Demon Copperhead
by Barbara Kingsolver
For September, our book club theme was “injustice.” I found
Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Demon Copperhead in our Hoopla catalog and
that seemed to fit the bill, so I downloaded it and started listening, not
realizing at first that it was about 22 hours long.
I have to admit, I almost DNF’d (Did Not Finish) it a couple
times in the first half. It was just so bleak to begin with. I kept thinking of
the book by sociologist Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities. That title
seemed to fit here very well.
Demon Copperhead is inspired by the novel David
Copperfield by Charles Dickens. It’s an updated version of the look at the
inequalities of the criminal justice system, quality of schools, child labor,
and class structure that bedeviled Victorian England, this time set in
modern-day Appalachia and entrenched in the modern drug epidemic of prescription
opioids.
Damon Fields, aka Demon, is born to a drug addicted young
mother after his father dies in a swimming hole accident. Young Damon is
watched over by the older next door neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Peggot, as much as
they can, while they also take care of their grandson, Damon’s friend “Maggot.”
Damon has far too much responsibility thrust on him at a young age, watching
over his mother. Things get worse when his mother remarries, a hard man named
Stoner.
It only goes down hill from there as Damon is put into foster
care, which turns out to be a squalid tobacco farm where the boys are taken in
for the check from DSS and the free labor. Eventually Damon ends up in a second
placement that isn’t all that much better.
The story took a turn upward for me around the halfway mark as
Damon set out to find his paternal grandmother. He meets some interesting
characters along the way and fins his grandmother and her brother are decent
people who find a place for Damon to live, back in his hometown with the
football coach.
It’s an interesting story told in beautiful language through
the eyes of Damon, whose saving grace is his way of seeing the world through
his artwork. It also illuminates the trials and tribulations of addiction,
though I can’t say how true to life that representation is.
Though one critic referred to it as “poverty porn,” I thought
Kingsolver gives her characters dignity through even the most difficult
situations. Good books often make people think hard and tend to receive a wide
range of reviews. The book also received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction,
sharing it with Hernan Diaz’s Trust.
I questioned where the author lives, as I'm always leery of people who write books of places well outside their sphere of knowledge, but Kingsolver lives in Appalachia so that does offer some credibility.
It’s thought-provoking with some incredibly painful situations
and some beautiful ones. Though long, it is a rewarding read and I recommend
it. I have not felt my time was wasted. It has taken me on a journey and the
characters will stay with me for some time to come.
I could say a great deal more about the story, but not without spoilers so I suggest you give it a try for yourself.
