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Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver review — when David Copperfield got hooked on hillbilly heroin

David Copperfield is great in so many ways. The almost experimental passages where David recreates his earliest memories; the unforgettable villains Mr Murdstone and Uriah Heep; the melancholy motif of paths not taken, that “things that never happen” are “often as much realities” as those that do; and one of the best and funniest depictions of being black-out drunk in English fiction. (“Somebody fell, and rolled down,” says David. “Somebody else said it was Copperfield. I was angry at that false report, until, finding myself on my back in the passage, I began to think there might be some foundation for it.”)

Barbara Kingsolver was drawn to the novel for a different reason. In her view, Charles Dickens’s mid-career masterpiece is primarily an “impassioned critique

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‘Demon Copperhead’ Review: A Heart-Wrenching Portrait of the Opioid Crisis

“They did this to you.” Other characters drill this assuration into the mind of Demon, the main character of Barbara Kingsolver’s newest novel, “Demon Copperhead.” The book, set in a poor county in southern Appalachia during the opioid epidemic, deals with the large question of who is to blame for a crisis. Kingsolver uses the perspective of a young boy to showcase the true parties at fault in rural America, including the institutional structures that ruin lives, corrupt children, and send communities into cycles of ruin. Inspired by the sweeping narrative of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield,'' Kingsolver uses compelling characters and an underrepresented setting to create a heart-wrenching portrait of the American opioid crisis.

Demon Copperhead — his first name a twist on “Damon,” his last name owed to the red hair he inherited from his father — has a lot of troubles. From the beginning, though, he takes responsibility for his entire life. The novel starts with the words, “First, I got myself born,” and from there Demon faces a variety of harrowing childhood experiences, including an opioid-addicted mother, an abusive stepfather, intense grief, child labor, and negligent guardianship. The responsibility that he takes for matters outside of his control makes readers immediately sympathetic for Demon. His resilience is repeatedly put on display, even as the mental scars of trauma start to weigh down upon him. Demon briefly rises from his troubles to become a star on his local football team — but this respite is interrupted by a devastating injury. This leads to Demon’s first use of opioids, and then the novel follows the arc of his life after this dreaded introduction.

This novel draws upon both current problems in Appalachia and the way that Dickens brought the lives of the trodden-down into public consciousness. Kingsolver, known for her acclaimed novel “The Poisonwood Bible,” was raised in rural Kentucky. There, she saw the effects of the opioid crisis in Appalachia first-hand. After visiting Charles Dickens’s home in England, Kingsolver was inspired by his “impassioned critique of institutional poverty” and decided to tackle modern American problems in a similar fashion. Her novel is just as eye-opening about the opioid epidemic as Dickens’s stories were for Victorian readers. Kingsolver’s deep admiration for Dickens shines throughout the novel; she refers to him as her “genius friend in the Acknowledgements. Even Demon compliments Dickens directly: “Christ Jesus did he get the picture on kids and orphans getting screwed over and nobody giving a rat’s ass. You’d think he was from around here.”

Kingsolver reflects Dickens in other ways, too: Just as some people turn away from Dickens’s notoriously lengthy tales, the page count of “Demon Copperhead” — nearly 550 pages — has the potential to daunt readers. This is not without reason; books that reach this length often contain tangents that strike fast-paced readers as unnecessary. Sometimes the novel gets stuck in a “rinse and repeat” storyline, in which Demon escapes some form of torturous supervision just to get trapped in another. However, this torrent of misery is an effective way to emphasize the many obstacles that the people of Appalachia faced during the opioid crisis: a never-ending stream of misfortune that seemed inescapable.

The novel focuses on Demon, but it also features the strong women who shape his life. Although his mother’s addiction negatively impacts Demon, her love always stays with him. Other female influences in his life include Mrs. Peggot, his elderly neighbor who helps care for him when his mother is distracted, and June, another Peggot relative that becomes a guiding light in Demon’s life after he tunnels into addiction. Kingsolver crafts the Peggot women as the embodiment of resilience and kindness amidst the crisis. There are more amazing female characters, but the one that shines is Angus, Demon’s foster sister. Angus defies expectations of both Applachian and female stereotypes, and is one of the only characters that truly recognizes how much Demon has gone through. Kingsolver’s strong female characters show the especially intense struggles that women underwent during the opioid crisis — forced to face the dangers of addiction while often being put into roles in which they had to care for others.

The novel also stands against stereotypes of rural Americans — Demon often remarks that city people don’t understand Appalachian life. He begins to see how his county has been systematically ignored throughout the crisis and the way that opioids were peddled recklessly to vulnerable community members. Demon is able to survive the institutions that worked against him — but he also acknowledges that so many lives were not adequately protected. Kingsolver reveals the humanity behind the numbers of the crisis and the stereotypes that prevented help from coming to the places that needed it the most.

