Synopsis: In the summer of 1952, twenty prominent men gather at a secret meeting on Martha’s Vineyard and devise a plot to manipulate the President of the United States. Soon after, the body of one of these men is found by Eddie Wesley, Harlem’s rising literary star. When Eddie’s younger sister mysteriously disappears, Eddie and the woman he loves, Aurelia Treene, are pulled into what becomes a twenty-year search for the truth. As Eddie and Aurelia uncover layer upon layer of intrigue, their odyssey takes them from the wealthy drawing rooms of New York through the shady corners of radical politics, all the way to the Oval Office.
Mild spoilers.
I think I relished Palace Council more while reading it than I did the first two Carter novels (The Emperor of Ocean Park and New England White). There are more breadcrumbs to follow and more delicious foreshadowing to savor this time around. In this novel he successfully marries the story he wants to tell with the way he's telling it. In the others, he had compelling stories, but was mired by too much introspection and slow pacing. Here we have a compelling story that is told in a compelling way. The novel is a polished product that seems much more deliberately crafted than the first two. The thought and design are more obvious, but not limiting or controlling. Plus there were many historical figures worked in and all that realism makes the whole story less fictional if you know what I mean. The scenes with Kennedy, Hughes and Nixon make you think things like that probably really did happen. Who doesn't love a conspiracy?
That's what's at the heart of Palace Council; a conspiracy to control top levels of government. Like most juicy conspiracies, it takes place over a period of decades and involves many people. If you like fiction that is simple with all of the dots connected up for you don't read this. If you like short casts of characters because remembering someone who only showed up for a couple of minutes 300 pages ago is too hard, don't read this book. If you don't like extremely abstruse details becoming important and then connecting up in vague and non-obvious ways, don't read this. Really. You'll just be frustrated. If you like all those things and don't need the solution handed to you and don't have the memory of a goldfish, go right ahead.
That being said, I think the underlying conspiracy, the Project as it's called, could have been more concrete. As it is you have to draw a lot of lines to connect the dots yourself. Were certain deaths part of the Project or just collateral damage or coincidental? While I can make those conclusions, there isn't enough evidence to support them and it makes the big reveal have less effect than it should considering the build up.
And the build up is good. Carter uses chapter headings and titles to telegraph a lot of the action. I like this method a lot better than the cliff-hanger type of chapter endings that so many thriller writers use these days. As if their stories don't have their own impetus to drive them forward, the fake tension created by this method is just annoying. With Palace Council we get a chapter called Arrest and so now we know what's going to happen, but not specifically enough so we read it. Instead of leaving you hanging at the arrest and starting another chapter to resolve it, we get the entire scenario delivered from lead up to final exits. Very nice. The tension flow is even and the scenes aren't too stagey.
Another source of tension is in the character relationship between Eddie and Aurelia. Their relationship is important, but it's not allowed to overshadow the conspiracy itself. It wasn't a given that they would get together, but you root for them. Separately it is obvious that each will only get so far, but together you know they can solve the mystery and when they finally do join forces it isn't sappy or overdone. It's satisfying, but still somewhat tense and not a guarantee of happiness. Great verisimilitude.
Once again Carter is not here to stand on the soapbox and preach about race relations. He doesn't have to, the circumstances each character finds himself or herself in speak loudly enough. That and the times themselves; the mid 1950s to the mid 1970s were all about racial equality and the struggle for civil rights. Carter uses many factual examples of that struggle, but they are never delivered with haranguing, accusatory speeches. Starkly portrayed they have more impact. Although I know these things happened, they still shock me that people treated each other this way over something so stupid. Humans are weird.
The loose connection to a certain segment of the darker nation is nice, but not necessary and you don't need to read the first two novels before this one. Because it takes place so much earlier than the other two, it could even be read before the others, but his talent and expertise shine greater here and you can discern his growth as a writer if you read them in publication order. I hope he writes another one. And if you read this, Mr. Carter, more Mona!
0 comments:
Post a Comment