Deacon King Kong by James McBride ★★★★

[John]

Welcome to the Cause Houses, a Brooklyn housing project, and its colorful collection of characters. The religious and social hub of this poor neighborhood is the Five Ends Baptist Church. One of its church leaders is Deacon Cuffy Jasper "Sportcoat" Lambkin. One September 1969 afternoon, Sportcoat walks out to the flagpole in the center of the housing project's plaza and shoots off an ear of Deems Clemens, the neighborhood drug dealer with a .45-caliber Luger and escapes into the projects. Sportcoat use to coach Deems in baseball and considers him one of the best pitchers he has seen and hopes that he can convince him to return to the church's baseball team. Later when Sportcoat was asked by Hot Sausage, Sportcoat's best friend regarding his reason for shooting Deems, he didn't remember doing so. This was probably due to Sportcoat being drunk on King Kong, a locally brewed white lightning, a substance he has been drinking for a number of years.

When he drinks, Hettie, the ghost of his recently deceased wife comes for a visit. Sportcoat hopes that she will tell him where she hid the church's Christmas fund, collected from many of its members who are about to request their deposits.

Although this novel has a number of characters and plot threads, it does settle down to only a few key characters, many with colorful names, such as Sister Gee, the Elephant, and Pudgy Fingers. As retribution against Sportcoat begins, their are enough humorous moments, that the Sportcoat's survival could be considered a comic tour de force. I loved the community of friends and foes the author created. The characters are well developed and the book have a satisfactory ending.

[Peacejanz]

Wonderful review of one of the best books ever written. I love it; every time I read a review it reminds me of the greatness of this book. Thanks for the review. peace, janz

[MelanieJoy]

Thank you John for your summary! This helps me understand the book better. I think I may add it to my TBR.

[Amy]

Fabulous Book! I listened to this one in Audio. Really loved it.

[Karin]

This book was quite a ride for me. It was the third one I'd read by McBride and at first I hated it--not sure if I was going to continue. However, it got better and better as it went along and I ended up rounding it up to 5 stars.

My favourite book by him is Song Yet Sung

[Meli]

Peacejanz wrote: "Wonderful review of one of the best books ever written. I love it; every time I read a review it reminds me of the greatness of this book. Thanks for the review. peace, janz"

I feel exactly the same way!
Every time I see this book mentioned I get this warm feeling in my heart :)