Jun 11

Jun 11 Demon Copperhead

Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Publisher: Harper
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this 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. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he 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.

TL;DR Review

Demon Copperhead is a smart, hard-hitting modern retelling of David Copperfield that hits all the right notes. I’m not surprised it’s winning so many awards.

For you if: You’re in the mood for a 500-page American saga.

Full Review

Demon Copperhead is an accomplishment of a novel; a true American saga that I’m not at all surprised won the Pulitzer. It’s not going to be for everyone — it’s more than 500 pages long and not a cheerful book — but if you’re in the mood something immersive and hard-hitting, it will hit all the right notes.

Written as a (whip-smart) modern-day retelling of David Copperfield (although you don’t need to be familiar with that one to enjoy this; I wasn’t), Demon is set in southern Appalachia as the seeds of the opioid crisis blossom. It follows the boy in question from young childhood through early adulthood. I don’t want to give much away, but suffice to say that this is a heavy book; poor Demon just cannot catch a break, ever. And yet the novel is anything but trauma porn. We’re rooting for Demon and his loved ones hard the whole time.

Before reading Demon, I’d only read Kingsolver’s The Lacuna, which I was lukewarm on, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I needn’t have worried; she blew me away this time. It’s one of those books where the concept — the alignment between source material and subject matter — is so genius that it feels almost obvious after the fact. Last but not least, the audiobook is really good.

Not surprised this is winning All The Things — it’s worthy.