When the Governor’s attractive daughter (Melissa) walks in, Elephante sees his future. Bunch Moon and his partner Earl try to retaliate against Sportcoat for the shooting, but are repeatedly thwarted, and Earl defects and becomes a police informant. Sportcoat was a peaceful and beloved man, the coach of the projects basketball team for 14 years, and deacon of Five Ends Baptist Church for 15 years. Veronica Gee, or Sister Gee as she is usually referred to, holds the Church together as she begins flirting cautiously with Sgt. The money is all in drug trade now, which Elephante refuses to get involved in. Unfortunately, neither does The Elephant. Rufus is a janitor at the Watch Houses and was one of the founding members of Five Ends Baptist Church but quit 14 years ago. Sportcoat shows up with a hideous get-well-soon doll from Dominic. The Governor had it, but when he was in prison, he asked Guido to fetch it and hide it. Sportcoat knew that he would drink again, so he decides to go to the harbor instead where Hettie killed herself and walk into the water. Seeing Deems on the ground, Sportcoat seems to change his mind about shooting him. She talks about how she left South Carolina after the nice lady she was a nurse for was dying. After Earl got his ass kicked all over the Causeway, he was weirdly cool with it. It sounds like easy money, but Elephante knows the Feds are everywhere right now, likely watching Peck and the Gorvinos. Then, she turns and shoots Deems. She explains to Sportcoat that she needs pokeweed, and they spend the day looking for it and bringing it back. A part of him longs for the old days, just playing baseball. But their crew got sent to juvy (Spofford). Deacon King Kong by James McBride. Just when Sportcoat is about to get his hands on it, Soup grabs it from him and tosses it away (calling it a poison), and the brandy hits Earl instead, knocking him out. “Deacon King Kong” is many things: a mystery novel, a crime novel, an urban farce, a portrait of a project community. (Apparently, in the interim between Chapters 10 and 11, Earl was questioned by the police, who Peck bribes for information. Deacon King Kong Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to He suffered a stroke in prison, leaving him crippled (lame arm and leg), and then another one two years after he got out which killed him. Earl wakes up 20 minutes later in the alley. Follow along on Goodreads, or keep in touch via the newsletter. Bunch Moon owns a brownstone at 281 Delphi, which he uses as lookout. REVIEWS: Deacon King Kong NY Times The Washington Post GoodReads Book Companion One of TIME Magazine's Ten Best Novels of the Year. Before they leave, Deems tells his crew to warn him if they see the ant infestation heading his way, though he doesn’t explain why. She also tells Elephante that the security guard at Brewster Memorial has been paying for her stamps and envelopes to send tithes back to the church every week for the last twelve years, so she asks him to get him some Mars Bars which he likes. She was also a founding member of the church, along with her daughter Edie, Hettie, Rufus and an Italian man. Sportcoat knows he will drink again, so he goes to the pier where Hettie died and walks in. Deacon King Kong (Book) : McBride, James : "From James McBride, author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, comes a wise and witty novel about what happens to the witnesses of a shooting. After the shooting, the consensus in the neighborhood is that Sportcoat will likely be dead soon as well. I am in a book club and just couldn’t finish listening to the audio in time. In September 1969 in South Brooklyn, 71-year-old Deacon Cuffy Jasper Lambkin, also known as “Sportcoat“, goes to the plaza of the Causeway Housing Projects (“the Cause”) and shoots Deems Clemens, a ruthless drug dealer, in the face. He then gets on top of him and wrestles with him a bit before walking off. Jet is a young, black officer that has been investigating Deems as part of the low end of the food chain that leads up to Italian crime figure Joe Peck at the top. Then, a series of (comedic) accidents causes a fight to break out among the crowd, and in the midst of it all, Earl creeps up on Sportcoat with a switchblade. Potts's investigation is also hindered by everyone's vague answers about Sportcoat's whereabouts, so Sportcoat remains a free man. Deems suspects Lightbulb is the one who ratted on him. More specifically, it is hidden “in the palm of His hand”, a phrase which is repeated frequently throughout the novel. Deems is now playing pro-ball. Deems falls in the water