the funeral of his powerful father (a federal judge whose nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court became a public scandal), Talcott Garland, an African American law professor at an Ivy League university, is left to unravel the meaning of a cryptic note and carry out "the arrangements" his father left behind. Armed with fortitude and familial devotion--though paranoid of his wife's fidelity--Talcott soon finds himself in an investigation that entangles him with a number of questionable Washington, D.C., denizens, including attorneys and government officials, law professors, the FBI, shady underworld figures, chess masters, and friends and family. All the while Talcott tries not to hurt his attorney wife's chance for a judicial nomination--and their fragile marriage--but the closer he comes to unraveling his father's dark secrets, the more dangerous things become.
Clocking in at over 650 pages, the novel could easily have been streamlined; many of Talcott's thoughts are unnecessarily repeated. But Carter's storytelling skills are adept: tension builds, surprises are genuine, clues are not handed out freely. The prose, while somewhat meandering, can be crisp and insightful, as demonstrated in Carter's description of the misguided paths of young attorneys who sacrifice
all on the altar of career... at last arriving... at their cherished career goals, partnerships, professorships, judgeships, whatever kind of ships they dream of sailing, and then looking around at the angry, empty waters and realizing that they have arrived with nothing, absolutely nothing, and wondering what to do with the rest of their wretched lives.
Clocking in at over 650 pages, the novel could easily have been streamlined; many of Talcott's thoughts are unnecessarily repeated. But Carter's storytelling skills are adept: tension builds, surprises are genuine, clues are not handed out freely. The prose, while somewhat meandering, can be crisp and insightful, as demonstrated in Carter's description of the misguided paths of young attorneys who sacrifice
all on the altar of career... at last arriving... at their cherished career goals, partnerships, professorships, judgeships, whatever kind of ships they dream of sailing, and then looking around at the angry, empty waters and realizing that they have arrived with nothing, absolutely nothing, and wondering what to do with the rest of their wretched lives.
