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    The Emperor of Ocean Park
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    The Emperor of Ocean Park
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    The Emperor of Ocean Park
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    The Emperor of Ocean Park

    Written by Stephen L. Carter

    Narrated by Peter Francis James

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.

    The Emperor of the title, Judge Oliver Garland, has just died, suddenly. A brilliant legal mind, conservative and famously controversial, Judge Garland made more enemies than friends. Many years before, he'd earned a judge's highest prize: a Supreme Court nomination. But in a scene of bitter humiliation, televised across the country, his nomination collapsed in scandal. The humbling defeat became a private agony, one from which he never recovered.

    But now the Judge's death raises even more questions-and it seems to be leading to a second, even more terrible scandal. Could Oliver Garland have been murdered? He has left a strange message for his son Talcott, a professor of law at a great university, entrusting him with "the arrangements"-a mysterious puzzle that only Tal can unlock, and only by unearthing the ambiguities of his father's past. When another man is found dead, and then another, Talcott-wry, straight-arrow, almost too self-aware to be a man of action-must risk his career, his marriage, and even his life, following the clues his father left him.

    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.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 4, 2002
    ISBN9780553714234
    Unavailable
    The Emperor of Ocean Park
    Author

    Stephen L. Carter

    Stephen L. Carter is the bestselling author of several novels—including The Emperor of Ocean Park and New England White—and over half a dozen works of non-fiction. Formerly a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, he is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University, where he has taught for more than thirty years. He and his wife live in Connecticut.

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    Reviews for The Emperor of Ocean Park