and nearly drowns, but Sportcoat saves him. It has now been two weeks since Sport shot Deems. Just before fall starts, giant ants tend to appear in the Causeway, often attacking the free cheese which Hot Sausage is responsible for storing in Building 17 (Sausage works for the Housing Authority). Lightbulb thinks it’s just a matter of time before their rivals (the Watch Houses) come try to horn in on their territory. (So, Sausage was shot, but he’s alive.) All either of them know is something about it being “in the palm of God’s hand like that little song you used to sing.” Guido wasn’t religious, so they don’t think it’s a church. They chat later, and he’s smitten. Moon directs Earl to lend their support to protestors who are rioting in a city nearby, hoping that will tie up the cops. Bold, Brilliant and Captivating! The Christmas Club collection funds that Hettie had taken before her death still haven’t been recovered, though Sportcoat assures them he’s looked for it. Finally, Deems arrives late, but he’s now playing for the Iowa Cubs, a minor league affiliate to the Chicago Cubs. With Sportcoat gone, the Cousins have taken over guardianship over Pudgy Fingers. In the midst of it all, Sportcoat is trying to get his hands on the bottle of brandy, as it rolls around in the commotion of the crowd. Available copies. Soup explains that he was knocked out, and they checked his pockets for an address. She lives with her son (Elephante), but Sportcoat’s never met him. Hot Sausage, Sportcoat’s best friend, urges him to run away even as the investigation reveals his own past, including his many name changes and an outstanding warrant. Upon inquiry, Sportcoat explains that it’s their church motto. When Sausage tries to stop him, he says that “Sausage, the water is so warm! Guido accidentally-but-maybe-on-purpose hit the guy with a truck before that happened. She tells him everything she told Sportcoat and more. (The police know who it is — drunk guy who everyone knows — they just don’t know Sportcoat’s real name. The result was “horrible,” but at least he “had emerged a Negro.”) Elephante asks more about the painting, and Sportcoat happily answers. She doesn’t know why it still shows up at the Cause, and she assumes it’s just from Jesus, but she wants him to bring her some. Sportcoat promises Sausage that he’ll turn himself in to the police so they don’t give him trouble. Potts tells him that the day after the shooting, a homelessman man he knows, Dub Washington, reported it to him and told him about the female shooter. Sister Paul, her husband, her daughter Edie, Hettie and Sister Gee’s parents were all friends. They converse easily, unlike Sister Gee and her husband. No one knows how Sportcoat died or why there’s so much cheese at the funeral. On one side, it has a picture of the Cause docks from the 1940’s. They assume it comes from the government, but who fills out the paperwork and makes all this happen, they don’t really know. Deems was originally enrolled in St. John’s to play college ball after high school, but he didn’t show up. Potts tells her Sportcoat will be safer if he’s arrested by the police, since they’re more interested in going after the drug dealers, but Sister Gee counters that Pudgy Fingers will be taken away by social services if that happens. A woman abandoned him when he was 5 or 6. One day, he gets trashed and goes to the neighborhood plaza and shoots Deems Clemens, a ruthless 19-year-old local drug dealer. The package in question turns out to be the famed Venus of Willendorf statue. Earl reminds him that Peck is part of the Gorvino family, but Bunch says that the Gorvinos aren’t what they used to be. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Twenty-two months after Sportcoat shot Deems, Sportcoat passes away. Earl awakes to find himself on a bench of an empty subway platform. However, this day, as he leaves he runs into Elephante. Deems ended up getting back at Bumps by crippling him (Deems made some customers think Bumps had screwed them, so they beat Bumps up). When he is offered a bottle of brandy, he declares that he no longer drinks alcohol because it is a device for keeping people down. Deems has been trying to discreetly get things in place so he can approach Peck with his plan to cut Bunch out of the equation. With the puppets?”) together. The shooting causes, or rather reveals, fractures among the network of criminals, smugglers, and drug dealers that Deems works with and for. Later that afternoon, Sportcoat is in the building boiler room, drinking and having an imaginary argument with Hettie. There’s a wall