Book Review: Deacon King Kong by James McBride

Everyone had a reason to be crazy in the Cause. There was mostly a good reason behind everything....

Published Match 3, 2020

Page Count 384

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        https://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/4193/deaconking-kong

McBride’s novel opens in September 1969. Cuffy “Sportcoat” Lambkin, a deacon at the Five Ends Baptist Church, shoots 19-year-old drug dealer Deems Clemens at the flagpole, Deems’s usual selling spot. Deems is not killed, thanks to the intervention of an undercover police officer named Jet, but he is injured. Sportcoat is an alcoholic with memory issues, frequently mixing up past and present, and for the rest of the novel cannot recall the shooting. His memory issues are further punctuated by the fact that he frequently sees, communes, and argues with the spirit of his dead wife Hettie. When Hettie died, she left many of her responsibilities behind for Sportcoat, including the care of their blind son Pudgy Fingers, and a box of money for the Church’s Christmas Club, which Sportcoat cannot find, much to the Church’s frustration. The shooting causes, or rather reveals, fractures among the network of criminals, smugglers, and drug dealers that Deems works with and for. At the same time, the many residents of the Cause muse over the reasons behind the shooting as they try to maintain their lives and dignity in the face poverty, racism, and the ever-increasing presence of heroin. (Bookeags.com)

James McBride is an award-winning author, musician, and screenwriter. His landmark memoir, The Color of Water, published in 1996, has sold millions of copies and spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list. Considered an American classic, it is read in schools and universities across the United States. His debut novel, Miracle at St. Anna, was turned into a 2008 film by Oscar-winning writer and director Spike Lee, with a script written by McBride. His 2013 novel, The Good Lord Bird, about American abolitionist John Brown, won the National Book Award for Fiction and will be a Showtime limited series in fall 2020 starring Ethan Hawke. (www.jamesmcbride.com)

James McBride is a native New Yorker and a graduate of  New York City public schools. He studied composition at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and received his Masters in Journalism from Columbia University in New York at age 22. He holds several honorary doctorates and is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.  He is married with three children. He lives in Pennsylvania and New York.  

My Review

I listened to the book in audio, narrated by Dominic Hoffman.  His voice was instrumental and had the right tone for the characters. Reading this book took me longer than I anticipated. I put the book down for awhile and it took me a period of time before I picked it back up. It’s not that the book was boring or a difficult read, it was intriguing and funny at times. I had several other books to finish reading, that I wanted to give this one my undivided attention. The characters are colorful and distinct. The names of some of the characters are endearing such as, Hot Sausage, Lightbulb, Pudgy Fingers, Soup, and Elephant. The book is very character driven, and my favorite character was Sister Gee, she was spunky and a no nonsense lady. The Irish, Puerto Rican’s and African American’s got along in the Cause and that was refreshing to read. 

The novel is creatively written with a storyline that has mystery, drama, crime and romance.  McBride demonstrates himself to be an awesome storyteller, he develops the characters. each with a back story; and connects them to one another in a sense of community pride and faith.  There are many artistic symbolism that the author uses to express the state of mind of the characters, such as ants, Jesus's cheese, baseball, and the Christmas club money. All of these things and a few others define the story and the narrative (pokeweed, Jesus juice). The message that McBride intertwined in the story were outstanding showing a snapshot of the community, its diversity, social upheaval and change in Brooklyn, New York around 1969. Again, I love a book with history, and the author did not fail me on this.  He referenced the Mayor John Lindsay (real mayor of New York from 1966-73) and Governor Nelson Rockefeller. There was a mention of the riot that broke out in Brownsville, New York after a police officer shot and killed an 11 year black boy.  The Gorvino family is a stand in for the real life Gambino family, a notorious organized crime family.  

I don't know why I. waited so long to read this novel.  I gave it 4 stars. It was an enjoyable read and I have some of McBrides' previous novels that I need to blow the dust off and read, such as Song Yet Sung, The Good Lord Bird, Five-Carat Soul, and Kill 'em and Leave (non-fiction).

Beyond the Book

American Pokeweed (www.bookbrowse.com)

In James McBride's novel Deacon King Kong, Sportcoat spends his Wednesdays helping an elderly Italian woman scour the parking lots of their Brooklyn neighborhood for plants — weeds, really — that she feels compelled to "rescue." One plant she obsesses about finding is pokeweed, a poisonous shrub she believes can help lower her blood pressure if prepared correctly. 

The pokeweed — or Phytolaccaceae — family is comprised of about 100 different species found around the world, generally in tropical and subtropical locations. A few varieties exist in North America, but for the most part the only widely distributed native on the continent is American pokeweed (phytolacca americana), which is common in much of the ...