The Emperor of Ocean Park

Talcott 'Tal' Garland (known as Misha to his closest friends) is a black tenured law professor at the fictional college, Elm Harbor,[10] an analog of Yale University.[11] His wife, Kimberley Madison, known as Kimmer, is an attorney.[12] Tal's father, Oliver Garland, a federal judge, has just died. Years earlier, Judge Oliver Garland had to decline a nomination from President Ronald Reagan for a seat on the Supreme Court due to the release of embarrassing information about his past, and then resigned from the bench. Following some years of heavy drinking,[13] Oliver in his later life became a well-paid mascot for right-wing political groups.[14] Judge Garland dies in suspicious circumstances, purportedly of a heart attack.[15] The death brings together the Judge's three living children – Tal, Addison, and Mariah – for the funeral. A fourth child, Abby, died some years previously, in a hit and run car accident.[13]

Talcott is named in Judge Garland's will as being responsible for the "final arrangements", which are not explained. Talcott's only clue is an obtuse note from his father telling him to search for "Angela's boyfriend", someone unknown to Talcott who apparently holds information that the Judge wants Talcott to have, and ending "Excelsior, my son! Excelsior! It begins!" – a reference to the Double Excelsior; the first of many chess references found within the trail of clues the Judge has left.[16] Unbeknownst to Tal, the Judge had hired a private investigator to investigate his daughter's death. The investigator had been recommended by Jack Ziegler, one of his college roommates[17] who later worked in espionage for the CIA, and in return, the Judge influenced some legislation to suit Ziegler. The investigator finds the car that killed Abby was driven by the son of a prominent US senator and his girlfriend, both of whom were subsequently killed in similar car accidents; it is later revealed at least one of these "accidents" was caused by the private investigator. The release of details of Judge Garland's relationship with Ziegler is what resulted in the Judge failing to gain a seat on the Supreme Court. Ziegler approaches Talcott at his father's funeral, demanding to know the details of the Judge's final arrangements.[18] Two other interlinking plot threads feature Kimmer's campaigning for a highly sought after seat on one of the thirteen Federal Courts of Appeals, and the often-parlous state of Talcott and Kimmer's marriage.[19] Kimmer, with whom Talcott first had an affair while she was married to one of Talcott's fellow law professors,[17] is suggested as being unfaithful, although this is never confirmed.[20]

Talcott discovers that parties including the FBI and an unknown assassin – later revealed as one of Judge Garland's fellow judges – are prepared to kill in order to obtain the details of the arrangements. Talcott follows a series of cryptic clues left by his father, including working out that "Angela's boyfriend" referred to his Uncle Derek, a communist and admirer of Angela Davis. Talcott finally learns that "the arrangement" to which the Judge referred was a floppy disk containing details of the many trials and legal decisions which the Judge illegally fixed in return for favors and payment from prominent people. The disk was hidden in a toy bear which belonged to Abby – Tal's deceased sister.[2] The book ends with Talcott throwing the disk into a fire to start with a clean slate.[21]

Author Stephen L. Carter in 2015

Stephen L. Carter wrote The Emperor of Ocean Park while working as a Professor of Law at Yale.[22] In a 2002 interview, Carter, who had already written several non-fiction books in his career, said that the idea for a fiction novel had "always been in the back of [his] mind", and that the major characters of the novel had been ones he had tried to fit into various drafts and unpublished stories over the preceding years.[23] Carter started working on the book in the mid-1990s,[24] writing mostly at night while working at Yale during the day; it took him four years to complete in draft.[25]

He originally created an outline for the novel because that was how he wrote his scholarly arguments in non-fiction pieces, but as the story's content changed dramatically, Carter found the outline restrictive and discarded it. At one point, the draft manuscript grew to 1,300 pages long, nearly twice the length of the published novel.[24] In December 2000, Carter and his wife decided that he should focus all his time on finishing the final version. He spent six weeks "polishing the draft into shape".[26]

Many of the legal and political topics addressed in the book, such as the workings of the FBI, the appointment process for the Supreme Court, and the political lobbying of judges were topics on which Carter had previously published non-fiction books and writings, making it possible for him to use this knowledge in writing the novel without requiring extensive research.[23] In particular, his scholarly works The Confirmation Mess, The Culture of Disbelief, Civility, and Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby were all touchpoints in writing The Emperor of Ocean Park.[19]

Carter said his fiction writing was influenced by Go Tell It on the Mountain author James Baldwin and Langston Hughes, in particular how Hughes wrote dialogue.[27]

A fierce bidding war for publication and adaptation rights ensued in early 2001 among American publishers Knopf, sister publisher Random House, and others.[28] Carter was given $4.2 million, one of the largest advances ever received by a first-time author of fiction from Knopf for the rights to publish a book. The advance included the rights to Carter's second novel, New England White, which was published in 2008.[29] With Knopf and Random House making bids of equal value, Carter chose Knopf because he remembered the support he had been given from Knopf's editor-in chief, Sonny Mehta, who had read a few early draft chapters of the novel in 1998 and encouraged Carter to keep working on it.[30] Carter received a further $1 million from Jonathan Cape for the British publishing rights.[31]

