Demon Copperhead

One review on 22 Aug 2023

First Published: 2022

Fiction

Demon Copperhead

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

Summary: Growing up in Tennessee mountain fly-over country

Publisher:

Faber & Faber

Synopsis

Demon Copperhead's father died before he was born and his mother is an alcholoic. He is 10.They live in a trailer in a tight community in the Appalachian mountains.

After is mother dies (OD'd) he is in a succession of foster homes. All sorts of bad things, and occasional good, coes his way. By the end he has turned 18 and appears to have found his own way.

Reviews

Outstanding

by rogerco on Tue 22nd Aug 2023.

Probably the best novel of the year and the decade at least. Only on reading the authours thankk-you's at the end did I realise what she had based the story of DC on. (Because I've never read the earlier DC)

The first person past continuous account of his life and the community he lives in is very believable, interesting, engrossing. Even things that you have no experience of are understandable - the logic of the situation is impeccable.

The larger context - the illegal drug and prescription opiod pandemic in rural communities is highly topical. Ecological and political elements are there in the background as context but not in your face - the focus is totally on Demon's experience and story.

A sympathetic view of a world which we only know as the butt of jokes and cliches.

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