    3.5/5

    394 ratings24 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Long, intricate, cerebral story of Judge Garland and family and the events preceding his death.
    • 1/5
      This book was recommended to me and initially it seemed promising. The problem was the further I read, the less I cared about the main character. Something was missing and the ending just fell flat. Not something I would suggest be picked up.
    • 5/5
      A privileged African-American family struggles to work through their father's death and the cryptic messages they receive regarding the "arrangements" he had made. A great legal thriller with complex characters and side plots.
    • 5/5
      I've been wanting to read this book for a long time. I loved most of it but was a little disappointed with the ending. Otherwise, superb writing.
    • 5/5
      I loved this story! What a great mystery! I so enjoyed the tone of the readers voice. Such a great story in audiobook form. ??
    • 3/5
      The Emperor of Ocean Park is a legal thriller involving a law professor, Talcott Garland, whose father was a prominent judge who was disgraced after being nominated for a Supreme Court chair by Ronald Reagan. The judge's nomination ended in disgrace because of his association with Jack Ziegler, a former CIA agent turned organized crime kingpin. After the judge dies, he leaves Talcott with cryptic clues involving some deep dark secret that Talcott must figure out, with a host of others either trying to help or prevent him from doing so.This novel was certainly competently written. The author, a law professor, knows his legal wrangling, and there is enough action and tension to keep it interesting, but there were other things that kept it from being a good novel instead of just an okay one. For one thing, through two thirds of the book, everyone seemed to know more about the mystery than Talcott, and it didn't make sense that if they knew more about it than him, then why were they so reliant on him to find what the judge was leaving behind instead of finding it on their own. The other issue was that the reveal at the end wasn't as earth-shattering as all of the drama leading up to it. It was a bit of a yawner, in fact. A solid novel, but not one that you should go out of my way to read.Carl Alves - author of Blood Street
    • 2/5
      My first experience with an audio book and it was horrible! It's my fault for not paying attention to the abridged part...but still! Abridged audio books should NOT be allowed. Totally ruined this book for me. I was so bored! It felt like half the book was missing...probably because it was!
    • 5/5
      "Everyone's story matters," said Morris.My favorite! This book tells the story of how reading can open doors for your life. The illustrations are amazingly life-like showing people with a book in color, and people without in black and white. The ending of the book is thought of only just the beginning!
    • 5/5
      Thick, dense, deeply ambitious and richly layered, this is one of the more rewarding reads I have experienced in a long time. The plot unfolds slowly, requiring patience, and the characters are extremely flawed and, frankly, not very likable. This novel will not be for everyone, but I found it to be a fantastic read.
    • 4/5
      If you want to get lost in layers and layers and layers of story, this is it: black/white race relations; upper class, gold coast black community one-upping, dominating father/recovering children; Law school faculty back biting-stabbing; political wrangling; husband/wife dying flames fanning; criminal coverup twisting; congressional hearing baiting; CIA leftover hitman still hitting. Whew. And tight disciplined but oh so human writing. Written by the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale Law School. This is one to read if you like people, and not just plots, in your mysteries.
    • 3/5
      This book is too long in general, not exciting enough for a mystery novel, and the main character is not likeable enough to interest me in his family problems.
    • 3/5
      As a mystery--it is OK. But the characters and setting are interesting. The world of the black elite and the mind of a black conservative figure prominently in the novel, and the picture carter paints of that background is thought-provoking for someone with little experience of either of these things.
    • 5/5
      A privileged African-American family struggles to work through their father's death and the cryptic messages they receive regarding the "arrangements" he had made. A great legal thriller with complex characters and side plots.
    • 4/5
      Started reading it in the bath and 3 hours later, couldn't put it down - literally! About a black guy not happy with the way he was being treated and trying to find out who killed his Dad. Sounds boring but it's brill!
    • 1/5
      OMG, AWFUL!! Took me 4 years to finish this and it was torture :(
    • 5/5
      A captivating, well-written book, filled with real-life references, and the on-going conflict of jousting intellect. I absolutely loved this book. Carter takes us on path of mystery, conspiracy, and suspense. The writing itself was great, really easy to read, although some sentences in the book are rather lengthy. I particularly enjoyed how the game of chess was interwoven into the plot. The characters and the world they inhabit provide a look into wealthy and cultured African Americans. 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 has no idea as to what these "arrangements" might be, but it seems some very important and possibly dangerous. During the story, we follow Tal/ Misha as he tries to discover what his now deceased father wanted him to do. I enjoyed the writing style and could not put this book down. At the end of the book, I was hoping Carter’s next book would be about Addison.
    • 5/5
      The Emperor of Ocean Park is a "Beautifully Written" masterpiece. I am completely and utterly amazed by the language Carter writes with. This book makes me fall in love with words and writing. Though some my think that this book is to long or wordy, I believe that it represents pure talent and literary imagination. Carter goes to extreme's to express his thoughts. And from reading the first few chapters of The Emperor my vocbulary has broaden immensely.
