The following version of this book was used to create the guide: McBride, James. Deacon King Kong. Riverhead Books, 2020.

McBride’s novel opens in September 1969. Cuffy “Sportcoat” Lambkin, a deacon at the Five Ends Baptist Church, shoots 19-year-old drug dealer Deems Clemens at the flagpole, Deems’s usual selling spot. Deems is not killed, thanks to the intervention of an undercover police officer named Jet, but he is injured. Sportcoat is an alcoholic with memory issues, frequently mixing up past and present, and for the rest of the novel cannot recall the shooting. His memory issues are further punctuated by the fact that he frequently sees, communes, and argues with the spirit of his dead wife Hettie. When Hettie died, she left many of her responsibilities behind for Sportcoat, including the care of their blind son Pudgy Fingers, and a box of money for the Church’s Christmas Club, which Sportcoat cannot find, much to the Church’s frustration.

The shooting causes, or rather reveals, fractures among the network of criminals, smugglers, and drug dealers that Deems works with and for. Bunch Moon and his partner Earl try to retaliate against Sportcoat for the shooting, but are repeatedly thwarted, and Earl defects and becomes a police informant. After multiple failures Bunch hires a hitman, or rather hitwoman, named Haroldeen (misidentified frequently as Harold Dean), who winds up shooting, but not killing, Sportcoat and Deems. Mobster Joe Peck, a notorious criminal with ties to the Gorvino crime family, finds himself losing power over his subordinates. And through all of this, Tommy “the Elephant” Elefante, an Italian-American smuggler, struggles to hold off increasing pressure to begin smuggling drugs as he dreams of leaving crime behind and settling in the country.

At the same time, the many residents of the Cause muse over the reasons behind the shooting as they try to maintain their lives and dignity in the face poverty, racism, and the ever-increasing presence of heroin. Veronica Gee, or Sister Gee as she is usually referred to, holds the Church together as she begins flirting cautiously with Sgt. Kevin “Potts” Mullen, the lead investigator in the shooting. Hot Sausage, Sportcoat’s best friend, urges him to run away even as the investigation reveals his own past, including his many name changes and an outstanding warrant. As this all happens, normal life continues at the Cause. The residents celebrate Soup Lopez’s release from jail and learn of his newfound conversion to the Nation of Islam. Dominic Lefleur, a Haitian-American man with a superstitious streak pursues a romance with Church usher T.J. Billings, or “Bum-Bum” as she is called. Izi Cordero, an advocate for Puerto Rican statehood, fights with her ex Joaquin. And through this all, Deems begins to question his role as a drug dealer and his life choices in general.

The Elephant meets a mysterious elderly Irish man named Driscoll “the Governor” Sturgess. The Governor has a tenuous connection to the Elephant’s deceased father, and requests the Elephant’s assistance in retrieving and delivering a small, extremely valuable package. The package in question turns out to be the famed Venus of Willendorf statue. After much hunting for where the package is hidden, Sportcoat and the Elephant learn from an elderly woman named Sister Paul, a founding member of the Five Ends Church, that the package is hidden inside Five Ends, behind a mural of Jesus. More specifically, it is hidden “in the palm of His hand”, a phrase which is repeated frequently throughout the novel.

Sportcoat and the Elephant manage to retrieve the statue. In gratitude, the Elephant uses the money he made from selling it to not only renovate several parts of the Church, but also pays for the full amount of the missing Christmas Club money. He also marries the Governor’s daughter Melissa. Deems decides to leave the drug world behind and becomes a successful minor league baseball pitcher. Sportcoat quits drinking and makes peace with Hettie’s ghost, before deciding to walk into the harbor water and end his life on his own terms.