Deacon King Kong
Barack Obama Favourite Read & Oprah's Book Club Pick
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3.7 • 110 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
From the author of THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE...
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK
Chosen by BARACK OBAMA as a favourite read
TOP TEN books of the year, NEW YORK TIMES & WASHINGTON POST
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD winning author
'Brilliantly imagined, larger than life, a tragicomedic epic.' JOYCE CAROL OATES
'Deeply felt, beautifully written and profoundly humane.' JUNOT DIAZ
'Among the greatest American storytellers of our time.' BOOKPAGE
'A modern day Mark Twain' NYT Book Review
The year is 1969. 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. 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.
DEACON 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. It is very funny in places, and heartbreaking in others. 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.
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'When I met James McBride, I felt like I'd had coffee with a hysterically funny Leo Tolstoy' Ethan Hawke
'A hilarious, pitch-perfect comedy set in the Brooklyn projects of the late 1960s. This alone may qualify it as one of the year's best novels.' The Washington Post
What Goodreads readers are saying:
***** 'Deacon King Kong is one of those novels whose brilliance sneaks up on you. I haven't been this pleasantly surprised by a book in a while.'
***** 'I do believe I just finished one of my all time favorite books. I loved every minute spent with Sportcoat and his community. A good old fashioned yarn shot through with truth, spirit, and humor. I LOVED it!'
***** '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.'
***** '"Deacon" has the texture of folk lore and fable mixed with the unexpected rhythms of jazz and the noisy streets of late 1960s Brooklyn.'
***** 'The ending was one of those where you clutch your heart and want to hug the book (or your Kindle).'
Author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, a Waterstones Book of the Month 2024
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Oprah calls her new book club pick “inspiring, with a Shakespearean cast of characters—and funny too.” James McBride’s first novel since 2013’s The Good Lord Bird isn’t a whodunit—it’s a whydunit. Set in a sprawling housing project in ’60s Brooklyn, the book starts with a bang when “Sportcoat,” a moonshine-loving church deacon, shoots a young drug dealer in broad daylight. Sportcoat doesn’t remember exactly what he’s done or why, but what unfolds is less a criminal investigation than a fast-moving and loopy story that seamlessly veers from murder mystery to bawdy slapstick comedy to heartfelt meditation on grief, love and community. As everyone in the neighbourhood reacts to the crime in their own unique fashion, we get to know a rich array of charming, complex characters with great nicknames like Hot Sausage, Sister Bum-Bum and the Elephant. Deacon King Kong is a big, vibrant novel with a wonderful sense of its place and time. It’s an absolute joy to read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
McBride (The Good Lord Bird) delivers a sharply compassionate shaggy dog tale of a heavy drinking Baptist deacon who shoots a drug dealer and becomes a "walking dead man." In the autumn of 1969, handyman and occasional baseball coach Deacon Cuffy Lambkin, known to his friends as "Sportcoat" because of his colorful wardrobe or as "Deacon King Kong" on account of his equal affection for a moonshine with that name, inexplicably shoots off the ear of Deems Clemens, Sportcoat's former baseball prot g . This sets in motion a hunt for Sportcoat by Deems's employers that draws in Tommy "Elephant" Elefante, a sweetly melancholy Italian mover of "hot goods" whose grip on the neighborhood is slipping, and scrupulous police officer "Potts" Mullen, who is on the brink of retirement. As Deems's crew ineffectually try to murder Sportcoat, Elephant follows clues left by his dead father to find a hidden treasure, and Potts tries to keep the neighborhood safe while falling for the wife of a preacher, McBride unravels the mystery of Sportcoat's inexplicable ire against Deems. With a Dickensian wealth of quirky characters, a sardonic but humane sense of humor reminiscent of Mark Twain, and cartoonish action scenes straight out of Pynchon, McBride creates a lived-in world where everybody knows everybody's business. This generous, achingly funny novel will delight and move readers.
Customer Reviews
A Gem
The beginning was a bit slow and confusing but at the end I could not put the book down. Well written. A gem.
AMAZING
Beautiful, funny, and so charming. You really see these characters. A wonderful human story.
Utterly brilliant
An infectiously witty, clever and heartwarming story of community and characters. McBride has captured the essence of a living, loving group of people from a bygone era and littered profound, meaningful messages as the takeaway. A fantastic read.