Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
If you’ve followed my book reviews, you know that I rarely award a book five stars. A really good book gets four; one that takes my breath away and leaves me thinking about it for weeks afterwards gets five. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver, is such a book. Modeled after the Charles Dickens classic, David Copperfield, this one is set in the Appalachian mountains of the United States; the “ground zero” of the opioid crisis. It follows the life of a boy who is born to an 18-year-old, drug-addicted mother and a dead father. You know from the start the kid’s in for a struggle.
Some 30% of the children in Appalachia are being raised by people other than their own parents because the destruction wrought by poverty and drugs has left so many orphaned or with parents who are completely unable to care for them. Without being preachy, the book examines the weaknesses of the foster care system, the struggles of extended families – most of which are also struggling – to try to fill the breach, and the ways the children themselves try to grow up too quickly, often with disastrous results.
The novel reminded me of Rohinton Mistry’s (also brilliant) book, A Fine Balance. Both books tell the story of people who are born with the odds stacked against them, struggling to survive despite repeatedly being knocked down by the inequities of the world around them. In both books, the characters deal with their fate through perseverance, dark humour, ingenuity and a bit of kindness and support from those who are doing only marginally better in life. And in both books there are moments where things actually seem to be going well, and you have hope that the hero might not only survive, but triumph.
I listened to this hefty book as an audiobook and the voicing was outstanding. But I’m sure even reading the novel your brain would be infused with the rhythms and language patterns of the region. Kingsolver’s use of the language is exquisite, right from the first sentence, where Demon introduces himself to the reader by saying, “First, I got myself born.” His wry, humorous way of speaking and seeing the world shines through.
The characters in the novel are so well-rounded. Sometimes you want to shake them and say, “Don’t do that!” but always you care about them and are rooting for them to succeed.
Appalachia is the region where the author herself grew up. She wanted to show readers it is more than the hick stereotype it is typically made out to be. She also wanted to humanize the opioid crisis. At that she succeeded marvelously. The novel helps you understand how so many people have fallen victim to addiction, often thanks originally to Purdue Pharma’s deceptive marketing. But nothing is simplistic; the situations and the people in them are real and unforgettable. I highly recommend you make time to read or listen to Demon Copperhead.
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