New England White is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. After I took a wrong turn toward the African-American section and misguidedly thumbed through the ABC’s of Borders’ fiction stacks, I finally made the connection that the newest novel from the widely hailed author of The Emperor of Ocean Park and Yale law scholar, Stephen L. Carter, was located in the Mystery/Thriller section. I could heed my embarrassment in not recognizing the accomplishments of my own fellow member of the “darker nation” (a term frequently used by Carter to delineate African-Americans), and blame it on the fact I was worn-out from a long day at the office. But perhaps it was my own narrow-minded subconscious, blocking the possibility that a successful Black author would be occupying expensive, forward-facing real estate in the curious suspense category. Whatever the case, the 550+ pages to me weighed heavy as a brick in my less-than-muscular arms; but I took up the challenge and settled in for a surprisingly piercing examination of the intersections of race and class in modern America – deceptively presented via an old-fashioned whodunit. In New England White, Carter breathes life into previously minor characters, Lemaster and Julia Carlyle, who appeared in his first novel The Emperor of Ocean Park. This upwardly mobile couple is the realization of W.E.B. Dubois’ Talented Tenth concept; both firmly ensconced in the edified black bourgeoisie by virtue of Lemaster’s uncompromising ambition and Julia’s historical familial ties, seemingly without the aid of Carter’s termed “paler nation.” Ironically, however, we learn in the end it is because of an unspeakable confidence with Lemaster’s three White college roommates, two of which have gone on to the Senate and White House; which propels the Carlyle family and the mysterious Emperyals organization to the oft unexplored nether regions of unchecked power. But I am getting ahead of myself…
Barbadian-born, Lemaster, is the president of fictional Kepler University. His family resides in the lily-white community of Tyler’s Landing, whose residents keep a close eye on the rising number of “colored families” (five in a town of 3,000) amongst their ranks. A sharp intellect that is maddeningly insane in his focus on honor and single-minded in his devotion to strict Anglican tradition, Lemaster is a formidable opponent for his time-weathered wife. Julia feels caged by the perfect illusion of family life that she has helped design; and it is Julia who takes on the challenge of pursuing the truth, no matter how unsettling to her family, when the Carlyle’s Cadillac Escalade veers off an icy country road, leading to the grim discovery of Kellen Zant’s body in a nearby ditch.
Zant was a brilliant economics professor who co-authored a famous economic theorem; but more interestingly, he was Julia’s slick, heart-breaker of an ex-lover from more than two-decades before who unfailingly, if not admirably, professed his love throughout the years. The mystery of Zant’s murder grows stranger still when it is reveled that he left clues for Julia’s eyes only cloaked in economic terms, such as, catching the surplus and unloading the inventory, mysterious anagrams scribbled on a flimsy business card and hidden messages in the antiquated mirrors that Julia loves to collect. Though she is an unwitting sleuth, Julia finds herself unable to stop searching for answers because some of her ex-lover’s clues lead back to own brilliant, yet frighteningly disturbed teenage daughter Vanessa.
Vanessa is obsessed with the 30-year old murder of Gina Joule. Her fixation began with a term paper examining the innocence of a young black man, Deshaun; who was accused of the crime and subsequently murdered by racist white cops. The teenager is desperate, almost to the point of ridiculous, to disprove anyone of the notion that Deshaun was innocent. She speaks to the dead girl, to the utter dismay and embarrassment of her parents, and disappears for large chunks of time to find proof of Deshaun’s guilt.
Through interaction with the shady characters Kellen contacted before his death, Julia finds out that the economics professor had information on the Joule murder and Lemaster’s corrupt ties to his White college friends and a mysterious Harlem brotherhood, the Emperyals.
The Emperyals are so secretive, that members do not even claim to be so. Carter paints the organization as a deep-rooted network of the “darker nation,” which exercises its political power through a forced hand. Julia exposes her husband as a member of this elite organization and follows Kellen’s breadcrumb trail right back to her own front door.
“African America” has always made its own rules, created its own private clubs and organizations and, thus; has also generated its own tangled web of class and privilege outside White America’s disinterested gaze. Carter’s attacks on classism in “African America” illuminates a fact of the human condition: we all want to be better than our peers. Smarter, richer, prettier, etcetera, etcetera… Within “African America” the same kinds of conditions exist; which the author deftly explores in Julia’s journey to find Deshaun’s mother. The coiffed college president’s wife leaves the cloistered and picturesque Tyler’s Landing behind to find answers in Elm Harbor’s Nest neighborhood, home of the underprivileged type of folks she rarely, if ever, has contact with in her daily life.
The author also paints a fantastical picture of the Emperyal organizational having a major political influence, which allows Lemaster to have power over his college roommates, now a Senator and President. Carter’s obvious statement on politics is that “the darker nation” will only get the attention of the “paler” one should the latter have evidence to others wrongdoing. This is the author’s testament to the struggle to address race and class on a political canvas that more often than not prefers to let the subject fade into the forgettable background.
The beauty of this mystery was its ability to achieve a major publishing coup with characters from Carter’s beloved, “the darker nation,” at the helm of a bestseller. Though, at times, his prose lies heavy and cloying at the far reaches of your vocabulary (I will admit it – I pulled out my dictionary three times) and there is also the daunting task of dissecting economic theorems; the subject-matter is worthy of the journey. Lemaster and Julia are educated, rich and black; and Stephen Carter’s success sheds a blazing white light on this often overlooked and underappreciated part of American society.
