Stephen L. Carter: Schachmatt
(The Emperor of Ocean Park)

The novel is dead ... at least, the great American novel is, if it is true what the critics say about this book: brilliant, witty, cleverly constructed, inspired. They even declare Carter to be a new Theodore Dreiser.

Fortunately for the great American novel, none of this is really true. In fact, it is an unbelievably poor book! (monotonous syntax; stereotypical chapter construction; continually written in the tedious first person singular; phlegmatic tone, false approach, inelegant mode of expression...)

Stephen L. Carter, though, seems to be a pleasant individual, and is no doubt a perfectly effective professor of jurisprudence at Yale University. Unfortunately, however, he lacks the talent required for writing a novel. This is why his creation has to be rejected - he has produced a boring and trifling tome of 860 excruciating pages.

How could it have become a bestseller? There is only one explanation: money makes the world go round. Artistic capability and success are no longer related - nearly all today's stars bear this fact out. It is all false, as is so often in big business.

In other words: since it is already a success, it is sure to become so.

It would be better to dissociate chess from such an embarrassment...