Demon Copperhead
By Barbara Kingsolver
546 pages
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 or lose.”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 or lose.”
