by Olyn Ozbick
Choosing the perfect art to go with your lit.
Deacon King Kong
Deacon King Kong is the first book I have read by National Book Award-winning writer James McBride, and it took me directly back into the streets of Brooklyn, which I have visited numerous times while traveling to conferences and meetings and visits with colleagues, friends and family. I love being in Brooklyn, and this great bustling book, brimming with characters, action, setting and activity, reminds me of how it felt on those visits. Warm and happy, tough and rugged, steeped in histories and complexity of peoples. McBride’s book is named for the main character who drinks far too much King Kong hooch, which leads him one day to shoot the local drug dealer in the face, and then, bless his soul, forget that he did so. The novel also brims with side characters, not all of whom are required to drive this story, but create a, sometimes confusing, complexity that mirrors the housing project in which McBride grew up. Funny and bighearted; this book would be almost delightful, were it not for the undercurrent of rage and despair that, on a few occasions, bubble to the surface. I’m headed to find more to read from McBride.
Pairs perfectly with …
The Block I and The Block II
The Block I and The Block II are not precisely depictions of the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Deacon King Kong, as they are portraits by the artist of the Harlem projects of his experience. They are, however, similarly filled with the same life, the same bustle and complexity. They are a force in the same way McBride’s work is a force, bringing an energy, and experience that one can feel just looking at them. The complex collages of this legendary artist reflect the African American experience of the Harlem neighborhood he grew up in in the early 1900s—not too far distanced from Brooklyn. Born in 1911, they reflect Bearden’s experiences growing up there. The Block was completed in the last 25 years of his life.
