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REVIEWS: Deacon King
Kong
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NY Times
The Washington Post
GoodReads
Book Companion
One of TIME Magazine's Ten Best Novels of the Year. 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. Bringing to these pages both his masterly
storytelling skills and his abiding faith in humanity, James
McBride has written a novel told with insight and wit, Deacon
King Kong demonstrates that love and faith live in all of us.
Characters: 134. Amazon rating: 4 1/2 stars. Genre: Fiction.
BOOK COMPANION
participant Kim Bethea comments on Deacon King Kong:
“Deacon King Kong” is many things: a mystery novel, a crime
novel, an urban farce, a portrait of a project community.
There’s even some western in here. The novel is, in other words,
a lot.
Fortunately, it is also deeply felt, beautifully written and
profoundly humane; McBride’s ability to inhabit his characters’
foibles and all-too-human interiority helps transform a fine
book into a great one. He has written beautifully before, in his
beloved memoir, “The Color of Water,” and, with terrifying
irreverence, in his National Book Award-winning novel, “The
Good Lord Bird.”
But “Deacon King Kong” reads like he’s tapped a whole fresh seam
of inspiration and verve. It’s clear that he’s having a blast,
and his spirit of funning irreverence supercharges the entire
narrative like home-brewed black lightning.
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