Loose Diamonds, Wedding Bands, Engagement Rings, Additions Direct, UK Catalogue, BarnsandNobles Chapters, Canada . Buy Now Pay Later With Interest Free Credit | Direct Travel Insurance The Emperor of Ocean Park Author: Stephen L. Carter Hardcover Usually ships in 24 hours Delivery is subject to warehouse availability. Shipping delays may occur if we receive more orders than stock. Our Price: $39.95 Our Sale Price: $27.96 Savings: $11.99 (30%) Ordering is 100% secure . Spend $39 or more at chapters.indigo.ca and your order ships free!. ( Details ) ISBN: 0375413634 Published: June 2002 | Published by Alfred A. Knopf Our customers who bought this item also bought: The Corrections (2001) Book ~ Jonathan Franzen The Summons (2002) Book ~ John Grisham The Blind Assassin (2000) Book ~ Margaret Atwood Family Matters (2002) Book ~ Rohinton Mistry Atonement (2001) Book ~ Ian McEwan From the Publisher 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. About the Author Stephen L. Carter is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University, where he has taught since 1982. He is the author of seven acclaimed nonfiction books, including The Culture of Disbelief and Civility . He lives with his wife and children near New Haven, Connecticut. Author Interviews A Conversation with Stephen L. Carter, author of The Emperor of Ocean Park Q: You have written numerous works of acclaimed non-fiction. What inspired you to write a novel and where did you get the idea for The Emperor of Ocean Park ? A: When I was a child, I dreamed of writing fiction, and I suppose the idea has always been in the back of my mind. In the case of The Emperor of Ocean Park , I would have to say that the characters came to me long before the story did. Most of the major people in the book sprang into my mind, almost fully developed, many years ago. In boxes in my bedroom and my study, I still have dusty, dog-eared drafts of earlier efforts to render the same set of characters in several very different stories. Some of those early stories were lighter than the one I ended up with, and some were quite a bit more dreary. The characters themselves were up in arms. I’m not sure just when I hit upon the story in its final form. I can say, however, that the characters themselves continued to pester me until I came up with a way for them to present their various tales. Q: What kinds of research—into the Senate confirmation process, the workings of the FBI, the Federal and Supreme Courts, the political lobbying behind judgeships—inform this novel? A: Although I wouldn’t say I planned it this way, many of the subjects in the novel that require expertise are matters about which I have written non-fiction books and essays. For example, a few years ago, I published a book about the confirmation process for Supreme Court justices, and much of what I learned in the course of that project informed this one. Similarly I have written a lot about being black and middle class in America. But some of what might look real in the book is fiction. And some of what looks like fiction is real. Q: You have been careful to remind readers that this is a work of fiction—that Talcott Garland, law professor, is not an alter-ego for Stephen Carter, law professor. That said, do you identify with Talcott in any special way? A: I have had a lot of trouble persuading people that Talcott’s story isn’t autobiographical, or that the Garland family is not my own, but there is really very little overlap in the life experiences of me and my family, versus Talcott and his. I’m flattered that people find my characters so realistic that they assume they must be based on real people. But they’re not. Like most writers, I hope that readers will find something familiar in all the major characters. Still, the characters are all inventions, and, often, I myself did not know them very well until the book was complete. I should add that there is absolutely no similarity (other than the facts that both are black and very accomplished) between Talcott’s difficult wife, Kimmer, and the wonderful woman I have been blessed to be married to for more than twenty years. Q: Chess plays a role in this novel. Are you a big chess player? How much research into this topic—specifically "chess problems"—did you do? How does the novel parallel an actual game of chess? A: I love chess, absolutely love it. I am a life member of the United States Chess Federation. I play less chess now than I did when I was younger, except online at the Internet Chess Club, where I try to visit several times a week. Although I have never been anything more than an amateur in playing strength, I remain a great fan of the game, its players, its history, and its endless possibilities. The integration of chess into the novel required me to learn about a part of the chess world less familiar to me, the world of the chess