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Deacon King Kong (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel
In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and in front of everybody shoots the project's drug dealer at point-blank range. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of DEACON KING KONG.
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Community Reviews
A fumbling, cranky, old church deacon struts into the courtyard of a crowded Brooklyn housing project and shoots the local drug dealer. What follows will make you laugh out loud and also tear up.
Deacon King Kong by James McBride
370 pages
What’s it about?
This novel is set in the 1960's at The Cause Housing Project in Brooklyn. The story centers around an old church deacon named Sportcoat that can't stay away from the booze. His wife Hettie has died and he spends too much time drinking and talking to her ghost. He is obsessed with finding the Christmas Club money she left somewhere because he is afraid the church people will think he stole it. One day he drinks too much and walks up to the neighborhood drug dealer and shoots him. Now the whole neighborhood gets involved to protect him.
What did it make me think about?
Brooklyn and changing neighborhoods.
Should I read it?
This was my favorite James McBride novel to date. I loved the characters and he just brings Brooklyn in the 1960's to life. It takes some patience in the beginning but if you stick it out Sportcoat may be one of your favorite literary characters this year.
Quote-
"She'd known most of them her whole life. They stared at her with that look, that projects look: the sadness the suspicious, the weariness, the knowledge that came from living a special misery in a world of misery. Four of their numbers were down- gone, changed forever, dead or not, it didn't matter. And there would be more. The drugs, big drugs, heroin, were here. Nothing could stop it."
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Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
370 pages
What’s it about?
This novel is set in the 1960's at The Cause Housing Project in Brooklyn. The story centers around an old church deacon named Sportcoat that can't stay away from the booze. His wife Hettie has died and he spends too much time drinking and talking to her ghost. He is obsessed with finding the Christmas Club money she left somewhere because he is afraid the church people will think he stole it. One day he drinks too much and walks up to the neighborhood drug dealer and shoots him. Now the whole neighborhood gets involved to protect him.
What did it make me think about?
Brooklyn and changing neighborhoods.
Should I read it?
This was my favorite James McBride novel to date. I loved the characters and he just brings Brooklyn in the 1960's to life. It takes some patience in the beginning but if you stick it out Sportcoat may be one of your favorite literary characters this year.
Quote-
"She'd known most of them her whole life. They stared at her with that look, that projects look: the sadness the suspicious, the weariness, the knowledge that came from living a special misery in a world of misery. Four of their numbers were down- gone, changed forever, dead or not, it didn't matter. And there would be more. The drugs, big drugs, heroin, were here. Nothing could stop it."
If you liked this try-
Dominicana by Angie Cruz
Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Ruby by Cynthia Bond
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
I loved reading about this multi-cultural community and the quirky yet believable characters who live there. Sportcoat was a flawed but sympathetic protagonist. I was rooting for him and his friends. The plot kept me wondering and reading.
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