Demon Copperhead

Although a work of fiction, Demon Copperhead is a truer hillybilly elegy than the book of that title. Barbara Kingsolver’s tale of a boy named Damon, born of a drug- and alcohol-addicted teenaged mother and a copperheaded predeceased father, tracks the storyline of Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield. Copperfield is set in the urban wasteland of Victorian London, Copperhead in the rural wasteland of American Coal Country, where the author herself resides. Conflict with a stepdad lands Demon in foster care and passed around from one exploiter of the system to another. As David finds eventual success as a writer, so… show more.

A retelling of David Copperfield, this was such a well written book that really brought home so many social issues that plague American life right now, without beating you over the head with them.

The voice of the main character was so authentic. The other characters were also very believeable.

This book truly fit the description of "the great American novel." Well written, great characters, illuminating a slice of America many don't understand or see clearly.

I found this compulsively readable as a narrative even though, because it’s a sort of retelling of David Copperfied, it was familiar in its outlines. There are plenty of surprises along the way even if you know the earlier novel.

Part of the pleasure is in seeing how the author has transposed the story from Victorian England to Virginia in the recent past. It completely avoids the sentimentality that is in the Dickens original, and yet the account of Demon’s harsh childhood is unflinching.

Born into poverty, of uncertain parentage, and exploited and mistreated by his school, his employers, and… show more.

What hasn't been said about this wonderful novel? It's a modern day David Copperfield with lots of great characters set in Appalachia during the opioid crisis. Your heart breaks for orphan Demon Copperhead and his friends as they navigate their way through life, hindered and abused by the so-called grown ups around them while they try to rise above both the poverty of their birth and expectations. It's made all the more special because the author stayed at Dickens' home Bleak House in Broadstairs, Kent, where he wrote David Copperfield and where 'she felt the presence of Dickens' outrage' 'urging… show more.

It’s hard for me to say that an author has somehow improved upon Charles Dickens, but I must admit that I liked Demon Copperhead better than David Copperfield. I was stunned by Kingsolver’s reweaving of Dickens’s story, both in clever plot elements and detail. The book gave me a sense of what it must be like for a child utterly trapped within an impoverished world of dysfunctional adults and systems. Although I know about addiction, this book helped me go beyond knowing. It helped me imagine. Kingsolver handles pacing and plot like a great musician handles a long complicated piece… show more.

This might as well be a documentary--it's that real. The characters, the issues and the settings are compelling and accurate. The story is gripping and the writing is over-the-top good. Couldn't stop listening.

At times, it is very depressing as the reality of Appalachian poverty hits you between the eyes. You can't stop rooting for Demon as he struggles caught in the flash flood of consequences caused by drugs and incarceration.

In Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver's mastery is on full display. Pulled straight from an modern Appalachian hollow, this book hit all the right notes. Demon could have been any number of young men I've known, and was just as real on the page as they were in life, and death. Kingsolver takes on the opioid crisis and rural disaffection with unflinching grace and a thorough understanding, in the process telling a damn good story. Though laid over the bones of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, this book does not at all feel derivative. It stands on its own, like Demon himself.