    • 3/5
      To enjoy this book it's necessary to forget that the story is a mystery. The writing and characters are quite good, the plot long-winded and at times hard to follow. Once I resigned myself to just being along for the ride, I liked it quite a bit.
    • 5/5
      This is one of the best books I’ve read all year. The narrative’s flow matched the attitude of the protagonist. Talcott wanted to solve the mystery, but it was almost against his will that he did and the slow pace of the story brought that out even more than Talcott’s constant justification. Carter also draws us into the story by giving partial information and darkly hidden hints. It took me until almost ½ way through the book to decide that Kimmer was indeed a member of the darker nation. Through something Talcott said about people saying he’d gone over to the enemy, I thought this might mean he married a white woman, but actually I still don’t know what that means. He doesn’t seem particularly conservative in his views. As a matter of fact, he seems to have little conviction either way. But I suppose as an educated black man in the 21st century, he is obliged to be a liberal.I also loved the world I was drawn into because it is one I’ll never know otherwise. Higher academia and Washington politics and the whole clubby, secret-handshake deal is fascinating. As is life in the upper echelon of black society and the obligations and pressures they feel. It seems like they have to constantly justify their existence not only to the rest of the darker nation who has not achieved any success, but also to the white community whose fringes they are now entering. Neither trusts them or accepts them – or so they feel, and they close ranks and form their own exclusive club. Awkward.So we don’t know what happened exactly to destroy the Judge’s bid at a Supreme Court seat, but we know that we’ll get to it. We also don’t know why the Judge chose Talcott to uncover his buried secrets or why he gave him clues in such a cryptic manner, but we know we’ll get to it. It makes for a very long story arc, but a satisfying one. The whole puzzle is presented to Talcott as a chess problem; the Double Excelsior where by moving only pawns in a certain way and in a certain order white wins. The Judge wanted to find a solution where the black pawn would win. It’s interesting that none of the Judge’s children ever called him dad, daddy or even father, but always the Judge. The children grew up to be successful on the surface, but each of them has major problems in their lives; Talcott is married to a truly awful woman whom he cannot fall out of love with no matter how much of a bitch she becomes; Addison is polished, famous, rich and highly sought after not only by other talk show hosts who want him on their shows, but also by the federal government for tax evasion; Mariah is married to a man who is very good at making money and remaining devoted to her, but she has no purpose what with every task performed by a hired human or a machine. This is why she throws herself so entirely into the conspiracy that surrounds the Judge’s death. She doesn’t think it was suicide, but murder and after a few inexplicable things happen to Talcott, he believes it too.Amidst all of this overt drama, more covert drama takes place. Talcott’s wife Kimmer is cheating on him. Again. We only see Kimmer through his eyes, and he is supposed to love her beyond reason, but she still comes across as a cold, calculating and highly unreasonable bitch. In her opinion her unhappiness justifies her cheating. She feels no shame at betraying him or destroying their marriage. A marriage she didn’t want to enter into in the first place, but produced an unwanted son to keep afloat. Besides being a complete bitch she is also fairly stupid and irrational in a lot of her beliefs. Prejudicial, too. Narrow-minded jerk about sums her up and I’m very glad she did not get her Federal Bench appointment. I was hesitant to read this for fear of it being a thinly veiled screed decrying the rampant racism and race related problems in the US, the blame for which would entirely be the fault of the white man. If it had, I would have given it up. As a person who has never done an evil, racially prejudicial act in her life, I don’t need this kind of haranguing. But other than some fairly accurate observations and finger-pointing to both sides, race was not a major factor. It came up, but only as part of the story and only where it would make sense. It was interesting though to see how much the darker nation blames the paler nation for its problems. Ditto for some of the deep-seated resentment and hatred the darker nation has for the paler. Exactly the same unfounded sentiments that in reverse, made this country tear itself apart. Irony doesn’t even begin to cover it. But if every time a person brings this up about the darker nation it is construed as bigotry or an attack, no progress will be made. The undercurrent of hatred and distrust will continue to divide us.
    • 4/5
