This guy looking for your Sportcoat is part of an organized syndicate. You know what that means? Organized crime”
With many characters and nicknames, I struggled at first to get into this story, but I am certainly glad I did. When the New York Times names a book one of the ten best of the year, there has to be merit in getting to know the characters, the author, and his messages. After about fifty pages, I had warmed up to Sportcoat, also known as Deacon King Kong. He was a deacon at the Five Ends Baptist Church that serves the mostly Black neighborhood of the Cause Houses, a housing project in Brooklyn, NY that seems much like like Red Hook. Red Hook had been known as one of the worst neighborhoods in New York. It has since improved, yet James McBride, the author, grew up in Red Hook and bases this fictional story on much of this Brooklyn neighborhood’s real-life happenings in the late 1960s.
Sportcoat, the main character, shoots Deems Clemens, a youngster who could have had a major league baseball career but chose to become a drug dealer. Sportcoat either doesn’t remember the shooting or is in total denial when his friend Hot Sausage tries to convince him to skip town. It becomes evident that nobody truly understands what a deacon such as Sportcoat does to warrant the title of deacon. Yet, Sportcoat’s endearment to community members allows him to escape arrest and be protected by church members, gangsters, and almost everybody who knows him and his drunken behavior. The one person whose view of Sportcoat is slightly unclear is Sportcoat’s dead wife Hettie, who regularly talks to him. We learn as we wonder why Sportcoat remains at-large because there are strong relationships among the Cause houses’ residents. Through the many backstories, we realize how interconnected the families are and how much caring and safeguarding are commonplace among the inhabitants.
McBride depicts complicated relationships among and between different ethnic and racial groups who reside in the projects. The institutional presence of the Mafia and their place in the community was engaging. NYPD Precinct 76 serves the real Red Hook area of Brooklyn, and they figure prominently in this novel. Many New York cops, like Potts in this story, are trustworthy and understand the people of the neighborhood; others alluded to take bribes and further the gangster reputation of the area.
Some of the characters are heartless and infuriating, but most are fascinating and heartwarming. The book also explores timeless themes and conflicts and relies on symbols to represent changing cultures. Some of my random takeaways from this multi-layered novel include:
Sister Gee, the wife of the reverend of Five Ends Baptist, expounds on the value of knowing and catering to families, even the drug sellers. Of course, she has chemistry with Potts, the police officer; this is advantageous for her congregation, and she, a strong independent woman, runs the church. Her husband is mostly absent.
The older people from the Cause houses meet at the flagpole each day, and the drug dealer who knows them, Deems, respects this and doesn’t start peddling his wares until they have had their daily meetings. The flagpole, symbolic of patriotism, loyalty, and respect, is a fixture in this story featuring allegiances.
Each week, there is a distribution of Jesus’s Italian cheese at the Baptist Church. Nobody truly understands who provides the cheese. Even after most of the plot points are resolved, the cheese remains a bit mysterious. McBride leaves us wanting to believe that there is a greater force that will nourish.
Unbeknownst to mafia character Elefante, his mother has become endeared to Sportcoat, whom she has hired as her gardener. McBride uses this plot point to portray friendships and reliance across racial lines.
“I hope God holds you in the palm of His hand,” from scripture, appears eleven times in the book. It is mentioned at key moments and provides clues to the outcome of the story. This quote is a beautiful reminder of the commonalities between white and black people. It is part of the Irish blessing when Elefante meets the Irishman whom his father befriended in jail. It has been inscribed in the church by the Italian builders, and the Blacks adopt it as their motto.
Since Deems was a baseball player and Sportcoat is his former coach, baseball metaphors figure into McBride’s metaphors for human universality. Is drug dealing like war or a baseball game?
The people in The Cause housing are slaves to drugs, the white man’s powder. Is it a coincidence that powder sounds like power, and my spell checker wants me to say power, not powder in that sentence?