problemist, where composers work for months or years to set up challenging positions for others to solve. Fortunately, I had some help from a columnist for a leading chess magazine in making sure that I made as few errors as possible in the way I described this world in the book. (Incidentally, the fact the number of chapters in the book is the same as the number of squares on a chessboard is a coincidence.) Q: This is an amazingly intricate plot—full of well developed characters, locations, and multi-leveled conspiracies. How do you craft a novel like this? What is your writing process? A: Lots of late nights and long walks! Lots and lots of talks with my wife, who read endless drafts and helped me avoid some really bad ideas. And lots of online chess to relax and clear the mind. I should add that I have come to agree with the many writers who insist that once you get the characters right, the story writes itself. Even in this era when so much fiction tends to be plot-driven, I think believable characters must come first. But they tend to take on lives of their own. I was occasionally surprised by the messes my characters got themselves into, and the indignant, presumptuous way that they demanded that I write a way for them to escape! Q: In addition to being a novel of suspense and intrigue, The Emperor of Ocean Park is also a novel about families—the things that bring them together and tear them apart; the secrets they keep from one another and the rest of the world; the legacies they pass from one generation to the next. What made you want to explore the idea of family and how did you begin to imagine this fascinating Garland family? A: Families, nuclear and extended, have always fascinated me. But I cannot begin to explain where the Garlands came from. I think I had the name first, then the Judge, and then it seemed right that he should have children, and that their relationships should be complex and stormy. (In another story that I attempted, the Judge was a White House aide; I also tried him out as a professor; but, in the end, only the judicial role really fit.) The tale of the family’s origin came to me before I quite knew which of several possible stories of the Garland family to tell. I experimented with several possible narrative voices, and several different ages for the characters, before settling into a voice that was a comfortable one, even if it was so unlike my own. Indeed, that was probably the hardest part of the project: sustaining the narrative voice of Talcott Garland, who sees the world so differently than I do. Imagining the family that whirls around him helped me to visualize life as he understands it. Q: Did you intentionally set out to explore the issue of race in this novel? A: I don’t think it is possible to write a realistic story about the black experience in America without race—and racism, real or suspected—being a part of that story. There was no need to invent situations in which to explore the problem; once the characters and settings were developed, the tensions that would inevitably arise seemed to me to be obvious. At the same time, I do not think Emperor is a novel that is mostly about race, and I do not for a moment want any reader to think I see race as a constraint on either the freedom of the characters or my own freedom to create a world for them to live in. I am less interested in how racism influences their lives than how their own strengths and weaknesses do. Q: This novel has many relationships—familial, marital, and professional—that are destroyed by ambition. Is this novel in some ways a cautionary tale? A: Definitely. Ambition lies near the heart of the individualism that can be so destructive to the solid values of family and community that make a nation great. All of us have seen people and families sacrificed for the sake of someone else’s career. Yet I am also interested in the virtues that might enable us to withstand the tug of constant advancement. The one who dies with the most toys doesn’t really win, and neither does the one who dies with the best resume. The one who has the strongest relationships with family and friends probably doesn’t win, either (because life shouldn’t be about winning), but, as I hope the novel makes clear, he or she does have a more successful life. And the virtue of faith—of following God, of recognizing our obligations to a source higher than our own will—seems to me the most powerful antidote to the pressure to build resume points. So I have peopled the novel with characters, like Talcott and his friend Dana Worth, who struggle to find their faith, as well as others, like Rob Saltpeter and Morris Young, for whom faith is already a solid, implacable fact. And then there are the many more, like Kimmer Madison (Talcott’s wife) and Marc Hadley (his colleague), for whom the careerist drive dominates. Q: Religion