The size of the advance was discussed widely.[32] At the time of the novel's publication, The Economist described it as a "reckless gamble" by Knopf, noting Carter had never written a work of fiction before.[33] Writing for Newsweek, David Gates was also critical of the advance, which he suggested was "a way to make a Denzel Washington movie out of it", or that Knopf saw Carter as a black Tom Wolfe.[34] Discussing the reviews in a piece for The Weekly Standard, Arnold Beichman said that much of the criticism of the book was because of the large advance Carter received for his debut novel.[35]

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

An example of an Excelsior chess problem, by Sam Loyd. White to move and mate in five with "the least likely piece or pawn".[47]

The Emperor of Ocean Park was noted by many critics to bring together two themes – the "lowbrow" genre fiction style, in particular using the principles and thematic elements of a pulp thriller or murder mystery, and the "highbrow" literary fiction style, in which Carter reflects on black America – what Carter (as Talcott Garland) refers to as the "darker nation" – from a black perspective.[48][15] Ocean Park is an area of Oak Bluffs, a summer colony on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.[2] Until the 1960s, Oak Bluffs was the only town on Martha's Vineyard that welcomed black tourists, as other towns on the island did not allow black guests to stay in inns and hotels.[49] Carter summers there, and noted the enduring appeal of Martha's Vineyard to middle and upper-class African-American families.[50]

Racial themes and expository sections on upper-class black culture form a large part of the narrative of The Emperor of Ocean Park, with the lead character being described as highly self-conscious of his race and how that influences his life.[21] Carter said in an online interview with MSNBC that he was "quite aware that very little in literature or in the media ever focuses on middle class and upper middle class Black Americans. If the success of this book means that publishers or film makers will be more interested in this class, that's a good thing. On the other hand, I wouldn't want the book's focus on that group to mean we should stop thinking about those who are being left behind."[51] Parallels were drawn between Carter's work and that of Lawrence Otis Graham, who explored the lives of upper-class black Americans in his social commentaries.[52]

Professor Ben Barton of the California Law Review said the novel was "unmistakably a product by a legal academic"; Carter delves into great detail around a number of legal issues throughout the novel, calling upon his legal experience and research.[19] Judge Oliver Garland is described as an amalgam of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas;[10] Carter noted that he was inspired to write about Judge Garland's travails during his confirmation hearing by his having watched the hearings of Clarence Thomas.[53] Carter wanted to ensure that his character's lives were fully rounded and, particularly as a Christian, he wanted the novel to reflect that many of his characters had religious beliefs. In one interview, he drew a comparison between those beliefs and the seemingly strictly secular world of the modern college campus.[26]

The introductory epigraph ("Two fools always win, but three fools, never!") at the start of the book is a quote attributed by Carter to Siegbert Tarrasch, a chess writer of the late 19th and early 20th century. Carter is a member of the United States Chess Federation, and chess plays a major part in The Emperor of Ocean Park; the novel included a great number of allegories to chess, equating white characters with the white pieces, and black characters with the black.[23] Early in the book, two pawns – one white, one black – go missing from the chessboard in Tal's father's study. The book is divided into three main sections, each named after an element of chess theory, again as allegories to the themes within the book; Nowotny Interference, in which two black pieces obstruct one another; Turton Doubling, when one white piece withdraws to enable a second white piece to move in front of it and jointly attack the black king; and Unprovided Flight, where only one move is available to the black king, and checkmate is imminent.[20] The final chapter is entitled "Double Excelsior", in reference to the Excelsior problem, linking back to the Judge's original note for Talcott,[16] and suggesting the one remaining black pawn (Tal) and the last white pawn (Ziegler) had been slowly moving toward one another, to be promoted to knights, with the only apparent ending being for the two pieces to collude (known as a "helpmate"), and the only possible result being that the black side must lose.[54][21]

In a lengthy author's note at the end of the novel, Carter says that the book was decidedly not a roman à clef.[55] While superficially, Stephen Carter and Talcott Garland shared a number of characteristics – they were both middle-aged professors of law at prestigious colleges, both summered at Martha's Vineyard as part of the wealthy black community there, both were chess fans, both were married to other lawyers, and so on – Carter considered that the resemblance ended there. He says that Garland is an original literary creation, as are all the other characters.[31] This was gently mocked by some critics.[21][56] Political scientist Michael Nelson said the "similarities between creator and creature are just too numerous and important to ignore".[31] Carter acknowledged the author's note was "absurdly long", justifying it a reaction to not being able to put footnotes throughout the book, unlike in his non-fiction writing. Instead, he appended them to the end of the novel, saying "I don't think I could have written a novel, as a scholar, without making sure I got my facts right and making sure the reader knew."[26]

The Ocean Park gazebo in Oak Bluffs.