calendar and he notes that he needs to go to work (he has four jobs, most are one day a week). She moved to New York, and Sportcoat joined her three years later, but he was never the same man. She needs blood thinners, but is planning on taking some pokeweed (a plant that grows near the harbor with poisonous roots) instead, as a natural remedy. She agrees. It is a combination of incompetence and neglect that allow things like the ant infestation to continue and compound in the Causeway, despite a handful of well-meaning outsiders who might take an interest in what’s going on. A while later, four blocks away from the subway station, Tommy Elephante chats with his mother. Cuffy “Sportcoat” Lambkin, a deacon at the Five Ends Baptist Church, shoots 19-year-old drug dealer Deems Clemens at the flagpole, Deems’s usual selling spot. Deems falls into the water, but doesn’t know how to swim. For a non-spoiler version of the plot synopsis, see The Bibliofile's review of Deacon King Kong by James McBride. Deems decides to leave the drug world behind and becomes a successful minor league baseball pitcher. Peck explains that he’s caught wind that he’s being cut out of the drug trade (by Bunch), and he needs the money. “Deacon King Kong,” the new book from author and musician James McBride, is a hilarious, pitch-perfect comedy set in the Brooklyn projects of the late 1960s. The Cause Houses were all Italians then. Your email address will not be published. He started drinking as an adolescent as a result, was a drunk by 14, and eventually settled on King Kong as his drink of choice. Sportcoat is disoriented and doesn’t seem to know about the shooting. In Deacon King Kong, the venerable James McBride’s first novel since winning the National Book Award in 2013 for The Good Lord Bird, a grief-stricken church deacon nicknamed Sportcoat shoots Deems, a 19-year-old drug dealer, at a Brooklyn-area housing project called the Cause Houses in 1969.. Elephante agrees. Three days post-shooting, Deems is still in the hospital and he has still not said anything to the cops. Deems was shot in the left shoulder and survived. This Study Guide consists of approximately 67 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Deacon King Kong. Sportcoat is the deacon of the community church, Five Ends Baptist, and a good man. An incredibly satisfying read. Earl told them everything, including about Bunch’s plans to cut out Peck.) Potts stresses to Elephante that the shooter is female, attractive, a killer and out to kill Peck. However, Deems is worried about Earl and Bunch. Sister Veronica Gee works as a cleaner for a house that is across the street from a bar Sergeant Potts frequents, Rattigan’s, so she recognizes him. Previous selections include The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates, American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, and Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker. The imaginary Hettie tells Sportcoat that the church money is in “in the palm of His (God’s) hand.” Sportcoat tells Sausage that he thinks some ghost-slash-witch-form (a “mojo”) of Hettie is following him around, and they end up joking around and laughing around various superstitions and remedies for exorcising witches. Riverhead Books, 2020. Sixteen people saw the shooting, but no one talks. Their crew — Deems, Lightbulb, Beanie, Sugar and a guy named Bumps (Mark Bumpus) — worked for him. In James McBride's novel Deacon King Kong, Sportcoat spends his Wednesdays helping an elderly Italian woman scour the parking lots of their Brooklyn neighborhood for plants — weeds, really — that she feels compelled to "rescue. He thinks about his cousin Rooster, who first taught him how to sell heroin when he was 14. The Bibliofile's review of Deacon King Kong by James McBride. (Soup says that 1-4-3 is Mr. Roger’s address. Meanwhile, Soup announces that he’s now a Muslim. The next day, the painting of Jesus goes up over it (“Jesus’s left hand, is right on the cinder block where that soap is.”). He offers Sportcoat a vodou doll for protection, which he says will bring good luck. 