Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.
Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a …
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.
Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.
A loose retelling of David Copperfield set in 90s(?) Appalachia.
Well-written, and with a strong narrator, the Dickensian characters are easily recognisable, whilst still working after being updated to the modern setting. The abuses young Demon and his fellow children were subject to felt a little too Victorian, but perhaps they are anchored in some horrible reality. The endless sadness of drug abuse began to wear on me, and had I not previously read David Copperfield, I doubt I’d have enjoyed the book as much. Worth the read.
I started reading this on an international flight and immediately got completely absorbed into its universe -- our universe, filled with the forsaken and despised of impoverished rural Appalachia as the opioid crisis is generated around and through them, another industry (like coal mining before) grinding up an entire culture for private, corrupt gain. I got a bit bogged down in the middle as the pain became hard to stay with, but am really glad I pushed through. By turns hilarious and tragic, Kingsolver rewrites Dickens for the 21st century, reminding us that the social damage done by capitalism scars communities, families, and individuals in ways that we might not see but should not ignore.
