Review: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, narrated by Charlie Thurston, is a slog on audio. Thurston does a great job voicing Demon’s story, but what’s the slog is the over-indulgent detail, the same excuses over and over, and the character himself. I did not like him one bit, and the book was so depressing. I get it — opioid addiction and DSS and foster families — but I didn’t find much redeeming in this for Copperhead.
Perhaps I was biased to begin with given the opening similar to Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. I tend to have a love-hate relationship with Dickens’ work. Copperfield is a book I have no strong feelings about, but I do about Kingsolver’s Copperhead.
I didn’t appreciate the “editorializing” of the author. The opioid epidemic is not something this area of the country was aware of at the time it began. While maybe June could have seen the issues early on, the community at large was just following the doctors’ orders and becoming more and more addicted. I also worried about the cliched characterization of the Appalachian area, while some of those may have been accurate, I feel like there should have been greater differentiation.
I also had a hard time with the lack of focus in the main character’s narration as it seems to have been told from some future point and looking back. This should provide a bit more linear focus, even if it is written while Copperhead’s in recovery.
There are portions of the book that were engaging, like the relationship between Copperhead and his foster sister, Angus, and his “adopted” family the Peggots. He does strive to get better in fits and starts throughout the story, and he does have to use his survival skills to navigate not only poverty, but also the forces that work against him finding happiness and a home.
What Kingsolver does well is comment on the lasting impact of poverty and hunger on children and their ability to rise
above their situation and cope in healthy ways with all they are dealt. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver was a mixed bag for me.
RATING: Tercet
About the Author:
Barbara Kingsolver is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, essayist, and poet. Her widely known works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a nonfiction account of her family's attempts to eat locally.
This is the 2nd of my 12 books recommended by 12 friends.