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. (Coincidentally, Sportcoat works as a gardener for Elephante's mother one day a week.) There’s a drug war brewing, and he should turn himself in for his own protection. Both her and her mother work for Bunch, but he has taken advantage of both of them (for sex, to do his dirty work, etc). Summary: "In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .45 from his pocket, and in front of everybody shoots the project's drug dealer at point … Sportcoat relays this story to Elephante, and Elephante gets engaged to the Governor's daughter. Jet’s cover is that he’s a janitor with a drug habit. Hot Sausage explains what’s going on, attributes it to Sportcoat’s drinking and tells him to go lay low, but Sportcoat refuses to leave. None of them want that to happen, but they don’t want to argue with Earl. Guido is the one who started delivering free cheese each month after the church opened, and it kept getting delivered even after he died. The Governor runs a successful bagel shop. He’d rather remember him as a good boy and a great pitcher “than as the sewer you has become”. See the archives. While they were in there, Rooster was robbed and killed. Joe Peck is their supplier. everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Deacon King Kong. That day, they argue about the free cheese. He threw the lunchbox into the trough that runs from the chicken factory to, among other places, the Causeway Housing.). Two weeks ago, an Irishman named Driscoll “the Governor” Sturgess approaches him, saying that he needed some goods moved and Salvy Doyle had vouched for him. In his imaginary conversations with Hettie, she reminisces about the old days. Finally, someone tells them one guy is willing to sell to them, which turned out to be Guido Elephante, and that’s how the church got started on Silver Street, next to Elephante’s storage house. DEACON KING KONG by James McBride ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2020 The versatile and accomplished McBride (Five Carat Soul, 2017, etc.) The Governor is cagey about what it is he needs moved and why he needs The Elephant to do it, but he implies that it’s worth a lot of money, much more than The Elephant typically deals in. Sergeant Potts walks in as Dominic is helping Bum-Bum, Sister Gee and Izi out at Five Ends. Bunch also gets wind that Deems has an idea to cut Bunch out and deal with Peck directly. Deacon King Kong (Book) : McBride, James : "From James McBride, author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, comes a wise and witty novel about what happens to the witnesses of a shooting. Everyone assumes Sportcoat is a dead man after the shooting, but Deems doesn't retaliate against Sportcoat because of their history. The Elephant doesn’t trust him, but then realizes that his father, Guido Elephante, had told him to be on the lookout for “The Governor” in the days before he died. Beanie (Randall Collins) is dead. They started the church in Sister Paul’s living room. He used to love plants, but never grew one thing in their house. Deems was the best at it, but he and Bumps had bad blood from juvy (where Bumps beat him up and stole his cash). On the day of the funeral, the church is in the middle of a renovation, though no one knows where the money is coming from. Sister Gee tells Sportcoat to turn himself in, but Sportcoat refuses. Peck think Elephante is the one responsible because Sportcoat is his gardener, but Elephante swears he’s not. Afterwards, Elephante helps Sportcoat by replacing the missing church money and paying to renovate the church. 16 questions answered. Summary Of Deacon King Kong: James McBride ... Deacon King Kong tells the fictional story of one Brooklyn project, but in so doing tells a broader story of race and religion, getting by and getting out, and how grudges and alliances become embedded in the foundations of our neighborhoods. The Governor’s younger brother, Macy, was an allied solider stationed in Austria following WWII, who found a stash of Nazi loot. He needs to make sure his buyers will stick around and that he has enough crew for protection and whatnot when Bunch is gone. In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and, in front of everybody, shoots the … After Sportcoat helps him, Elephante tells him he’ll replace the Christmas box money (Sportcoat estimates it was around $3,000-$4,000). Sister Gee goes to talk to Potts. Twenty-two months after Deems’s shooting, Sportcoat passes away. They start digging out the foundation with shovels, but it’s very slow. He was raised by his stepmother and father, who didn’t particularly care for him (he was “admired by all whom he knew in Possum Point save the two people responsible for his well-being in the world”). Sportcoat tells him about Elephante giving the church a bunch of money. Deacon King Kong is a comic novel, with most of its humor bubbling up from the small congregation of Five Ends Baptist Church, which operates out of a … Instead, there’s a greeting card that Guido left for Elephante. Tommy wants to marry a nice woman, move