plays a role in The Emperor of Ocean Park —especially the idea of letting forgiveness come before revenge. As someone who has always been interested in religion in the modern age, was this an idea you set out to explore or something that arose over the course of the story? A: I myself am a believing Christian, so it would be surprising if Emperor were uninformed by my faith, just as it would be surprising if it were uninformed by my race. And, certainly, much of my non-fiction work has dealt with the application of religion to everyday life. But I did not set out to write about religion. Again, the characters came to me first. The details of their different religious understandings, their different visions of obligation to God, slowly arose and found their way into the story. I included both an aggressive atheist and an aggressive Christian evangelical, for instance, not because I was engaged in some search for balance, but because the characters suggested themselves and I found a fit. Q: Talcott remembers distinctly his father’s advice to draw a line between the present and the past and then choose the side you want to live on. Good advice? A: I think it’s good advice up to a point, but, like most good advice, should be taken in moderation. I meant for the father’s "wisdom," which Talcott recalls at various points in the book to be ironic, even platitudinous, although always containing a grain of truth. Talcott tells us several times that his father urged the children to draw a line and put the past on one side and the present on the other, which is probably excellent advice if, for example, one is trying to forget a painful love affair. But it is not a rule that should be applied to all situations. Surely the great lesson of the century just behind us is that we should immerse ourselves in the past—not because people in the past were wiser or greater than we, but because there are vital lessons, of what to do and what to avoid, hidden away in history. So, for example, the difficult moment in which we are now living has historical antecedents. By studying that past, we can learn about our troubling present. Q: Did you find it difficult to make the transition from writing non-fiction to writing a novel? A: The process is so very different. The long walks are the same, and so is the need to craft every sentence with care. But I was accustomed to resting my arguments on a rock in my other writing that was missing when I sat down to write a novel: footnotes. With non-fiction, the author, challenged about the plausibility of a particular event, can say, "Well, that’s just the way it happened!" Many a novelist will say the same thing, but I am a little uneasy, because what I really mean is, "That’s just the way I invented it!" At first I found this change unsettling, but I have come to appreciate the particular freedom it grants, and the limits of that freedom. Art, I have finally remembered, is as important a human virtue as science. Q: So what is next? Will we see another novel? More of the Garlands? A: The next novel is well underway. All I am prepared to say about it, however, is that some of the characters from Emperor reappear. And that I’ll probably be taking more long walks! I also have a number of non-fiction projects in the works. I still see myself first and foremost as a law professor and legal scholar. But if I have written a story that people enjoy reading, if they are satisfied when they are done, yet sorry that it ended, if it diverts them for a while from present tragedies, I will be happy and grateful. Tips for your Reading Group 1. How does The Emperor of Ocean Park differ from more conventional mysteries? In what ways is the narrator, Talcott Garland, unlike his counterparts--men like Philip Marlow, Sam Spade, and their descendants--in the prototypical mystery? 2. How does Carter build and sustain suspense throughout the novel? What are the several mysteries Talcott Garland is trying to solve? What discoveries does he make–about his father, his wife, his brother, Jack Ziegler, Justice Wainwright, and others–over the course of the novel? What effect do these discoveries have on him? 3. The issue of race appears, in one form or another, throughout The Emperor of Ocean Park . What is Talcott’s attitude toward race? In what instances is he subject to racial stereotyping? What observations does he make about the white liberal racism he encounters on campus? What racial hypocrisies does he see in his fellow blacks? 4. At the Judge’s funeral, Aunt Alma cryptically tells Tal that he has "the chance to make everything right. You can fix it. . . . But your daddy will let you know what to do when the time comes" [p. 24]. Like Hamlet, Talcott is charged by his father, beyond the grave, to set things right. In what other ways is Talcott a Hamlet-like character? In what ways must he both fulfill and transcend his father’s demands? 