Rating: 
Summary: Quack
Review: Snooze fest...what a boring book. Having come to me so highly reccomended maybe I had too lofty expectations but boy was this book hard to get through. The plot takes forever to unfold, the characters mope around making no sense and in general even the scenery manages to be a bore. Bottom line, SKIP IT!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Writing + Okay Mystery = Good Story
Review: This book is a winner. I need to say that up front. A thriller, a commentary on race and culture, a literary behemoth..."The Emperor of Ocean Park" sets out to be much more than a run-of-the-mill mystery. Carter takes on a massive cast of characters and social issues and clearly communicates his points. I applaud his courage to aim, without apology, at many of our country's sacred cows. Whether or not I always agree with his targets, I admire his insights and powers of persuasion.The book starts with the death of a revered judge. It ends with his son trying to reconstruct the events leading to his father's demise. Everything in between is in the form of a mystery: threatening notes, ransacked rooms, late-night attacks, graveyard shootings, and spies around every corner. Played out on the chessboard of life, the novel succeeds on many levels. My complaints are pedestrian, yet worth noting for those deciding to undertake a journey through a book of this length. Carter's main character, while short on revealing emotion, is more than willing to pontificate on issues of our age. This is enjoyable--until about half way through the book. By this time, we're interested in the story and impatient with the diversions. As the denouement nears, we realize that the plot is a well-crafted and labyrinthine thing, but it also cheats us to some extent. Like an Agatha Christie story, "Emperor" withholds certain names and occupations, etc, until the precise moment when we, along with our hero, can say "Ah, now I see." This style, in my opinion, is unfair to the modern reader. We want the chance to put the pieces together. Yes, we're impressed at the tale-weaving, but give us a real chance to solve the puzzle along the way, or to realize at least that we missed that cleverly hidden clue. I loved the book for the first 300 pages, liked it very much for the next 250, and liked it so-so in the last 100. Overall, I recommend Carter's fantastic writing skills. I'll jump to read his next book. I hope, however, that he can marry his literary skills and story ideas with a mystery style more attainable to his contemporary readers.
Rating: 
Summary: Suspenseful, Captivating, Interesting....Bomb
Review: Stephen Carter grabbed our attention, held us out of Curiosity and then dropped us like a bad habit. The Honorable Judge Oliver Garner dies and leaves special arrangements behind, that only the now head of the household can receive and reveal. Which turns out not to be his eldest son Addison, but his second son Talcott. There are others who want these arrangements, and are willing to go to all limits to receive them. Talcott is a law school professor and has a successful wife, who has other issues, their marriage is somehow in jeopardy. There is also uncle Jack,the judges buddy, whom everyone assumes is shady but nothing has ever been proven. Mariah, Addison, Talcott are not the normal close siblings, but they are family. Mariah believes that there is more to the judges death, then a heart attack that claimed his life. There are also law school faculty and neighbors, The FBI, The local Police Dept., Extended family members. The Double Excelsior is to yet be figured out. There are essential characters in this story, but somewhere along the way, MR.Carter drops some of the characters out of the book, leaving you wondering (maybe there will be another book that these characters will show up in, Maybe a titled: THe dethroaning of the Emperor...) Then just as everything starts to unravel, he bombs the ending, by pulling everything together and spoiling the story, by the bad guy telling everything. So he took us around the vineyard a couple of times and then just washed the ending ashore. THis was also a very long story, which would have been acceptable if it would have ended differently. Also too many fillers, very very descriptive. Reviewed by: Jai M
Rating: 
Summary: Carter's little pills
Review: Your Honor, the People will gladly stipulate that, if he will just move the story along, Professor Carter is uncommonly erudite and well-informed, culturally astute, and can hold forth on everything from Hindu deities to semiotics to classical music to minivans, as he proves in this book. Every paragraph in his torturous and tortuous first novel is a rumination on or digression from the one before--physicists need look no further to discover the universe's longest distance between two points. In one spot, nearly three pages go by between the first and second rings of a phone. In another, one sentence is 25 lines long. The author must've made a deal with Knopf to be paid by the syllable (about three for a dollar if the reported amount of his advance is correct). Story-wise, Carter has written a good 350-page yarn that takes him 650 pages to tell. A more apt title might've been Jerk Like Me since none of the characters is a bit likeable. As he takes three pages in an afterword to point out, they and the locations are fictional. It's a great relief to know that he himself is not the whiny, racist, snotty, law-professor second son of the title's deceased patriarch, who is still despotic despite being dead. I have never written a novel--it seems so much easier to get one from Amazon. But if I did, I'm sure I would be infected with the same "first-novelitis" that befell Carter, the need to shoehorn into the tome every arcane bit of minutia, insightful observation and belabored turn of phrase I'd ever encountered in my life until then (I am the anti-Proust). If that's all out his system now, Carter's second novel could be a true masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Double Excelsior.... Intriguiing!!!Then Disappointing.