to a farm and get out of this life. ). Tommy Elephante hears about the shooting an hour after it happens, and he assumes it’s over drugs which Joe Peck distributes in the neighborhood. The Governor has a buyer offering 3 million for it, and he wants Elephante's help so they can locate it and sell it together. However, there was one small, valuable statue of a fat girl he kept, the Venus of Willendorf. May the wind be always at your back. After he leaves, she tells everyone else about the mix-up. His memory issues are further punctuated by the fact that he frequently sees, communes, and argues with the spirit of his dead wife Hettie. (He can’t drive because of his lame leg.) A week ago, Sportcoat brought Elephante to meet Sister Paul (who told him “you look like your daddy but fatter”). Today it’s Thursday, so he goes to Itkin’s, a liquor store where he helps unload crates. Bunch only gives her half and she accepts. Billing, head usher at Five Ends. There’s also a sketch of a tiny box with a wooden stove and firewood inside, plus a cross above it. Soup explains to Sister Gee that he and Calvin are old friends who used to watch Mr. Rogers (“You mean the nice little white man who sings? Sportcoat shows up at the Brewster Memorial Home for the Aged in Bensonhurst, looking for Sister Paul. "One plant she obsesses about finding is pokeweed, a poisonous shrub she believes can help lower her blood pressure if prepared correctly. (It was originally a white Jesus as drawn by a local artist, but later Sister Bib’s son Zeke, a housepainter, was asked to make him Black. He has other urgent work to do, so he leaves. Bunch wants to handle this themselves instead of getting Joe Peck involved because he wants to cut Peck out and get their own supplier. Elephante visits the Governor. The Quick Recap and Chapter-by-Chapter Summary for Deacon King Kong by James McBride are below. Sister Paul also tells him that the cargo in the truck was stolen cheese. Sportcoat explains to him that he’s in the “last Octobers of life” and he now understands he tried to kill him because he didn’t want to watch him sink further. Deacon King Kong. Just as Deems is making progress with Phyllis, Sausage shows up completely hammered and he’s wearing Sportcoat’s umpire outfit. Soup gives Earl back his switchblade, and the two stay there until they hear Earl’s train depart. He imagines running a country store with her by his side. (It’s implied that in the interim they figured out that Sportcoat had come across the information that Elephante had been seeking.) As this all happens, normal life continues at the Cause. Near the hospital where Sausage and Deems is.”). His father, the Rev. returns with a dark urban farce crowded with misjudged signals, crippling sorrows, and unexpected epiphanies. Sister Gee does not correct Potts about the misunderstanding. Dominic Lefleur and his friend Mingo show up. Deems is not killed, thanks to the intervention of an undercover police officer named Jet, but he is injured. Now that the Governor has an illness, he wants to sell it before he passes away. Two young kids then come running by to fetch their baseball and scamper off. Sausage also has a warrant out for him in Alabama so he doesn’t want the cops on him. The other half is due when the rest of the job is completed, but she betrays him instead and leads Peck to him. She tells him that hates watching him drink himself to death, and Sportcoat thinks about how he chose booze over Hettie (his Moonflower, because that was her favorite flower). James McBride’s Deacon King Kong is the story of a Brooklyn deacon who, one September day in 1969, shoots the Cause Houses’ local drug dealer. It's September 1969, just after Apollo 11 and Woodstock. Jet’s old partner recognizes him but arrests him as a potential suspect to prevent blowing Jet’s cover. Bunch asks Lightbulb about how Deems got control of that area. Sportcoat unraveled when Hettie died — Gee thinks Hettie killed herself — and got drunk and probably wanted to “clean this place up in one big swoop” by killing Deems. Sausage tells him he’s nuts, since it ended a long time ago when Deems left the team and took half the guys with him to sell drugs instead. He also wants to rough up the shooter, Sportcoat, as a warning. Potts and Sister Gee seem to understand one another and she understands that Potts means well, though they are on different sides of the issue. Potts tells her that they guy Bunch has called in (Dean) is very dangerous. Sausage survives, but Beanie dies. James McBride's Deacon King Kong is a feverish love letter to New York City, people, and writing. They find the statute, and Elephante does his deal. They’d come to bust his operation, and Potts was chasing down a guy that was about to shoot him dead. Later, Guido repaid that favor by helping them secure the land for the church. Time passes. 