Literary checkmate: the overwhelming response to first-time novelist Stephen Carter has the publishing world calling it the next Bonfire of the Vanities - 'The Emperor of Ocean Park'

Black Issues Book Review, May-June, 2002 by Angela Dodson

In a very real sense Stephen L. Carter has known the Gar lands for much of his life. Now the rest of us can finally enter their world with the publication of his first novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park. More than likely, it won't be the last we hear of them.

Carter--that Yale law professor known for provocative, academic nonfiction--says he began forming the characters that populate the novel as long as 20 years ago, shaping many stories to fit them before settling on the plot.

"This novel is the product of a lot of false starts," says Carter. "I think it's fair to say that I had the characters long before I had the story. The story was generated as a vehicle for the characters. I had the characters first, and that is very important because the characters led me through lots of visions of fiction."

The Emperor of Ocean Park revolves around a black conservative jurist and patriarch referred to most often, even by his children and even in death, as "the Judge."

"Even today, well over a decade after the Judge's fall," Carter writes, "I am buttonholed by students who want to hear from my own mouth that my who father is indeed they have heard he is, and by colleagues who want me to explain to them how it felt to sit there day after miserable day, listening stoically as the Senate methodically destroyed him."

Though the characters are entirely fictional, and, Carter insists, based on no individuals in particular, readers--especially those familiar with middle- and upper-class black society--will probably recognize themselves or people they know.

The novel's charms--mystery, ambition, romance, family and chess--however, are universal ones that the author and publisher hope will extend far beyond the African-American book market. Add richly evocative writing and fully realized, non-stereotyped characters, and there is reason to expect critical and commercial acclaim. The fictional Garlands mostly divide their time among the power centers of Washington, D.C., including its Gold Coast, the intellectual ether of an Ivy-laced law school community, and the tidy black social elite of Martha's Vineyard.

Alfred A. Knopf and Vintage Books, both imprints of the Knopf Publishing Group (part of Random House), acquired The Emperor of Ocean Park, and a second novel to come for $4 million in an auction among 12 publishers, one of the most hotly contested in publishing history. The advance is said to be one of the highest on record for a first novel, and the publisher expects it to be well worth it. At the same time, John Wells and Warner Brothers bought the film rights in a seven-figure deal that was brokered by Carter's agent, Lynn Nesbit, who represented him in both negotiations.

In announcing the deal in February 2001, Sonny Mehta, the president of Knopf, called the book "the most original piece of fiction I have read in a long time" and Carter has said he chose the publisher because of Mehta's early encouragement of his draft.

"So many people internally here [at Knopf], and so many booksellers that we have been talking to are so excited about this book. There is a level of excitement here that is so amazing and high," says Robin Desser, Carter's editor at Knopf.

"It's a unique combination of a book with a compelling plot and characters who are so well-drawn and so complex and interesting--something where you just keep turning the pages, because it of the elements of suspense, but it also has all of the literary aspects of the best literature," says Desser, who has also edited Gloria Naylor, Rita Dove and Edwidge Danticat. "The fact that these are African-American characters inhabiting the world that they inhabit gives this book so much of its energy, its political intelligence, its aspects of power--all of that," she adds. "I don't know whether there have been many books like this, but I don't think so."

In June, Knopf releases the hardcover in the United States, and Vintage Books is expected to roll out the trade paperback next year. No timetable has been established yet for the second novel, but Carter says he expects to hand in the first draft before he begins promoting The Emperor.

Initially, the tour begins in late May in London, where the book is being released simultaneously, a week before the novel's U.S. debut. Carter will tour heavily in the United States through June and later into the summer. Editors at Knopf would not say how much they plan to spend on publicity for the book, but they were preparing heavy promotional campaigns for a general audience and special promotions in African-American stores and media.

Gabrielle Brooks, Knopf's director of promotions, says the publisher is mailing a chess piece--a critical part of the story line--and the book's prologue to African-American booksellers, followed by an advanced readers' edition mailing. "All this in the hopes that people would have a chance to read the book early and get as excited about it as we are, and also recommend it to their customers and book clubs," Brooks adds.