Book Discussion: "Deacon King Kong"
by National Book Award honoree James McBride '79
REGISTER HERE
HOSTED BY:
Mike Bank ’54 & Adrianne Fine Bank ’54
This virtual meeting gives all residents a chance to participate from home.
The program will start at 7:30 p.m. PT (10:30 p.m. ET), but attendees are welcome and encouraged to log on early and chat with fellow Obies.
We look forward to gathering with you!
FEATURING:
Deacon King Kong
BOOK REVIEWS:
His new novel, Deacon King Kong, set in what appears to be a fictionalized version of the Brooklyn housing project where McBride grew up, is crowded with characters whose backstories are crowded with more characters, all of their fates connected, in ways they know about and in ways they don’t. It’s a world where isolation seems like vanity; where one’s intimate business is usually, somehow, everyone else’s business, too; where even the attempted murder that begins the novel takes place in front of sixteen witnesses, many of whom know both shooter and victim personally.
- Jonathan Dee, The New Yorker
James McBride’s Deacon King Kong is a feverish love letter to New York City, people, and writing. The prose is relentless and McBride’s storytelling skills shine as he drags readers at breakneck speed through a plethora of lives, times, events, and conversations. The novel is 370 pages, but McBride has packed enough in there for a dozen novellas, and reading them all mashed together is a pleasure.
- Gabino Iglesias, NPR