Deacon King Kong Summary Deacon King Kong was published in 2020 and written by American author James McBride. It is an example of near-historical fiction written about American cities and social issues. McBride’s 1995 memoir about growing up in a mixed-race family in Brooklyn, The Color of Water, was both a commercial and critical success, and his own life experience aligns with some of the narratives and issues in Deacon King Kong.
Deacon King Kong Summary
McBride’s novel The Good Lord Bird won the National Book
Award in 2013, and he was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2015 by
President Obama for his important literary work on racial narratives. McBride’s
other artistic achievements include holding the title of Writer-in-Residence at
New York University, musical composing and performing as a saxophonist, and
work on several major film adaptations of his books. He has received numerous
other awards from various artistic groups, including the American Academy of Arts
and Letters.
Deacon King Kong takes place in a Brooklyn neighborhood during the fall of 1969. Although the book follows a variety of characters, the protagonist is an elderly Black man named Cuffy Lambkin—nicknamed Sportcoat—living in a housing project called the Cause Houses. An alcoholic who was once a baseball coach and umpire, Sportcoat approaches a young drug dealer from the Cause named Deems Clemens and attempts to kill Deems by shooting him. Deems loses an ear but survives. Everyone in the Cause is baffled by the shooting because Sportcoat mentored and cared for Deems in his childhood and adolescence. Sportcoat continues to mourn his wife Hettie, who died two years before the story takes place. The couple was involved in their local neighborhood church, Five Ends Baptist, and many of the novel’s characters are connected to the church somehow. Hettie presumably died by drowning in the harbor nearby, and her body was retrieved by a local, Italian mobster’s (Thomas Elefante’s) men.
Another story thread involves Elefante, nicknamed “The
Elephant” because of his last name. He inherited a smuggling business from his
father and fronts it with construction, trucking, and storage businesses. One
night, a mysterious Irishman (“the Governor,” or Driscoll Sturgess) tells
Elefante that he was friends with Elefante’s father and needs help recovering a
valuable artifact Elefante’s father hid for him. Elefante doesn’t know where it
is; however, after meeting the Irishman’s daughter, Melissa, Elefante quickly
falls in love with her and agrees to help the Irishman.
Meanwhile, the drug ring that Deems is involved in tries to
retaliate against Sportcoat for the shooting, bringing violence and conflict to
the neighborhood. This tension heightens the unrest and danger that older
residents feel as a result of hard drugs like heroin having more of a presence
in the projects. The drugs lead to an increase in crime and violence and trap
young people in a cycle of poverty, addiction, and dependency. As Deems tries
to work his way up the ladder of his drug circle, the tension and violence
escalate, resulting in death, injury, and threats to the community.
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