dailyBooks - Deacon King Kong--A Novel by James McBride--Conversation Starters

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James McBrides

Deacon King Kong

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Introducing Deacon King Kong

T he central character of Deacon King Kong is Cuffy Jasper Lambkin, who is the Deacon of the community church, Five Ends Baptist. The story is set in a fictionalized version of the Brooklyn housing project, Causeway Housing Projects in the 1960s, where McBride grew up.

Deacon was raised in poverty in South Brooklyn and marked by bad omens since birth. He has survived a long list of diseases and injuries. He is now 71 and seems to drown his thoughts in alcohol for decades. Deacons fondness for a particularly potent homebrew called King Kong gives him and the book its nickname, Cuffy. He has trouble remembering things and his alcohol addiction befuddles his memory. Yet he's a cheerful friend, a handyman, a gardener, and a beloved man in his community.

No one seems to know Deacons true name, he is either referred to as Deacon Cuffy or Sportcoat- due to his good dressing habits. He has taken to drinking a lot after the death of his beloved wife, Hettie, almost two years ago. He has been grieving her a lot since then, and his life has spiraled downward since her untimely death. He almost always argues with her ghost and is obsessed with the money from the Christmas Club, which was in a secret place she didn't tell anyone about before dying. He had been the Causeway baseball team's coach and had a special bond with a teenager named Deems Clemens, the team's rising star. However, Deems left sports and took to drug dealing after his grandfather died, and is now part of a network of dealers controlled by the gang leader, Bunch Moon.

In September 1969, in South Brooklyn, Sportcoat drunkenly went to the plaza of the Causeway Housing Projects and shot Deems straight in the forehead. However, Deems is swift in reflexes, and the bullet grazes his ear instead. No one, including Sportcoat, knows why he shot Deems. Two officers, old Sergeant Potts and young Officer Mitch, are sent to investigate the shooting and arrest the culprit. The incident was witnessed by sixteen people, but no-one utters a word as they don't want harm to fall on the already troubled Sportcoat.

Everybody assumes that Sportcoat will be killed for having picked up a fight against a drug dealer in broad daylight. But, to everyone's surprise, Deems doesn't exact revenge. However, the gang leader, Bunch, sends his right-hand, Earl to warn and scare Sportcoat for unnecessarily disrupting his trade. Earl's attempts meet funny roadblocks that add humor to the story.

Potts' investigation is similarly thwarted when no-one gives him a clear answer about Sportcoat's whereabouts. Thus, Sportcoat escapes from getting arrested. Sportcoat works several odd jobs; one of them includes working as a gardener for an old lady once a week. The lady was Thomas The Elephant Elephantes mother. Elephant was a man who deals in storing and moving illegal goods. Elephant's father, Guido, had been a criminal too and was serving his term in jail. However, Elephant refrains from getting involved in drug dealing. He wants to marry a countrywoman and live on a farm and is desperate to leave his current life. One day, a person called The Governor, approaches him. He had known Elephant's father from their time in prison. The Governor wanted Elephant's help in locating and selling a rare artifact, a small statue called the Venus of Willendorf, to a buyer for 3 million.

Meanwhile, there's an undercurrent of war brewing in the drug cartel. Both Bunch and Deems try to outsmart each other; Bunch wants to cut out their supplier Joe Peck, an Italian mobster. On the other hand, Deems wants to cut out Bunch and deal with Peck directly. To teach Deems a lesson, Bunch recruits a hitman, 'Harold Dean', to deal with Deems, Peck, and Sportcoat.

It is revealed later that the hitman was, in fact, a woman named Haroldeen whom everyone assumed to be a man named Harold Dean. She shoots Deems when Sportcoat approaches him to play basketball again. She also shoots Sausage, Sportcoat's best friend, and Beanie, Deems' right-hand man. Beanie dies to the gunshot, but Sausage survives. Deems nearly drowns in the water, but Sportcoat saves him. Haroldeen receives her payment for doing half her work of killing, but Bunch assures her to pay the rest when she kills all her targets. Haroldeen holds a grudge over Bunch for misusing her and, instead, leads Peck to him. Peck then exacts his revenge on Bunch by killing him.

After witnessing the shooting and crime, Sportcoat decides to get sober and leave his drinking habit. He visits one of the original founders of Five Ends Baptist, Sister Paul, and they converse about how the church was founded. Guido Elephante saved Officer Potts from getting shot when they both had been young. That same night, Guido had asked Sister Paul, who was passing by, to drive some stolen cargo. Sister Paul had helped Guido and in return, Guido had helped her secure the land on which the church now stood. Guido also asked Sister Paul to hide the Venus of Willendorf statue for him.

Sportcoat recounts this story to Elephant, who has finally found his love in the form of the Governor's daughter. Sportcoat and Elephant find the statue and receive the money in exchange for the statue. Afterward, Elephant helps Sportcoat by replacing the missing church money, which Sportcoat often talks about with his wife's ghost. Elephant also pay some amount to renovate the church.