5. What makes Jack Ziegler such a frightening character? In what ways is he more than merely a villain? In what sense is he, as Talcott says of him, the “author” of the Garland family’s misery? 6. His cousin Sally tells Tal: “You think you’re so different from Uncle Oliver, but you’re just like him. In some good ways, sure, but in some of the worst ways, too. You look down your nose at people you think are your moral inferiors. People like your brother. People like me” [p. 270]. Is she right? In what other ways is Tal like his father? How is he different from him? 7. What role do the chess problems play in the novel? How do they lead Talcott to uncover his father’s “arrangements”? How are they related to issues of race and power? In what sense is Talcott himself a pawn? 8. When a man calls his house asking for his wife, Tal thinks: “Odd the way the immediate concerns about a dying marriage can knock worries about torture and murder and mysterious chess pieces right out of the box, but priorities are funny that way” [p. 453]. In what ways is the story of Tal and Kimmer’s failing marriage--and the larger story of the complex relations in the Garland family--more important than the murder mystery? How are his marital problems related to the mystery he is trying to solve? 9. The Emperor of Ocean Park describes a social milieu rarely seen in American fiction: the black middle class. What does the novel tell us about the highly successful people who make up this class? How are they different from African Americans more commonly encountered in modern and contemporary fiction? 10. Late in the novel, “a wave of fatalism” sweeps over Tal and he wonders “whether I could have done anything differently, or if, once the Judge died, setting his awful plan in motion, and Jack Ziegler showed up demanding to know the arrangements, everything else was fixed. Whether my marriage, even, was doomed from the day of the funeral” [p. 533]. Is the story fated to end as it does or could Talcott have changed its outcome? What might he have done differently? 11. The Emperor of Ocean Park is not merely a thriller, but also an extended critique of American culture, commenting on issues of family, religion, law, education, race, marriage, wealth, and politics. What do the frequent philosophical digressions add to the novel? What beliefs and values does Talcott Garland try to live by? 12. During a dinner-table argument, Dr. Young asserts that Satan “always attacks us in the same ways. . . . He attacks us with sexual desire and other temptations that distract the body. He attacks us with drink and drugs and other temptations that addle the brain. He attacks us with racial hatred and love of money and other temptations that distort the soul” [p. 346]. How does this perspective illuminate the behavior of the major characters in novel? Who gives in to the temptations that Dr. Young describes in this speech? Who resists them? 13. How do Tal’s relationships with his family--with his father, his sister, his brother, his wife, and his son--change over the course of the novel? 14. When Talcott retells the story of how he and his future wife had gotten out of the Burial Ground by crawling through a drainage tunnel, he writes: “Some metaphors need no interpretation” [p. 515]. Is the meaning of this metaphor obvious? How should the escape from the cemetery be interpreted? How is the Burial Ground itself important to the novel’s plot? 15. As the Judge’s secret life is revealed, Dana Worth, a woman who had always admired Oliver Garland, tells Talcott: “I don’t want to say he was evil . . . but he wasn’t just deluded, either” [p. 615]. How should the Judge finally be judged? What drove him to do what he did? Are his actions understandable? Forgivable? 16. When he delivers the eulogy at Theo Mountain’s funeral, Talcott breaks down weeping. “I suppose people think I was crying over Theo. Maybe I was, a little. But, mainly, I was crying over all the good things that will never be again, and the way the Lord, when you least expect it, forces you to grow up” [p. 620]. What are the “good things” Talcott mourns the loss of here? In what ways has the Lord forced him to “grow up”? How have the events of the novel changed him? Review Quotes "Among the most remarkable fiction debuts in recent years…[The Emperor of Ocean Park] is full of musing about God, family, chess, the politics of Supreme Court appointments, loyalty, unhappy marriage, the media, depression, race, and academic infighting…[Carter] is a scholar and a lawyerly commentator who has penned a rip-roaring entertainment." – Boston Globe "The year’s hottest summer read and a surefire bestseller…Carter does for members of the contemporary black upper-class what Henry James did for Washington Square society, taking us into their drawing rooms and laying their