Demon Copperhead: A Novel
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
New York Times Readers’ Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century • An Oprah’s Book Club Selection • An Instant New York Times Bestseller • An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller • A #1 Washington Post Bestseller • A New York Times "Ten Best Books of the Year"
"Demon is a voice for the ages—akin to Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield—only even more resilient.” —Beth Macy, author of Dopesick
"May be the best novel of [the year]. . . . Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this is the story of an irrepressible boy nobody wants, but readers will love.” —Ron Charles, Washington Post
From the acclaimed author of The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees and the recipient of the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, a brilliant novel that enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero’s unforgettable journey to maturity
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.
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Community Reviews
What’s it about?
In this modern retelling of David Copperfield Barbara Kingsolver introduces us to another literary character that we will not soon forget. Demon Copperhead is born to a teenage single mother in a small town in Appalachia in the early 1980’s. He is blessed with a keen mind and artistic abilities but he is not born into a community where these gifts can be fostered. Demon’s story puts a face on all those children that go unseen in America.
What did it make me think about?
If anyone wants to understand the affects of Oxycodone on rural America then read Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe and follow it up with Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Mr. Keefe’s non-fiction account gives you the facts. Barbara Kingsolver then manages to humanize the people that Purdue Pharma specifically targeted to take their drugs. “I had roads to travel before I would know it’s not that simple, the dope versus the person you love. That a craving can ratchet itself up and up inside a body and mind, at the same time that body’s strength for tolerating its favorite drug goes down and down. That the longer you’ve gone hurting between fixes, the higher the odds that you’ll reach too hard for the stars next time. That first rush of relief could be your last.”
Should I read it?
YES!!!! This book was a rare page-turner with incredibly rich characters. Demon Copperhead is one of my favorite literary characters ever. Institutional poverty is on full display in this story, and Ms. Kingsolver does an impressive job of making these characters not fully culpable in there own demise. If the best of literary fiction makes us empathize with people we share nothing in common with- then this is a remarkable piece of literary fiction. I felt for almost every character in this story. How special does that make this book?
Quote-
“To me that says I had a fighting chance. Long odds, yes I know. If a mother is lying in her own piss and pill bottles while they’re slapping the kid she’s shunted out, telling him to look alive: likely the bastard is doomed. Kid born to the junkie is a junkie. He’ll grow up to be everything you don’t want to know, the rotten teeth and dead-zone eyes, the nuisance of locking up your tools in the garage so they don’t walk off, the rent-by-the-week motel squatting well back from the scenic highway. This kid, if he wanted a shot at the finer things, should have got himself delivered to some rich or smart or Christian, nonusing type of mother. Anybody will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win of lose.”
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