Deacon King Kong (Oprah's Book Club): A NovelWinner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction Winner of the Gotham Book Prize One of Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of the Year" Oprah's Book Club Pick Named one of the Top Ten Books of the Year by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly and TIME Magazine A Washington Post Notable Novel From the author of the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird and the bestselling modern classic The Color of Water, comes one of the most celebrated 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. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird. In Deacon King Kong, McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood’s Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself. As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters—caught in the tumultuous swirl of 1960s New York—overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth does emerge, McBride shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, that the best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie in hope and compassion. Bringing to these pages both his masterly storytelling skills and his abiding faith in humanity, James McBride has written a novel every bit as involving as The Good Lord Bird and as emotionally honest as The Color of Water. Told with insight and wit, Deacon King Kong demonstrates that love and faith live in all of us. |
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Deacon King Kong
User Review - Book VerdictThis latest from National Book Award winner McBride (The Good Lord Bird) offers a snapshot of 1969 Brooklyn, focusing on a housing project called the Cause Houses and the Italian neighborhood that ... Read full review
Deacon King Kong
User Review - Publishers WeeklyMcBride (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 ... Read full review
Contents
Jesuss Cheese | 1 |
A Dead Man | 14 |
Jet | 21 |
Running Off | 34 |
The Governor | 46 |
Bunch | 62 |
The March of the Ants | 71 |
The Dig | 91 |
Dirt | 101 |
Soup | 118 |
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Common terms and phrases
ain't asked baseball block bottle building Bunch called Cause Houses cheese church clean colored coming cops dead Deems didn't door Earl Elefante eyes face father feeling feet felt Five Ends folks four friends front girl give glanced gone gonna Governor hand harbor he'd He's head heard Hettie holding Hot Sausage inside It's Jesus keep kind knew Lightbulb lived looked mind minute Miss mother moved never night nodded once Peck play Potts pulled remember seemed seen shot side silent Sister Gee smile Soup Sport Sportcoat standing stepped stop street sure talking tell That's thing thought told took turned walked wall watched week What's window woman young
Bibliographic information
| Title | Deacon King Kong (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel |
| Author | James McBride |
| Publisher | Penguin, 2020 |
| ISBN | 073521672X, 9780735216723 |
| Length | 384 pages |
| Subjects | › › Fiction / African American & Black / General Fiction / African American & Black / Historical Fiction / Literary |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |