The characters and story line are so familiar to today’s low income housing black experience, it sucked me in with total immersion. Set in 1969, the story takes place in a Brooklyn project called the Cause Houses.

***** ‘The ending was one of those where you clutch your heart and want to hug the book (or your Kindle).I don’t remember who suggested ‘Deacon King Kong.’ When I started reading it I got mad because I didn’t have a lot of time to sink my teeth into it, but every chance I had I forced myself to read a few pages because it was so good. ***** ‘”Deacon” has the texture of folk lore and fable mixed with the unexpected rhythms of jazz and the noisy streets of late 1960s Brooklyn.’ ***** ‘This book was a balm for my soul, a portrait of a black church community circa 1969 with sweet characters (well, most of them), interconnections that stretch back decades, and a plot with more than one mystery at its heart.’ A good old fashioned yarn shot through with truth, spirit, and humor. I loved every minute spent with Sportcoat and his community. ***** ‘I do believe I just finished one of my all time favorite books. I haven’t been this pleasantly surprised by a book in a while.’ ***** ‘Deacon King Kong is one of those novels whose brilliance sneaks up on you. ‘Deacon King Kong is deeply felt, beautifully written and profoundly humane McBride’s ability to inhabit his characters’ foibled, all-too-human interiority helps transform a fine book into a great one’ The New York Times Book Review From a prize-winning storyteller, this New York Times bestseller shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, and that the communities we build are fragile but vital. It is very funny in places, and heartbreaking in others. The repercussions of that moment draw in the whole community, from Sportcoat’s best friend – Hot Sausage – to the local Italian mobsters, the police (corrupt and otherwise), and the stalwart ladies of the Five Ends Baptist Church.ĭEACON KING KONG is a book about a community under threat, about the ways people pull together in an age when the old rules are being rewritten.

In a housing project in south Brooklyn, a shambling old church deacon called Sportcoat shoots – for no apparent reason – the local drug-dealer who used to be part of the church’s baseball team. ‘Hilarious, pitch-perfect… one of the year’s best novels.’ The Washington Postįrom the winner of a National Book Award and author of the bestselling memoir,The Color of Water, and The Good Lord Bird, soon to be a TV series starring Ethan Hawke THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK

Reviews of deacon king kong