motives bare…However The Emperor of Ocean Park is categorized, beach reading doesn’t get any better than this." – Time Out New York " The Emperor of Ocean Park is a delightful, sprawling, gracefully written, imaginative work, with sharply delineated characters who dwell in a fully realized narrative world…Carter deserves comparison with such successful practitioners of the crime novel as Scott Turow." – The New York Review of Books "The Emperor of Ocean Park is an intricately plotted work…a novel that is both thriller and commentary on American racial relations." –Dan Cryer, Newsday "[A] complex literary thriller. Carter deftly weaves together several strands, from the relationships of father and sons and husbands and wives to the politics of the Nixon and Reagan eras." – Bookpage " The Emperor of Ocean Park is no ordinary fiction debut…Carter has produced a thoroughly original mystery-thriller…that also explores the brave terrains of race, family, power, paranoia, and the law…If I may join the hype, The Emperor of Ocean Park rules." – Book Street USA "[A] fiercely intelligent and original work…Carter explores an astounding variety of subjects with the depth and delicacy." – The Miami Herald "[The Emperor of Ocean Park] is one of the hottest items of the summer, one of the most discussed books of the year. It provides insight into the world of the African-American haute bourgeoisie…and does so with a sophistication and elegance of language that makes much of it a joy to read." – The Globe and Mail "Yes, this combination mystery/social commentary/thoughtful introspection is long. But the characters are masterfully developed, and its gripping story, elegant writing and skillful illumination of a segment of society that has been notably absent from popular fiction more than justify its 657 pages. The Emperor of Ocean Park is an outstanding work of fiction worth every penny…If you read only one book this summer, make sure it’s this one." – The Sunday Star-Ledger "Stephen L. Carter’s debut novel, " The Emperor of Ocean Park," is a marvel: a deeply satisfying thriller that is as careful with character as it is with conspiracy…This is an exhilarating summer read that will be remembered long after the season is over." – Contra Costa Times "Poised to become the biggest book of the summer." –Entertainment Weekly "This reader hasn’t inhaled a novel so rich, rewarding and compelling since Tom Wolfe’s A Man in Full. Like Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent it transports the reader into a different world and creates characters that resonate long after you finish it…The mystery aspects had me reading the book at stop signs while driving." – Deirdre Donahue, USA Today "More le Carré than Grisham . . . a vivid, twisty puzzle of deceit and social commentary." – V.R. Peterson, People "The Emperor of Ocean Park is, in a word, a humdinger." – Fortune "This first-rate legal thriller, which touches electrically on our sexual, racial and religious anxieties, will be the talk of the political in-crowd this summer." – Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Fascinating. . . . [A] suspenseful tale of ambition, revenge, and the power of familial obligations. . . . An elegantly nuanced novel, with finely drawn characters, a challenging plot, and perfect pacing." – Booklist "A novel of great originality and insight: a saga of an African-American family of affluence and privilege forced to reckon with their misadventures and crimes. But Carter’s novel also explores, perhaps for the first time in recent memory, a less familiar vision of the black experience in America: one of pride and optimism, and possibility. I’ve never read a book quite like it, and I enjoyed it very much indeed." –Gay Talese "This sleek, immensely readable first novel is custom-designed for the kind of commercial success enjoyed by John Grisham’s The Firm 11 years ago. . . . With great skill, Carter builds toward a series of climaxes that explode over the final 150 pages. Few readers will refrain from racing excitedly through them. A melodrama with brains and heart to match its killer plot. . . . Irresistible." – Kirkus Info Desk iREWARDS Program About Our Company Affiliate Opportunities Careers Contact Us Corporate Sales Gift Certificates Privacy Policy Shipping Rates Store Locations Wish List chapters.indigo.ca: books Shopping Bag | Account Centre | Wish List | Help iREWARDS Program | Corporate Sales | Store Locations All Products Books DVD Video Gifts Books Advanced Search Search Tips About this Book From the Publisher About the Author Read from the Book Author Interviews Tips for your Reading Group Review Quotes Mystery and Suspense Hard-Boiled Legal Police Procedural Suspense Thrillers Traditional British Women Sleuths Browse Home Page View all Categories . Head Office | Privacy Policy | Free Delivery | Coles Coupons