Five Ends Baptist Church's Congregation

 

Deacon King Kong by James McBride is hilarious.  McBride is so talented.  Look at this alliteration:

           ...that lowdown grizzle-faced stupid son-of-a-bitch snitch, had sat.

                          She left before he got sanctified and saved.

His descriptions are unique.  His characterization is part of the humor.  Just that fact that the story begins with an attempted murder and the rest of the story is how the murderer gets away with it.  The Deacon is so drunk he wasn't thinking straight.  He tried to shoot a drug dealer, not because he was dealing drugs but because he was wasting his pitching talent.  

The setting is the project with its characters.  No one has a regular name.  Everyone is known by a nickname.  The Deacon is a real Deacon in his church.  King Kong is homemade "moon shine."  The Deacon is always sipping on it.  

In the background, there is a real drug war going on.  There are more humorous personalities that are unique.

I don't know where to begin.  I can't describe everything.  But I enjoyed it.

The Past is to be Learned From

 James McBride is an author I enjoy reading.  He once wrote for the Boston Globe.  His first novel, The Color of Water, is excellent.  In fact, this novel, The Heaven and the Earth Grocery Store is reminiscent of The Color of Water.  One of the major characters, Chona Ludlow, sounds like McBride's grandmother.  McBride's grandmother was Jewish and lived above a grocery store with her family.  So far, the two novels have the same setting.  The Jewish and Black families, as neighbors, are similar in the two books.

The plot is a big difference.  In The Heaven and the Earth Grocery Store, there are a couple of murders.  The story begins with finding a murdered man.  The story ends with an explanation of how that happened.  In between, the reader is introduced to the village of Chicken Hill, and its assortment of nationalities, colors, and religions.  It often is humorous.  The story turns serious when Chona takes in a young black boy who lost his parents.  The boy is deaf, but not mute, and intelligent.  The government wants to take him away and put him in a mental hospital.  

Unfortunately, the kid is taken and put in the institution.  One of the characters, big Nate, who is a dangerous man, but one of the good guys, helps snatch the boy, out of the institution.  They get away and life goes on.  More or less.  

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Story will make you laugh, cry, cringe, and hope.  What more do you want?