In an early review, Publishers Weekly forecast that The Emperor of Ocean Park would bring Carter wide recognition as a novelist.[10] The novel received a broadly positive reception upon release, although some responses were mixed.[57] In a review for the New York Times, writer Ward Just discussed at length the preoccupation of the book with describing the world of the black bourgeoisie, and suggested that "in Stephen Carter, the black upper class has found its Dreiser" – referring to the influential naturalist author Theodore Dreiser.[13] It was described as an "expansively, constantly interesting book" by The Detroit Free Press, which suggested it would be popular summer reading material.[17] Like others, Jelani Cobb of The Crisis noted that the book features aspects of both genre and literary fiction, describing Carter's attempt to bring the two together as sprawling and sublime. He drew attention to the unusual protagonist, describing the Talcott Garland character as "jaded, overweight, and profoundly insecure".[15] Historian Elizabeth Fox-Genovese considered the book to be "gripping", and noted that Carter had over a decade of experience in writing non-fiction about politics, law, and religion. She suggested that he may have used fiction to allow him more freedom to explore these topics, away from the didactic requirements of non-fiction.[20]

In an episode of the Newsnight Review for the BBC, novelist Ian Rankin said he thought the book was "very well written but badly constructed" due to the conflation of a number of thriller cliches, and that the over-complicated plot obscured a great story.[7] The A.V. Club suggested Carter had a tendency to overwrite, and too often strayed away from a "spellbinding" plot in the novel's exposition.[12] Carter's writing style was noted for being at times dispassionate, and 'chilly', particularly when straying away from the more esoteric topics the novel covers and into the personal, with criticism of some descriptions (such as of a young child being "childlike").[48] The density of the book was discussed, with some reviewers suggesting that the multitude of references to chess required a certain knowledge of the game in order to appreciate the allusions and clues contained through the book.[19] Others said that the writing was at times clunky, and the extensive social commentary detracted from the narrative flow.[16] In a negative review for the London Review of Books, critic Lorin Stein described the book as "long-winded [and] shoddily put together", and discussed why many American reviewers paid deference to what he thought was a high-toned airport novel. Stein found various inconsistencies within the book to be distracting, noting an example where a pool table appears mid-scene in a room previously described as "tiny", and said the plot was goofy and implausible.[2]

The publication of The Emperor of Ocean Park was described as part of a major shift for African-American literature. Instead of being marketed as a niche novel, the record-breaking advance, the publicity around its release, and the jacket art placed it firmly in the mainstream, as a "blockbusting, best-selling legal thriller".[8] It was noted by John Kevin Young, though, that despite the marketing for the novel being "color-blind", the reviews and press attention to the book still drew attention to the race of the author and the characters within the novel, suggesting that the world of wealthy African Americans had been previously "hidden" to the white reader. While such commentary was outside of Knopf's control, it reinforced the pattern of how the mainstream media responded to African-American literature.[58]

Awards:

• 2003 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (Fiction)[9]
• 2003 BCALA Literary Award, from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association[59]

Nominations:

• 2002 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction[60]
• 2002 CWA New Blood Dagger[61]
• 2002 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Mystery/thriller category[62]
• 2004 International Dublin Literary Award, longlisted.[63]

As part of the significant advance Carter obtained with Knopf in 2001, Knopf received the rights to any subsequent screen adaptations of The Emperor of Ocean Park.[43] Variety reported that, after reading an early version of the manuscript, a number of production companies were interested in acquiring the rights to create a movie adaptation of the novel. The rights were preemptively optioned by Warner Brothers, John Wells Productions, and Gaylord Films prior to the novel being published.[64] Stephen Schiff completed a script adaptation in 2003 which was attached to director Carl Franklin,[65][66] and Attica Locke, novelist, screenwriter and producer for the series Empire, completed another script in 2009.[67] Actor Wendell Pierce said in early 2015 that a movie adaptation of The Emperor of Ocean Park would be his dream project.[68] It was also reported in 2015 that writer Katori Hall was working with John Wells on a television pilot of The Emperor of Ocean Park for Fox Network.[69] Later that year writer Frank Bergon said that "last heard, the script was "under rewrite", maybe in "turnaround"."[70]

MGM+ (formerly Epix) ordered a 10-episode television series adaptation of the novel in April 2023 with Wells and Sherman Payne as executive producers.[71]

• Reading Guide to The Emperor of Ocean Park – Penguin Publishing
• Interview with Stephen L. Carter - Charlie Rose, June 7, 2002
• The Emperor of Ocean Park – an interview with Stephen L. Carter, C-Span, November 23, 2002