English language
Published Nov. 15, 2022 by HarperCollins Publishers.
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. --harpercollins.ca
(Read in 2023) I think Kirkus hit the nail on the head ("an angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage" for its Appalachian community) - and I guess that's what I was in the mood for, because I loved it. Stunning. Somehow it managed to be funny and hopeful, despite plenty of misery and asshole-type people doing their thing. Great audiobook narration by Charlie Thurston.
I grabbed this without much consideration and got embarrassingly far through it before I got the Dickens heritage. If I read David Copperfield I've forgotten it, but if it explores real societal issues through the eyes of kids as well as this story does, it would be worth a comparison to get a sense of how the problems have evolved. It's not just problems though, they are lived by good characters.
Content warning Spoilers
Set in Appalachia, this modern retelling of David Copperfield shows the how much the issues of poverty and exploitation that Dickens wrote about are still relevant today. Demon Copperhead is born into extreme poverty. His single, drug addicted mother soon dies, leaving him to a dysfunctional foster care system. Once he escapes from this broken institution, he finds himself in another -- American high school sports. The football team makes him a hero, but ultimately it discards him when he is no longer able to play. From there, the pharmaceutical industry prey on him in his weakened state.
While this plot line seems over-the-top in the retelling, it is believable as told in the novel. In part, this is due to the depth of the characters, each of whom is flawed and therefore realistic. Demon himself makes all the stupid, horrible decisions that young people make. Yet, throughout the novel, we understand that he is a victim of circumstance -- of birth, of institutions, of growing up during the opioid epidemic. Getting this balance right - that one is neither a blameless victim nor completely at fault - is one of the strengths of the novel.
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.
Loved!
Compelling story with characters I grew to love. My only complaint is that it was a bit too long.
Inspired by Dicken’s David Copperfield, the novel, set in rural Kentucky circa 1980-2000, centres around Demon, a trailer park kid who got kicked around to various foster homes, briefly became a local high school football star until a knee injury put an end to that, and sent him crashing into a life of opioids and addiction. His one talent, drawing, helped with his ultimate redemption. A theme running through it, like that of the Dicken’s novel, is that of institutional poverty and its effects on the lives ordinary people. Though it held my interest, the book was ultimately too long.
A harrowing journey through foster care and the opiate crisis. So good it hurt to read. Raw deal after raw deal left my heart aching, but enough clear-sighted humanity to stave off despair.
Reading time 9 days, 61 pages/day
Characters you're 'rooting' for throughout. An exposé of the worst societal abuses upon communities and it's impact. Amazingly; hope!
Despite a bit of oversimplification of the socioeconomics and politics of the region (mainly at the very end), I couldn't help but be gripped and moved by the story. Hard and dark and also warm and strangely hopeful, written in a compelling voice.
A very good story with an entertaining, observant, and ironic narrator, at least in his early childhood. Am I more aware of poverty in southwestern Virginia or problems with Oxycodone because of it? Is the novel better because it closely follows the structure of David Copperfield? Maybe.
This book hit hard, and snuck up on me in a lot of ways. Ultimately uplifting, it puts a very human face on the carnage caused by opioids in America.
It’s not always easy to read descriptions of suffering, but there’s redemption too. Highly recommended!
Calling it now: this is going to be my top read for 2023. Lit classes are going to study this book for Kingsolver's ability to craft an authentic voice, tease out the most telling details, and somehow keep a book that should be wholly depressing (TW: drugs! addiction! orphans! death! abuse!) moving along at a break-neck pace with incisive, laugh-out-loud observations and dialogue. Any curriculum that is still using (fraudulent loser) JD Vance's "Hillbilly Elegy" to teach about Appalachia should go ahead and upgrade to this book, stat!
The magic of this book is that you root for Demon even though you know the odds are stacked (and STACKED) against him. He's lovable despite his flaws, and you just want to see him beat the system.
I'll finish it eventually I just don't want to right now
Es fing sehr gut an. Nach der Leseprobe und vor dem Kauf habe ich Rezensionen gelesen, um rauszufinden, ob es Elendsporno ist oder nicht, und keine Hinweise darauf gefunden. Es fühlte sich dann aber doch alles irgendwie verkehrt an. Ich würde gern genauer benennen können, was das Problem war. Vielleicht verstehe ich es mit etwas Nachdenkzeit besser, dann trage ich es hier nach. Vielleicht passen wir aber auch einfach nur nicht zusammen, das Buch und ich.
Nachträge:
- Auf den ersten 200 Seiten sind die Personen Personen. Aber dann bricht der Protagonist zu seiner unbekannten Großmutter auf, und diese Großmutter ist natürlich exzentrisch und liebevoll und streng wie alle wiedergefundenen Großmütter von Waisenkindern in der Literatur. Vielleicht kann Kingsolver nichts dafür, das Buch ist ja eine Dickens-Nacherzählung und vielleicht hat Dickens diese Großmutter erfunden und seitdem wird sie bei ihm abgeschrieben. Die Großmutter kümmert sich um ihren behinderten Bruder, der …
Es fing sehr gut an. Nach der Leseprobe und vor dem Kauf habe ich Rezensionen gelesen, um rauszufinden, ob es Elendsporno ist oder nicht, und keine Hinweise darauf gefunden. Es fühlte sich dann aber doch alles irgendwie verkehrt an. Ich würde gern genauer benennen können, was das Problem war. Vielleicht verstehe ich es mit etwas Nachdenkzeit besser, dann trage ich es hier nach. Vielleicht passen wir aber auch einfach nur nicht zusammen, das Buch und ich.
Nachträge:
- Auf den ersten 200 Seiten sind die Personen Personen. Aber dann bricht der Protagonist zu seiner unbekannten Großmutter auf, und diese Großmutter ist natürlich exzentrisch und liebevoll und streng wie alle wiedergefundenen Großmütter von Waisenkindern in der Literatur. Vielleicht kann Kingsolver nichts dafür, das Buch ist ja eine Dickens-Nacherzählung und vielleicht hat Dickens diese Großmutter erfunden und seitdem wird sie bei ihm abgeschrieben. Die Großmutter kümmert sich um ihren behinderten Bruder, der im Rollstuhl sitzt und weise und belesen ist und Zitate aus seinen Lieblingsbüchern auf Papierdrachen schreibt und in den Himmel aufsteigen lässt. Auf den folgenden 300 Seiten kommen noch einige Gestalten vor, die eher Funktion als Person sind.
- Die positive Vision ist so eine, die Leuten wie mir gefallen soll: Der einzige schwarze Lehrer und seine Frau, die Künstlerin, die den Protagonisten fördert, und der Bohèmehaushalt der beiden. Sein Ausweg aus der Misere, der nicht der Sport ist (direkter Weg in die Schmerzmittelabhängigkeit), sondern der Beruf als Graphic-Novel-Zeichner. Tommy, der gute kluge Freund, der 1000 Bücher gelesen hat und Journalist wird. Ich weiß ja auch nicht, wie man als reiche Autorin über arme und drogenabhängige Leute in Virginia (oder im viktorianischen London) schreiben kann, aber ich fürchte, so geht es nicht.