0 current holds with 13 total copies. As Sportcoat leaves, Earl shows up to attack him with a pipe, but Earl gets hit in the head by a baseball and knocked into a broom closet, unseen by Sportcoat. Rufus suggests asking Sister Paul, who used to handle the collection funds, where it might be hidden. One night, Sister Paul is walking back after work and sees a cop almost get shot (Potts), but someone else (Guido) hits the guy with a truck. He plans to tell Earl to leave Hot Sausage out of it, too. Dominic has been “accidentally” running into Bum-Bum since Soup’s party, which was a week ago. Sportcoat goes to his normal Wednesday job, which is helping a little old Italian lady (Elephante’s mother) with her gardening. The Governor says he has a buyer offering 3 million for it. The Elephant meets a mysterious elderly Irish man named Driscoll “the Governor” Sturgess. (Beanie is keeping watch.) McBride’s novel opens in September 1969. However, after his grandfather died, Deems left to deal drugs and is now part of a network of dealers controlled by Bunch Moon. Sportcoat quits drinking and makes peace with Hettie’s ghost, before deciding to walk into the harbor water and end his life on his own terms. The latest Oprah's Book Club pick is here: Deacon King Kong by James McBride. Spoiler warning: these summaries contains spoilers. Sportcoat wants to look for his old baseball stuff, but generator shorts out, leaving them in darkness. It involved a young Guido Elephante preventing a young Officer Potts from getting shot. In addition to all the church members, Potts, Jet and Elephante are there, too. May the sun shine warm upon your face, The people in the neighborhood gossip about why he did it, but they don’t really know, though the general feeling is that they “always knew old Sportcoat would do one great thing in life.”, Sportcoat’s wife Hettie Purvis is no longer around. That same night, Guido asked a passerby, Sister Paul, for help in driving away some stolen cargo. Deacon King Kong A Novel (Book) : McBride, James : Tells the story of what happens to the witnesses after a fumbling, cranky old church deacon, known as Sportcoat, shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in South Brooklyn and in front of everybody shoots the project's drug dealer at point-blank range, in 1969. Izi Cordero, an advocate for Puerto Rican statehood, fights with her ex Joaquin. ...Brings to vivid life the people affected by the … Elephante also says they need to find out what really happened, since the idea of his drunk gardener taking out all these young strong guys doesn’t make sense. Deems tells his crew to leave Sportcoat’s blind son, Pudgy Fingers, alone. She does it for free, because she believes God wanted her to. Elephante and Sportcoat go into the church one night to get it, and it’s there. And through this all, Deems begins to question his role as a drug dealer and his life choices in general. He shipped it back to himself piece by piece over time, but sold very little of it. Bunch sends Earl, his right-hand-man, to rough up Sportcoat (to send a warning about disrupting his business), but Earl's attempts are comedically thwarted each time. help you understand the book. The police show up immediately after. No one knows why he shot him. Elsewhere in the Causeway, Tommy Elephante (the "Elephant") is a guy who deals in storing and moving contraband, though he refuses to mess with drugs. Current holds. From there, everything spirals out. He reminisces about his days playing baseball with Sportcoat as his coach. He was born in Possum Point, South Carolina, and got the nickname Sportcoat after his mother was convinced by a medicine man that not saying his name for 8 months would help his back teeth grow in. He also knows a lot about plants and is a good handyman. Later, Macy decided to return almost all of it, shipping it back piece by piece. However, Haroldeen makes her move, shooting Deems, Sausage (Sportcoat's best friend) and Beanie (Deems's right hand man). Guido is frantic, not about the accident but about the cargo. Secretly, Elephante hopes that whatever his father was holding will be enough to get him out of this life. 11 of 13 copies available at Sage Library System. Deacon King Kong takes place in a Brooklyn neighborhood during the fall of 1969.
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