Deacon King Kong in Around the World in 80 Books

Jul 06, 2020 Pam rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-books-read, new-york, audio-book

AUTHOR McB ride, James
TITLE Deacon King Kong
DATE READ 07/01/20
RATING 4/B
FIRST SENTENCE
GENRE/ PUB DATE/PUBLISHER / # OF Fiction/2020/libby-audio/14 hr 5 min
SERIES/STAND-ALONE SA
CHALLENGE Good Reads 2020 Reading Goal 127/120;
GROUP READ Oprah
TIME/PLACE 1969/Brooklyn
CHARACTERS Deacon King Kong/Sportcoat
COMMENTS I really liked Mc Bride's memoir The Color of Water and this is another worthy book this author. 1969 -- turbulent, changing times in the Brooklyn Projects.

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Oct 05, 2020 Tony rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime, setting-nyc, novels

Brooklyn in 1969 is the setting for this deeply humanist and quite amusing novel about the bonds of community. It opens with a chaotic freewheeling funeral scene in which a good dozen characters are thrown at the reader in rapid succession and with deeply colorful language. Some readers may be daunted by this, but I was instantly pulled into the world McBride depicts (he grew up in Brooklyn and would have been around 12 during the time the book is set in.) The narrative then kicks into gear when ...more

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Feb 07, 2022 Astrid Lim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: new-york, historical-fiction, race, african-american, award-winner, e-book, popsugar-2022, black-history-month

This is my first time reading James McBride, and I really enjoyed it. The atmosphere of Brooklyn in the late 60s was really vivid here - the dilapidating housing projects, the abandoned docks, the rise of new drugs, the conflict between Italians, Irishes, and colored people.. Everything was written so beautifully, how the characters related to each other, and how he wove their stories into one- so neat. Look forward to read more of his books!

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