Deacon King Kong
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My friend, Abby, recommended one of my heavy hitters in the past: All the Ugly and Wonderful Things on my Top Picks list-- and for that, I am thankful. So, when she recommended Deacon King Kong by James McBride, I trusted her implicitly. Little did I know, she was a snake.
In her defense, Deacon King Kong is generally well-received. Obama cited it as one of his favorite 2020 reads, and I’m a liberal cuck, so you’d think I’d be on board. Unfortunately, I do not agree with our former president.
The basic plot: An alcoholic deacon, who goes by Sportcoat, commits a dramatic, drunken crime that rattles everyone who witnesses it within the Cause Houses, a Brooklyn housing project. The results force readers to examine the role of race, class, and police-community relationships, as well as the power of the church.
My biggest complaint is that the main character (Sportcoat) remained too obscure. His motivations were still lost on me in the end; I never felt like I genuinely got to know him. Maybe that’s because he didn’t truly know himself? Regardless, it’s part of the reason that I never got fully invested. I couldn’t get a grasp on the main character long enough to care what he did.
Along those lines, there are too many players. I didn’t feel connected to any of them, because my attention was scattered throughout them all. When there were crossovers between those characters, it felt forced. Like well, we just spent a lot of time on this one, so I guess we have to keep her in the mix somehow.
Strangely, despite the fact that I couldn’t wrap my head around the main character, the writing was often too expository. More tell than show. I wish he’d ~told~ me more about Sportcoat and ~showed~ me more in other areas.
Now for the redeeming parts. Some of the characters were funny. Some of them were genuinely good people caught in tricky situations, and I could picture them well in my minds-eye (Elefante). But I wish it had been more focused. I could read a whole novel about Elefante himself; so, I don’t like that he’s interspersed here and there as a bit of an after-thought. I love a flawed character! I want to hear a lot about one of them rather than a little about a lot of them.
Overall, Deacon King Kong receives 2 out of 5 flames.