Review: Stephen L. Carter has good concept with this story, but leaves you high and dry at the end. It took me some time to read this book, I feel it was too long for the ending... Too many fillers. Half way through the book (about page 350...) I start to get very interested and can't put it down, then I am left with a ending that is less satisfying. THe main character "Misha" is left arrangements by his high profiled father the "Judge" from the time of the Judges death, the game "Double Excelsior" begins with these so called "arrangements" left by his father. From the beginning you are wondering what are the arrangements? Misha has other issues in his life, his relationship with the other family members, his marriage to Kimmer (Things should have gone differently in this plot) and his professional status at the Law school. One by one characters are being revealed and pieces of this story are coming together. You have Sally the cousin who has a secret. Addison the brother who has a secret. Uncle Jack the Judges buddy but who has special connections, The dean, the students, the neighbors, Kimmer the wife, Lionel the student, who is a legendary basketball player, the fbi, the police, the law partners etc... Prominent african american society, Mariah the sister with the conspiracy theory, Abby the sister who died years ago in an accident, ummmmm all have a playing role and a move to make on the chess board of life. Over all the book has a good plot, to many words to get you there, and a ending that for me was a let down. If you like thrillers and suspense it will catch your attention. If you don't mind the time factor of this book, it is a long book and if you don't mind descriptives then go for it. My book club members read it and some of my other friends, we all have different highlights of the book that intrigue us, but we all agree that it was too long and ended wrong and too many fillers we could have gotten the picture that the room was all white and glistening, we didn't need to know all the fine details of the room. So I rate this book a 3 because it was so long and ended unsatisfying.
Rating:
Summary: A Deep-Thinker's Novel
Review: Stephen L. Carter's first work of fiction is a labor of love. Reading the Emperor of Ocean Park offers the reader a rare glimpse into the world of black academia. This book forces you to absorb the many cultural references and social commentary while keeping your attention with heart-stopping plot twists. The man Talcott Garland is a well-thought out character, not easily pinned down. On one hand, he easily tires of the incessant whining of his liberal brethren, while rejecting the knee-jerk policies of reactionary conservatives. What's more exciting and intriguing is that his deep personal faith in the Lord is not viewed as a weakness, but a strength which revives Talcott's spirits while his life is crashing down around him. His plain-speaking Baptist minister is a friend and and advisor, not the crazy that many liberal elites would have wanted to paint him, but couldn't. Stephen L. Carter has produced a rich, satisfying novel that is clearly the culmination of years of reflection. It is less a cheap page-turner and more a work of literary art. I give this book four stars rather than five only because it is Stephen's first work and it sometimes, though not often, shows its clunky nature. Yet, I applaud this man for producing a great, unpredictable, and stimulating piece of fiction. I'm sure Carter's forthcoming novel will surpass even the lofty heights of The Emperor of Ocean Park. Take the time to read this book--its definitely a keeper for your nightstand.
Rating:
Summary: Mixed plots, twists & turns, a roller coaster of a mystery.
Review: The Emperor of Ocean Park is a story of a brilliant legal mind, Judge Oliver Garland, with a dark and shadowy past. When Judge Garland passes away, he leaves some mysterious "arrangements" to his son Tal. Unfortunately, Tal is clueless as to what these "arrangements" might be, but it seems some very important and possibly dangerous people are suddenly very interested in Tal.
It is up to Tal to figure out precisely what his now deceased father wanted him to do. It's a good plot, but it doesn't quite bite hard enough to be a page-turner. The character of Addison, Tal's seemingly estranged brother, is not developed enough to contribute to what begins to become a tangled mystery. The emphasis of the plot focuses a lot on the reader's ability to understand chess and chess terminology, as author Stephen L. Carter tries to weave his story, and Tal's dilemmas, around the moves of a chessboard. This in itself limits the intensity for readers who do not play chess. Also, the focus on Tal and his blackness overshadows much of the story itself as it becomes increasingly evident that Tal is very defensive of his skin color.
The book (hardcover edition) is even covered with a black and white cover, whether this is a focus on chess pieces or skin color is never truly defined. Tal's relationship with his wife and child is too thin to really be a relationship at all. Tal seems to both acknowledge and ignore his wife's blatant infidelity, and there is a thinness to the development of his son as a character that leaves the reader wondering why the child was there in the first place. The story involves multiple, speculative mini-plots surrounding the family, friends, co-workers, and the past that go nowhere and don't substantively add to the main plot of the story. This story would better have been written by trimming the fat off the meat and serving less side dishes. The excitement was in the quest for the "arrangements" and why the Judge was murdered.It's still a good story, our club members enjoyed the writing style, and Stephen L. Carter definitely has some talent as a first-time novelist. I wouldn't run out to the bookshop for this one, but I would keep an eye on the author's next book.
Rating:
Summary: Too long to take you to a dull ending
Review: I really struggled with this book. Even took it with me on a flight to China and back and could still not finish it with 12 hours on the plane ride both ways. Finally got it done last week and breathed a sigh of relief. I did it! I finished it! But why? Who knows? The book could have been done much better in about 200 less pages and more tension. I could see early on why Kimmer felt as she did. I did too. Avoid this one. There is too much more out there.
Rating:
Summary: The Emperor of Ocean Park
Review: This is one of the most tedious books I have read in the last 10 years! With a BA in English, I was assigned some slow moving novels, but at least I HAD to read those. Do yourself a favor & pass on this one. No one has this much extra time on his hands to make this a worth while read. The characters are so self-absorbed & unsympathetic that I just couldn't wait for the whole ordeal to end.
Rating:
Summary: Let's get to the end.......please!!
Review: This book was highly anticipated and I'm glad I got it at the library because had I purchased it, I would have been disappointed. I really wanted to like it and I usually love a thick book but it was just too tedious and with all the characters I could not find one that I even remotely liked. Talcott was such a whiner and I didn't even care anymore if anyone ever found "the arrangements".
As a black woman, may I say that this is a story about this one black family, the Garlands, so please don't think it's representative of middle-class or wealthly blacks as a whole.
This could have been so much better. Maybe Mr. Carter's next book will be an improvement.
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