      The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter. is a quite compelling if not evenly flowing or artistic read. It's an ambitious book that works on many different levels. As a first time novelist, Carter should have stuck to one or two, but in the end you are glad that he didn't.As a thriller, it bites you slo-o-o-wly. I get the feeling that if Carter weren't so interested in putting us in his protagonist's stubborn and provincial shoes, we might figure out exactly what is going to happen next. Of course you cannot guess because the twists and surprises go for almost 650 pages. The thriller could have been shortened by half. But if we were to do that, we would have had to make the protagonist less harried and more intrigued.Talcott Garland is not intrigued, he is haunted by being the scion of a legendary judge and patriarch who has set in motion wrecking ball from the grave aimed directly at his upper middle-class life. Carter is not content to trace the trajectory of this wrecking ball as it crashes through the many windows and wall of Garland's complicated life - no that would be a thriller. Rather he draws out the contemplations of a man who may by his actions and reactions to the threats of this wrecking ball, may be going insane, or who may be becoming a hero. And since Talcott Garland is a member of the darker nation, Carter has reinscribed a new class of Negroes into the duBoisian dilemma of dual consciousness. What's so thrilling about that?What's thrilling about it is that this is certainly what Carter must know he is doing. And as we like to say in the black upper middle class, 'this sets us back 100 years'. But that's just one angle on this story and I'll leave it at that.Carter also injects a healthy dose of his most potent moralizing into the conscience of Talcott Garland who is forever trying to keep his wits and perspective about him. While he is surrounded by a whirlwind of manipulators and players, he tries desperately to play it straight. Talcott Garland has no guile to rely upon which gives him the courage to fight. Yet his abiding faith in his ability to recover the love of his cheating wife alone and finally serve honorably as head of his family pushes him to seek answers to the questions he'd rather not know. Garland comes armed with a host of virtues sown deeply in the ways and means of the talented tenth, but they are supplied not inherently but through his extended family. Each of a dozen family members and friends has a slice of those virtues and each imparts a bit of strength or knowledge upon poor Talcott as he valiantly struggles to unlock the mystery.Furthermore as a story of the times, of the moral mishmash of career ambitions in academia and in Washington, it's a marvelous book that continues his non-fiction scolding by other means.What absolutely floored me was the patience evidenced in the setting of traps by certain characters - there's not much you hear about anything so subtle in any fictional intrigue which has such a long horizon. Instead you hear the reverse, that mistakes made are long hid and only newly discovered by the hounding media or political opposition but that once discovered they are immediately brought to bear.Further, I think Carter does an admirable job of bringing race in and out of focus naturally as the story progresses, which is how it happens in life.It's a very ambitious book and quite a tall order for any writer. As an artist he's not quite up to the task. Although there are a number of gems in the form of page-long paragraphs you can just tell couldn't be dickered with, most of the writing is just writing. His habit of dropping annoying little bomblets of discovery at the very end of his chapters serves the purpose of helping keep parts of Talcott's recognition obscured to the reader, but gets tiresome. But the ending 200 pages makes up for it, given Talcott's final machinations and collaborations.I think the book is a bit chaptery, and it comes as no surprise that he created 64 to coincide with the number of squares on a chessboard, but I would have liked Talcott to be a lot more chess-wise in his thinking. Even having him think "protect the queen" would have been better. Also I think Talcott needed to be frayed a lot more. It would have drawn me in deeper. One never gets the feeling that Talcott's ruination would evoke in him the ugly side of losing one's status, I didn't sense his contempt for his potential lower-class neighbors, or his sense of how he would adapt. Talcott's mushy self-esteem is not a compelling place for a reader, but it does serve the purposes of Carter's moral lecture...Carter's imagery of Martha's Vineyard is not so descriptive so much as evocative for those who already have some emotional resonance with the place. But I found myself riding along on the ferry, gazing of the cliffs at Gay Head and lazily walking the Circuit along with him.The book is fascinating and bears up under different layers of scrutiny. That is what makes it good, and a must read for those of us who have shared, at various points in our life, the muddled consciousness of Talcott Garland.
    • 4/5
      This is a truly excellent mystery/suspense novel, on par with John Grisham's earlier works. And there certainly is a lot to enjoy. It's a long book, but it doesn't drag. Plot is appropriately twisty without being snarled, characters are excellent. If you like chess metaphors, even better.
    • 4/5
      A grand and length mystery focused on law and chess and upper middle class African American society. Not a great book, but I found it engaging, addictive, and highly readable with excellent character development. Perfect for a plane ride or the beach.
    • 3/5
      (#1 in the 2004 Book Challenge)This is a novel, written by a guy who is a law professor at Yale (if memory serves). He's obviously an excellent writer, his other books are all non-fiction lawyerly type stuff, and is a super smart, articulate guy. The book reads very well, his language is nice and precise and flowing. The setting is also interesting -- historically well-to-do African-Americans, so it's got a lot of that stuff about Jack and Jill, and the paper bag test, and the Inkwell on Martha's Vineyard, etc. I made a mental note that I want to read some more non-fiction about the history of this particular group. However, there's a conspiracy/mystery that's central to the plot, and I'm sad to report that Mr. Carter doesn't quite measure up in this area. Literary mysteries should be BOTH literary AND mysterious. All the clues and red herrings and whatnot are a bit clumsy. It's one of those mystery solving books where there are WAY too many steps that aren't necessary at all.This is also a long read, mostly because the language is demanding, but in a good way. Overall, I give it a B+. It's just missing out on an A- because of the faulty conspiracy.
    • 4/5
      A law professor tries to solve the mystery of his father's death. About 2/3rds of the way through, the action seemed to falter and I just wanted to know the resolution.