Overall, the novel has the potential to open the eyes of many Americans that have been sheltered from the opioid crisis, whether they were oblivious to its toll on rural areas or are too young to remember its significance and the scars that it has inflicted on some of our country’s most defenseless groups. The dreary subject matter will not be for everyone, and those afraid of lengthy novels may be intimidated, but “Demon Copperhead” is an odyssey not to miss. It highlights the resilience and strength that can grow from some of the world’s darkest places, and reminds us not to ignore and belittle those who have grown up in a world that works against them.

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New York Times Bestseller

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DEMON COPPERHEAD

by Barbara Kingsolver ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2022

An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored.

Inspired by David Copperfield , Kingsolver crafts a 21st-century coming-of-age story set in America’s hard-pressed rural South.

It’s not necessary to have read Dickens’ famous novel to appreciate Kingsolver’s absorbing tale, but those who have will savor the tough-minded changes she rings on his Victorian sentimentality while affirming his stinging critique of a heartless society. Our soon-to-be orphaned narrator’s mother is a substance-abusing teenage single mom who checks out via OD on his 11th birthday, and Demon’s cynical, wised-up voice is light-years removed from David Copperfield’s earnest tone. Yet readers also see the yearning for love and wells of compassion hidden beneath his self-protective exterior. Like pretty much everyone else in Lee County, Virginia, hollowed out economically by the coal and tobacco industries, he sees himself as someone with no prospects and little worth. One of Kingsolver’s major themes, hit a little too insistently, is the contempt felt by participants in the modern capitalist economy for those rooted in older ways of life. More nuanced and emotionally engaging is Demon’s fierce attachment to his home ground, a place where he is known and supported, tested to the breaking point as the opiate epidemic engulfs it. Kingsolver’s ferocious indictment of the pharmaceutical industry, angrily stated by a local girl who has become a nurse, is in the best Dickensian tradition, and Demon gives a harrowing account of his descent into addiction with his beloved Dori (as naïve as Dickens’ Dora in her own screwed-up way). Does knowledge offer a way out of this sinkhole? A committed teacher tries to enlighten Demon’s seventh grade class about how the resource-rich countryside was pillaged and abandoned, but Kingsolver doesn’t air-brush his students’ dismissal of this history or the prejudice encountered by this African American outsider and his White wife. She is an art teacher who guides Demon toward self-expression, just as his friend Tommy provokes his dawning understanding of how their world has been shaped by outside forces and what he might be able to do about it.

Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-06-325-1922

Page Count: 560

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: July 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022

LITERARY FICTION | GENERAL FICTION

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by Barbara Kingsolver

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SEEN & HEARD

PERSPECTIVES

IT STARTS WITH US

by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2022

Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.

The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.

Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.

ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022

ROMANCE | CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE | GENERAL ROMANCE | GENERAL FICTION

More by Colleen Hoover

by Colleen Hoover

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.

A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.

When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781250178633

Page Count: 480

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023

FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | GENERAL FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

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by Kristin Hannah

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Appalachian survival: ‘Demon Copperhead’ is a riveting, epic tale

Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead” re-imagines Dickens’ “David Copperfield” as a story of survival set in the Appalachian Mountains.

• By Joan Gaylord Contributor

Oct. 25, 2022, 5:43 p.m. ET

Bestselling novelist Barbara Kingsolver opens her latest release, “Demon Copperhead,” with a quote from Charles Dickens: “It’s in vain to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present.”

Taken from Dickens’ “David Copperfield,” the quote might be viewed as a challenge: Kingsolver does recall the past as she gives us a contemporary retelling of Dickens’ 19th-century classic. Hers is another story about a boy who struggles against unimaginable odds in the midst of a community that regularly fails him, a boy who not only survives but achieves a measure of success. But rather than Victorian England, Kingsolver sets her tale in contemporary Appalachia.

One needn’t have read Dickens to appreciate Kingsolver’s novel, as the book stands well on its own. But with each unfolding chapter, the connection between the two brings home the fact that, more than 150 years later, there are still clever, self-reliant young people who must defy their circumstances simply to live. Kingsolver’s dedication in the book reads: “For the survivors.”

Damon Fields, aka “Demon Copperhead,” is one of these children, and he provides the eloquent and frequently humorous voice of this story. Copperhead refers to his flaming red hair, which is about the only thing his father gave him. The man was long gone before the boy was born. Damon lives with his drug-addicted mother in a single-wide trailer owned by the Peggot family, who lives across the road. 

Motherly Mrs. Peggot keeps an eye on things at the trailer, knowing, as she does, that Damon’s mother isn’t capable of taking care of herself, let alone a child. From too young an age, Damon realizes this, too. But the Peggots provide Damon with a kind of extended family, offering acceptance and even affection to a boy who longs to be loved. They generously share what they have while they navigate their own challenges. But this is Lee County, Virginia. It is home. As Damon observes, “Most families would sooner forgive you for going to prison than for moving out of Lee County.” 

