Karen’s Pick
April, 2023
Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver
Harper Publishing; October 18, 2022
Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead is a brilliantly conceived novel that has been compared by critics to Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. Both novels are about a young man “subjected to poverty and abuse of the existing social systems”. Kingsolver’s story of how she came to write a tale of such abject misery is notable and explains the authors direction for this book.
She told the New York Times that while she was in England, she stayed
where Charles Dickens had stayed while he was writing Bleak House. Immersed in ideas, Kingsolver had a “conversation” with Dickens who told her to write the book from a child’s point of view because ‘no one doubts the child’.
The setting for the story is in rural Lee County, Virginia, in Southern Appalachia. and begins at Demon’s birth to early adulthood. It is the story of the tumultuous journey of the copper-penny-headed Damon Fields aka Demon (childhood moniker) and Copperhead (for obvious reasons) and not because of coal country’s woodland inhabitants.
Demon is a wonderful multi-dimensional character and is the novel’s narrator. He not only uses the vernacular of the locale, but graphically describes its environs, and the patched-together existence of its citizens. Due to Demon’s skill, the reader is often transported to places we’d rather not go.
Being just ten years old, Demon is orphaned and homeless after his mother’s drug overdose. From this point, he is victimized by a corrupt foster care system, substandard schools, food deprivation, pervasive opioid addiction, and habitual losses.
The author’s development of the plot “never takes a breath” and the circumstances Demon endures take the reader on a literary emotional rollercoaster. Fortunately, when Demon’s fate seems like too much to bear, Kingsolver senses our angst and shows us there is also humor, resilience, and fearlessness in Demon’s life. As noted In a Book Browse review:
Demon claims to be “a worthless, throwaway individual who describes himself as ‘the Eagle Scout of trailer trash’” while at the same time exhibiting admirable self-reliance and a steely determination to rise above his circumstances even when so much lies beyond his control.
As the story develops one questions if Demon’s skills, talent, survivor instincts, good looks, charm, and athletic abilities should be enough to protect him.
Simply stated – sometimes yes, and other times no.
At first glance, one might question the necessity of reading a 560-page work of fiction. For this reader, every page was a gift from the author and I was exhausted by accompanying Demon on his journeys, however, I did not want the book to end!
I highly recommend Demon Copperhead and would go as far to say it was one of my favorite books of 2022!