Deacon King Kong

Hmmm…Over 2,000 people on Goodreads REALLY like/love this novel - it's averaging 4.3 stars!!! And truthfully, I (Mocha Girl/Phyllis) blindly selected it thinking it would be a "winner" for the club - because his previous works have been stellar - great for discussion; this author always delivers something great, grounded, and thought-provoking regardless of the genre or subject matter. There was no doubt in my mind that we (the club and me) would enjoy the experience with McBride's latest offering. Well, a few of us read it and based on the Goodreads' reviews, the critics' praises, and the high rating from a couple thousand readers, I was inclined to question if I read the same book. Then my Nubian Circle Book Club sisters weighed in and I knew I wasn't alone. I breathed a sigh of relief in that I didn't miss anything, but I also felt terrible for choosing such a disappointing book as one of the precious twelve read collectively in a year. Apologies to the ladies who suffered through this --- I didn't know!! Our group rating of the four people (two of whom are fans of the author) who reported back is 1.9; one of our lowest rated books EVER in our 19 years of existence! I feel the need to atone for my literary sins…I'll make it up to you somehow. :-) The publisher's summary held a lot of promise - but it fell short for us - see below for our outtakes: From James McBride, author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird a captivating novel about what happens to the witnesses of a shooting in a Brooklyn housing project. In September 1969, a broken-down former church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffled into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in South Brooklyn, pulled out a .45, and in front of everybody shot the neighborhood drug dealer at point-blank range. The reasons for this burst of violence and the consequences of it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride's new novel. In Deacon King Kong, McBride explores the lives of the people touched by the shooting: the victim, the neighbors who witnessed it, the cops assigned to investigate what happened, the members of the church where Sportcoat was deacon, and Sportcoat himself. It soon becomes clear that the lives of these characters overlap in unexpected ways, and as their stories unfold, McBride reveals that what's secret needn't be hidden forever, and that the way to grow is to face change without fear. Bringing both his masterly storytelling skills and his abiding faith in humanity to the page, James McBride has written a novel that is every bit as involving as The Good Lord Bird and as emotionally honest as The Color of Water. Told with insight, wit and compassion, Deacon King Kong demonstrates that love, fear and faith live in all of us.

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Group Rating: 1.9

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Natalie: 2

• Goodreads rating

Richelle: 1

• So bad. He should have spent less time with all the characters and details in the beginning to write a good ending. I was hopeful when Sportcoat met Elephant for the first time but then it just fell off. After finishing the novel, I'm still not sure why Sportcoat shot Deems.

Davita: 2.75

• Had high expectations for this book being a fan of James McBride.

• The book started off okay but some of the characterization was a little tough to follow: too many people were crossing paths with each other, sometimes insignificantly.

• The people in the projects and the Italian mobster all were meant to successfully deliver a good plot, only a few characters delivered that for me. Especially the mobsters and their secrets.

• I heard that the Brooklyn project was similar to the one that James McBride grew up in.

• Five Ends Baptist and its members were predictable of those reflected in most churches.

Phyllis: 2

• To finish this novel was an arduous chore (it took me weeks amid work distractions) - it simply did not hold my attention. I forced myself to finish this weekend and admittedly, I had to skim/scan through quite a few sections to get to the end. I was glad to close the book to move on to something else. Initially, I was interested in the "mystery" of Hettie's death, the missing church money, and why Sportcoat shot Deems, so I kept reading hoping from some (clever) plot inter-dependencies and "shocking" revelations or tantalizing secrets about the characters.

• While I "get" that this book had a nostalgic theme (especially to those familiar with the NYC scenes from that era); I found it to be essentially a novel filled with social commentary on the Black Church and its traditions, the history of Brooklyn, a nod to the Great Migration, the emergence and negative impact of hard drugs and organized crime's hand in the destruction of the inner city, the challenges of the racial divides, the sense of community, traditional marital values, the loss of innocence/promise in the Black youth, etc. While this was a great premise - it still fell flat for me on many levels.

• I applaud his effort in wanting to tackle all of those topics. He's a skilled writer and delivered a product that many have praised; overall, the reception has been very positive -- so apparently my thoughts are in the minority. For me, this is my least favorite of his work to date and I'm at a "2" rating. The story, characters, mystery (and subsequent resolution of said "mysteries") were in some cases a bit rushed, unoriginal, and open-ended (granted I might have missed something in my skimming). I am extremely disappointed in this and regret choosing it as a BoM for the local book club.