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readingwhilemommying 's review for:
Deacon King Kong
by James McBride
A firecracker of a book from start to finish, this is one of those novels that you will think about long after finishing the last page. I've had this one for a while now but when it was mentioned in The Sentence by a character as "transformative," I had to read it right away. It's phenomenal.
It's 1969 in South Brooklyn and Deacon Cuffy Lambkin, or "Sportcoat" as he is known by his friends in the Causeway Houses (for the wild jackets and hats he wears) is in a pickle. A lover of "King Kong" moonshine, he's three sheets to the wind when he shoots Deems, the kid he used to coach in baseball who is now a drug dealer. This action sets off several narratives that are a mix of funny, heartbreaking, joyous, and engrossing. There's the story of a lonely Italian mobster, Tommy "Elephant" Elephante who's looking for love and a mysterious windfall left by his father. There's also a white cop investigating the shooting who falls for "Sister Gee," the wise elder of Five Baptists Church who, like her neighbors, will not turn in their beloved-yet-damaged Sportcoat. And then there's Sportcoat himself, an old, drunk Black man who talks to his dead wife Hettie yet is proved to be way more profound than he would seem. He's the star of this novel for good reason. He's an unforgettable creation and the lens through we the readers view several big issues—the racism of the time, faith and how it informs a life, and the deterioration of South Brooklyn by the rise of the drug trade.
McBride is a master at keeping the novel moving at an engrossing clip, whether it's through humor or discussions about religion or talk of love and the meaning of life. He goes from slapstick humor (the inability of a mob henchmen to kill Sportcoat) to deep thought (Sister Gee's pontifications about faith and hope) easily and keeps you engrossed from page to page, paragraph to paragraph. If you haven't read this beauty of a novel yet, try and do it soon. It's wonderful and absolutely one of my favorites so far this year.
P.S. I listened to parts of the audiobook of this too (thanks, Libby!) and Dominic Hoffman is a terrific narrator. So if that's your way-to-read-of-choice, check this novel out in audio.
It's 1969 in South Brooklyn and Deacon Cuffy Lambkin, or "Sportcoat" as he is known by his friends in the Causeway Houses (for the wild jackets and hats he wears) is in a pickle. A lover of "King Kong" moonshine, he's three sheets to the wind when he shoots Deems, the kid he used to coach in baseball who is now a drug dealer. This action sets off several narratives that are a mix of funny, heartbreaking, joyous, and engrossing. There's the story of a lonely Italian mobster, Tommy "Elephant" Elephante who's looking for love and a mysterious windfall left by his father. There's also a white cop investigating the shooting who falls for "Sister Gee," the wise elder of Five Baptists Church who, like her neighbors, will not turn in their beloved-yet-damaged Sportcoat. And then there's Sportcoat himself, an old, drunk Black man who talks to his dead wife Hettie yet is proved to be way more profound than he would seem. He's the star of this novel for good reason. He's an unforgettable creation and the lens through we the readers view several big issues—the racism of the time, faith and how it informs a life, and the deterioration of South Brooklyn by the rise of the drug trade.
McBride is a master at keeping the novel moving at an engrossing clip, whether it's through humor or discussions about religion or talk of love and the meaning of life. He goes from slapstick humor (the inability of a mob henchmen to kill Sportcoat) to deep thought (Sister Gee's pontifications about faith and hope) easily and keeps you engrossed from page to page, paragraph to paragraph. If you haven't read this beauty of a novel yet, try and do it soon. It's wonderful and absolutely one of my favorites so far this year.
P.S. I listened to parts of the audiobook of this too (thanks, Libby!) and Dominic Hoffman is a terrific narrator. So if that's your way-to-read-of-choice, check this novel out in audio.