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.

If you glance through the various recent reviews (at the time of writing) on this website too, you will not find any particularly high appraisals either. Let's try and work out what is going on here, then, because the author was paid $4.2 million for this grand oeuvre, and publishers are usually fairly frugal with their bugets for first novels.

For a start, this is not, in the traditional sense, a first novel. Stephen L. Carter has written numerous works of non-fiction before, which are incredibly and often moving excercises of historical and political theory. So it's not as if he has NEVER picked up a pen before and attempted in one swift blow a six-hundred page debut! In writing non-fiction, you only have to imagine how many times Mr. Carter must have sketched out a random prose of fiction about the state or history he was researching ... it's a natural human inclination.

This book was pegged as a thriller, and a kind of socio-analysis of American society a the same time. This, I think, is where the reaction lies. If you've seen EYES WIDE SHUT (Kubric's last work) you'll understand why people were so disappointed on seeing it: they expected their commercial, loveable Tom Cruise to be the commercial, loveable Tom he always is and that they are so familiar with. People did not want to see a genuine piece of art with agenuinly brilliant actor: they wanted to unwind. In THE EMPEROR OF OCEAN PARK, the scenario was very similar: the public thought they had a new Grisham, and found to their horror that they were left here with a new voice. And not only that, this voice had a gutteral hallmark to it.

The EOP is a great, far-reaching piece of work. Inside every description, in every telephone call and mild familial banter, is a subliminal critique on society. The plot is a mechanism for super-analysis, somethng very few authors still manage to pull off. Read this book, and while doing so, look for hints ... there are many of them.

This book was, to me, the extant anti-thriller: a place where all society like sheep came to congregate to find that their hero was a member of mensa instead of an actor off a Hollywood side-show. Well worth its money, and well worth its time.


Yes it's long -- but worth the read!   June 12, 2002
 33 out of 41 found this review helpful

Yes, Emperor is long (650 pages!) -- but I simply couldn't put the book down. The stage is set in the Prologue (which I don't usually read, but I'm glad I did -- there were a lot of clues there), when we get a feel for the tense relationship between the family members of the narrator, Talcott Garland. We also find out about Abbey, and the circumstances surrounding her hit-and-run death so many years before. This becomes important as the book progresses...

Judge Oliver Garland dies suddenly under very suspicious circumstances, and bequeaths a home in the Ocean Park section of Martha's Vineyard -- along with a mysterious letter -- to his son Talcott. Talcott tries, through a series of clues in the strange letter, to unravel the mystery of "the arrangements"... Talcott has no earthly idea of what these arrangements are, but he quickly discovers that there are many people whom he's never met who are desperate to find them. As more and more people end up murdered, Talcott knows that he must find the arrangements before the evil ones do -- before he ends up dead as well.

This mystery is different -- more real to life, because the ends aren't tied up neatly -- proof that "happily ever after" doesn't necessarily mean that everything works out the way that the reader expects.

Emperor is unpredictable, well-written, and occasionally hilariously funny. Definitely worth the lengthy read. :-)


Emperor of Tedious and Boring   July 26, 2002
 33 out of 47 found this review helpful

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.