Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating, Exciting and Relaxing at the Same Time!
Review: I have been very interested in reading the reviews of this book. It seems that everyone who reads it has an opinion! I thought this was an excellent book. It appears to meld two genre - a thoughtful, introspective review of life by the main character, and a mystery novel. I enjoyed it very much - from the character development to the direct writing style of the author. It IS long - but I appreciated that, and feel that it's one of those books that could be even longer! I recommend this to anyone sick of the formula writing of so many books today - be prepared to sink into the book and spend time.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good
Review: I did not expect to like this book as much as I did, considering I am usually a fan of more hard edged fiction. However, Emperor of Ocean Park was a real treat for me. Instead of an author who feels it his duty to go directly from crime to case solved with only violence, sex, and profanity in between, Carter lets the case develop slowly and naturally. Amazingly enough, I still felt the tension all the way through. You never lose the feeling that Carter is a serious writer who knows his craft and is totally dedicated to giving you a good story. Other attributes of the book include dozens of humorous insights into campus and family life, along with other serious observations concerning politics and race. A good ending that I did not see coming, a sympathetic lead character, and an intriguing mystery made this a very good read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Voice
Review: I like this book. Even though the wimpy man was very annoying. and the storyline needed tighten up here and there. It was excellent read.
Rating:
Summary: Unusual peephole into ignored segment of black society
Review: As a student of sociology, I found The Emperor of Ocean Park to be a true gem. The inner voice of a black man raised with discipline and demands to excel made upon him by his parents in an upper middle class milieu. To see the world through these eyes was a wonderful experience. The media so often pretends that this segment of American society simply does not exist. It is time that it is given a voice. That is in an entertaining mystery makes it all the better. No ponderous tract this, although I agree it could have been substantially shorter. Even when the hero succumbs to racial paranoia, his brain manages to think its way out of it. Should be read by many of those who can only see blacks in one dimension-poor and inarticulate.
Rating:
Summary: The Emperor of Ocean Park
Review: Stephen L. Carter, a Yale law professor, has written many excellent books of nonfiction. "The Emperor of Ocean Park" is his first novel. Talcott Garland, an African-American law professor at Elm Harbor University, investigates the death of his father Judge Oliver Garland, who was nominated to the US Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan, of an apparent heart attack. His father had made arrangements should he meet an untimely death. "The Emperor of Ocean Park" is a very good suspense novel. I agree with some reviewers that it could have been 200 pages shorter, but I thought it was a very entertaining read.
Rating:
Summary: Emporer reigns
Review: I am not a chess player, really, and I had never heard of problem composing or composers. However, Carter's use of this intellectual activity to help present social commentary was wonderfully subtle. Now I am interested in exploring composing. The dipiction of the black middle class seems just right (at least to me, a black female who has never been a member of that group). There is a rare honesty about the characters. I wish I could have written it!!
Rating:
Summary: A book I definitely recommend
Review: "The Emperor of Ocean Park" is both a contemporary mystery story concerning the secrets of the father who has just died, as well as a story of life being lived by a variety characters who come alive on the pages. It reminds me of some of my favorite fiction that I read decades ago - the long Russian novels of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, for example, that combined the politics of their times, with vivid stories and characterizations. This book is similar in nature, with the obvious difference being that it is a mystery. While I enjoyed the mystery and tried to make sense of the clues scattered about, my true enjoyment evolved from the richness of the characters that Stephen Carter created.
Misha, the narrator and son of "the emperor," speaks with casual frankness and a self-deprecating manner, often using irony and humor in his comments. His family: wife and son, father - alreay dead as the book begins- and siblings, all come alive to the reader. While the mystery has center stage as the reason for this book, the related purpose of presenting such wonderfully drawn characters, giving a true sense/a slice-of-life, was equally important to me.
I sunk into this book and finished it in a few days. My judgment of how much I liked it comes from how very much I regretted seeing it end. It's a long, satisfying book and one I would recommmend to anyone who enjoys a good novel.
