Multiple people are after Sportcoat, men much more dangerous than Deems, yet he’s only interested in finding the money his wife was keeping for their church – money she put away for safe-keeping, but died before she could tell anyone where. There are treasure hunts and illicit romances, drug deals and gang wars. The complicated narrative web starts to untangle, and different, distinct storylines make themselves clear. Soon though, it becomes easer to get a grip on who’s who and what’s what. It’s tempting to start taking notes, as if there’s going to be a quiz at the end. The first few chapters of McBride’s book are like being invited to a party where you don’t know anyone and you’re trying to follow all the conversations. They all have long, complicated histories with each other – some are relatives, some friends, some business associates, some enemies. There are so many characters, many of whom go by several different names. At first, reading it is an overwhelming, sometimes baffling experience. Even so, that shooting sets off a chain of events that will leave both of them, as well as the poor Brooklyn neighbourhood where they live, forever changed.ĭeacon King Kong is the latest novel from National Book Award-winning author James McBride. Further still: Sportcoat has no recollection of shooting him. Still, he shot him, and complicating the matter further: Deems didn’t die. Although Deems is a man now, and a drug-dealer to boot, he hasn’t wronged Sportcoat in a way that anyone can think of.

Sportcoat was Deems’s Sunday School teacher, and his baseball coach. No one was expecting Cuffy Jasper Lambkin – aka Sportcoat – to walk up to Deems Clemens and shoot him in the head.

Deacon king kong review