The drugs lead to an increase in crime and violence and trap young people in a cycle of poverty, addiction, and dependency. This tension heightens the unrest and danger that older residents feel as a result of hard drugs like heroin having more of a presence in the projects. Meanwhile, the drug ring that Deems is involved in tries to retaliate against Sportcoat for the shooting, bringing violence and conflict to the neighborhood. Elefante doesn’t know where it is however, after meeting the Irishman’s daughter, Melissa, Elefante quickly falls in love with her and agrees to help the Irishman. One night, a mysterious Irishman (“the Governor,” or Driscoll Sturgess) tells Elefante that he was friends with Elefante’s father and needs help recovering a valuable artifact Elefante’s father hid for him. He inherited a smuggling business from his father and fronts it with construction, trucking, and storage businesses. Hettie presumably died by drowning in the harbor nearby, and her body was retrieved by a local, Italian mobster’s (Thomas Elefante’s) men.Īnother story thread involves Elefante, nicknamed “The Elephant” because of his last name. The couple was involved in their local neighborhood church, Five Ends Baptist, and many of the novel’s characters are connected to the church somehow. Sportcoat continues to mourn his wife Hettie, who died two years before the story takes place. Everyone in the Cause is baffled by the shooting because Sportcoat mentored and cared for Deems in his childhood and adolescence.
An alcoholic who was once a baseball coach and umpire, Sportcoat approaches a young drug dealer from the Cause named Deems Clemens and attempts to kill Deems by shooting him. 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. This guide refers to the Riverhead Books hardback edition.ĭeacon King Kong takes place in a Brooklyn neighborhood during the fall of 1969. He has received numerous other awards from various artistic groups, including the American Academy of Arts and Letters. McBride’s other artistic achievements include holding the title of Writer-in-Residence at New York University, musical composing and performing as a saxophonist, and work on several major film adaptations of his books.
McBride’s novel The Good Lord Bird won the National Book Award in 2013, and he was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2015 by President Obama for his important literary work on racial narratives.
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