Rating:
Summary: THE EMPEROR OF OCEAN PARK
Review: This was a compelling novel, that I could not put down. The 657 pages was nothing to breeze through as the plot and character development entrigued me with every passing page. Stephen L. Carter depicts uppper and middle class struggling black American families very well. HIs stoic father, (the Judge & Emperor) with all his faults he taught his son so much good. Misha's colorful siblings were all the things that make family so special. The relationships between people was entrancing as well. The family relationships where nothing was perfect but the underlying love even the characters did not know existed at times rang so true of family life. I was so moved by the book, I wanted to write the author. I cannot remember anytime that a novel has moved me to want to do that. The characters and the places came alive for me. THrough the reading I felt like I was with Misha and experiencing his anguish and joy. His love for his son touched my heart. Watching his son grow and his marriage die shows how imperfect life really is and so did the dichotomy of getting to know his father. Despite his faults I found myslef loving the judge and Misha not to mention Dear Dana, Addison and Mariah. Kimmer is a different story, but I enjoyed not liking her and what she represented. THis was a great book that makes you feel many things at the same time namely love/anger, joy/anguish, fear/calm. Stephen L. Carter thanks!
Rating:
Summary: Believe most of the hype
Review: Stephen Carter has written an engrossing novel that succeeds on more levels than it fails. Carter's characters are fully formed and unforgettable, his depiction of workplace relationships should resonate widely, and his family dramas of sibling rivalry, parental approval, and marital suspicion/malaise are perfectly rendered. Also, in Talcott "Misha" Garland, Carter has avoided the reliable hero/anti-hero dichotomy to create a protagonist who is a true everyman. Misha's faults are obvious and if you don't like how he interprets the world around him, you will have to be patient to find his virtues. While Misha's insecurities don't flatter him, they should make him recognizable and sympathetic to many readers. His greatest gift is his analytical intelligence and it's his brain, not his bravery, that will see him through his adventure. Carter's most impressive achievements are the creation of the communities in Elm Harbor and Washington, D.C. and Misha's acute observations about their white and black inhabitants.
As a mystery, the narrative suffers because, ultimately, Carter is more loyal to his protatgonist than his audience. This loyalty to Misha enhances the novel because it emerges from Carter's talent for and commitment to characterization and thematic development but it does so at the expense of producing a satisfying mystery. This is understandable in a novel that doesn't fit in a genre but not in a mystery which is why, I suspect, Emperor of Ocean Park has disappointed so many Amazon reviewers. I'm not a devoted reader of mysteries but I've read enough to know what to expect from them and Carter, perhaps willfully, doesn't conform to those expectations.
Emperor of Ocean Park is terrific debut and I look forward to reading more fiction from Stephen Carter.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, but I like it anyway.
Review: In ways, I think it's safer to hate a book than to love one, which may explain some of the reviews that have been posted. But I loved The Emperor of Ocean Park, in spite of all its apparent flaws. Look, I admit that Carter's prose can be a little stiff, a little heavy on adjectives, a little too prone to interruptions. But when I want to complain about pompous sentences, I'll complain about Henry James, William Faulkner, and Cormac McCarthy. Stephen Carter moves at an unhurried pace that greater economy would simply spoil. Too much of today's fiction is self-consciously sparse. Which is irritating. To say the least. I admit, also, that Carter's mystery is a bit contrived. But some awfully good entertainment rests on contrived government and corporate conspiracies (though, it's true, these conspiracies seem more and more realistic these days). If Carter is asking for a little credulity, I'm ready to give it to him. I'd do no less for Agatha Christie or Raymond Chandler. I also admit that the book is long. But all books can be shortened. And many don't seem to lose a lot in the shortening. At least, that's my experience with books on tape. I read all of The Emperor of Ocean Park, every word, and was not impatient for it to be over. So much for the book's flaws. It also has a lot of strengths. For one thing, the protagonist is neither superhero nor whiner. He's an imperfect, sometimes angry, but nonetheless decent guy who tries to do what's right, takes chances he'd rather not, and manages not to despise, or not to despise too much, the many people who do him dirt. (In other words, I like Talcott Garland just because I do. People who don't like him are wicked, I suspect.) It also has a great sense of people and place. No, those are not Carter's colleagues and not his family. But I get the sense that Carter knows what he's talking about. This I'm certain about: Stephen Carter has not, as someone wrote, embarrassed himself. (It's not particularly civil phrase, is it?) It's a good book. A very good book.
|
