Damon Fields is born to a single mother in the bathroom of a trailer. He is born into poverty in a small, Appalachian community. His childhood is unsteady but not necessarily unhappy. He quickly becomes known as Demon Copperhead instead of his legal name (just as his best friend, Matt Peggot, is called Maggot). Demon’s father died before he was born but passed on his darker skin and red hair. Demon’s mother is young and struggling, in and out of rehab. The Peggott family next door (Maggot’s grandparents) offer some stability and care in Demon’s life. But when Demon’s mother meets a man named Stoner and marries him, Demon’s life begins to change and he soon ends up in foster care, struggling to survive largely on his own.
I read Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield over the winter holiday and decided that following that would be the perfect time to read this novel by Barbara Kingsolver, which is based on/inspired by Dickens’ work. Demon Copperhead takes the outline of David Copperfield and tells the story of a young boy’s life from birth into adulthood, setting in it a poor Virginia town in the Appalachias. Where Dickens addressed childhood poverty and labour, Kingsolver addresses the foster care system and the opioid crisis in America. Demon’s timeline takes place largely in the 1990s and early 2000s (making him approximately my own age) and so we see a community where opioids are first seen as a miracle cure. A pill that can take pain away and prescribed freely with no thought to their addictive qualities.
It’s also a compelling look at poverty and education in a region that once relied on coal mining and tobacco farming, two dying industries. A region that is largely looked down on by the rest of the nation or made the butt of jokes. As Demon grows he (and the reader) learn more about the history of this region and who benefits from keeping its people in ignorance and poverty. Kingsolver comes from and lives in the area so I trust her to get her facts straight and she tells this story with a lot of compassion, while still not shying away from some harsh moments.
I really enjoyed reading this back-to-back with David Copperfield and it certainly added a new dimension to my reading. It was satisfying to spot the parallel characters between the two and it meant that I knew certain things were going to happen. At the same time, Kingsolver puts her own spin on the story and so I didn’t always know how things were going to turn out. And I don’t think you have to read the Dickens novel in order to appreciate Demon Copperhead; it simply adds another layer to what is a very compelling story all on its own.
Karissa Reads Books 