This Professor Can Write!

Book Review

When Lawrence Otis Graham published “Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class” in 2000, many folks, for the first time, became aware of the existence of a long-established Black elite in this country.

Graham found himself ostensibly ostracized by fellow members of that snobbish set for not only having outed them by name, but for having shared such family secrets such as where they live and vacation, what exclusive organizations they belong to, and where they send their kids to school and summer camp.

While that encyclopedic expose’ was certainly an informative Who’s Who, it failed to give you much of a feeling for the mindset of the Black bourgeoisie. Fortunately, Stephen L. Carter filled that void a few years later, when he wrote The Emperor of Ocean Park, a murder mystery which unfolded on Martha’s Vineyard, one of the aforementioned oases frequented by the African-American aristocracy.

Carter, a Professor of Law at Yale University, is also the author of seven nonfiction books, including the very thought-provoking Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby, The Culture of Disbelief, and God’s Name in Vain.

With New England White, another whodunit among the copper-toned rich and famous, he has really hit his stride as a novelist, having excised the excess verbiage which some say marked The Emperor of Ocean Park.

That doesn’t mean he won’t still occasionally slip in some SAT vocabulary (such as “abstemiousness,” “sinecure,” “dandling,” “soteriology,” and “garrulous”) likely to have you reaching for the dictionary, but simply that this crime caper is definitely more of an absorbing page-turner. Of far more significance, however, is the plausible picture Professor Carter paints of the Black upper class, a group which the mainstream culture has historically demeaned as boorish buffoons, from Kingfish “Holy mackerel!” Stevens to Judge Pigmeat “Order in the court!” Markham to George “Movin’ on up!” Jefferson to just about the entire cast of Soul Plane, a despicable movie about a mythical Black airline company.

You won’t find any such insulting throwbacks in New England White, but rather sophisticated and intelligent collection of accomplished individuals. The tawdry tale takes place at an Ivy League school and revolves around administrators Julia and Lemaster Carlyle, a very powerful couple who were merely minor characters in The Emperor of Ocean Park .
Needless to say, the plot thickens early on, soon after the Carlyles stumble upon the body of an economics professor who just happens to be an ex-lover of Julia’s. I’ll have to leave it here, since I would be doing my
readers a disservice to divulge a word more of this delectable yarn best savored slowly over the summer.

Suffice to say that New England White is heartily recommended, especially for avid fans of the mystery genre or for anyone curious about how that other half of African-Americana lives.

Book Details: New England White. by Stephen L. Carter. Alfred A. Knopf
Hardcover, $26.95. 572 pages. ISBN: 978-0-375-41362-9

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