On his 11th birthday, Damon’s mother dies of an overdose, which sends the grieving boy into Lee County’s woefully inadequate foster care system. As this is tobacco country, orphaned boys are viewed by some foster parents as free labor that comes with a monthly stipend from the county. The social workers responsible for the children’s welfare lack the necessary resources and, though they care, are simply not up to the task. Ever the survivor, Damon and the other boys learn to rely on one another. “We were our own messed-up little tribe,” he observes. 

Undeniably, the book can be challenging to read and, frankly, it is not going to suit everyone. Aside from the profanity and compromising situations, it depicts heartbreaking circumstances imposed upon people already beset by severe challenges. It tells of children neglected by the families who are supposed to love them and failed by the agencies that are supposed to protect them, of too many lives lost to the opioids that flood the region.

Yet, in the midst of this heartache, we meet people whose talents and abilities allow them to reach beyond expectations. Their individuality lifts them above their circumstances. The love expressed by family and those who look upon one another as family is sometimes enough to sustain people. And there is a pride of place, a sense of belonging, and a strength that comes with community. 

Kingsolver, who grew up in Kentucky and currently lives in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, gives the community a voice as she infuses the bleak tale with a depth that brings warmth, humor, and dignity to the characters. She empowers them to speak for themselves as she illuminates the motives and goals that allow some to succeed while others perish.

For many readers, sticking with the book is time well spent: Her exquisite writing takes a wrenching story and makes it worthwhile. The details are difficult, but they are never gratuitous. She thrusts the reader into the midst of real-world circumstances – especially the opioid epidemic – and she compassionately demands that we not look away. 

That inclination to turn away, of course, is one of the reasons that many of these societal problems endure. After all, this is a modern take on a novel written over 150 years ago. “Demon Copperhead” begins with an admonition to use the story to influence the present. Kingsolver has given us a superb novel; what we do with its insights she leaves to each of us to decide.

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A review of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver HarperCollins October 2022, Hardcover, 560 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0063251922

Barbara Kingsolver, the prize-winning author of many outstanding novels, including The Poisonwood Bible, The Lacuna , and Flight Behaviour, sets her new novel, Demon Copperhead , in 1990s Appalachia. The central and southern portions of the Appalachian mountain range include the Catskill Mountains of New York, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina.  There, the American dream has gone “rotten,” says  Kingsolver’s central character, Damon Field, a.k.a. Demon Copperhead.

Demon Copperhead is a remarkable retelling of Charles Dickens’s classic Victorian novel, David Copperfield . In her acknowledgements, Kingsolver expresses her gratitude to Dickens for writing this “impassioned critique of institutional poverty and its damaging effects on children in his society…[I]n adapting his novel to my own place and time…I’ve come to think of him as my genius friend.”

Many novelists have retold classics from bygone eras. One thinks of Jane Smiley’s retelling of King Lear  in A Thousand Acres and Curtis Sittenfeld transforming Pride and Prejudice into Eligible . The fun in reading adaptations lies in seeing how the characters turn out in a new setting, and whether or not the author retains the theme of the original classic.

Readers familiar with Dickens’ David Copperfield  recall that David was the posthumous son of a well-to-do father who died in middle age, leaving David and his vulnerable mother behind. Suffering in several unsatisfactory living arrangements, David’s goals are not only to survive, but also to return to the middle class world. His tone is earnest and serious-minded, not cynical.

In contrast, Demon Copperhead was born to a single eighteen year old drug addict living in a rented house trailer on a neighbour’s property. In Demon’s words, his mother had already been in Alcoholics Anonymous for three years before she reached legal drinking age.

“The day I was born,” he writes, “her baby daddy’s mother turned up out of the blue,”  to take custody of him.  Demon’s mom orders her out, but dreads loss of custody so much that she “gives her all in rehab” in order to keep Demon.  Damon was nicknamed “Demon” as a baby, and later on, in school, was called “Copperhead” because of his red hair.  “Copperheads” are also venomous pit-vipers native to Appalachia. These nicknames suit a narrator/protagonist with a colloquial, frank, irreverent voice, who is more Huck Finn than David Copperfield.

Kingsolver takes her engaging young narrator through Dickens’s major plot points. In Dickens’s novel, David’s troubles begin when his mother marries Mr. Murdstone; similarly, Demon’s life takes a downturn after his mom meets Murrell Stone in Walmart. Stone, nicknamed “Stoner,” seems to be a catch (his job as truck-driver for a brewing company includes medical and dental coverage for Demon and his mother), but he turns out to be an abusive bully toward the young boy and his mom. He forbids Demon to contact his playmate, Matt,  claiming that Matt is a bad influence because he’s a “little faggot” with a jailbird mother. Stoner’s cruelty drives Demon’s mother back to drugs and ultimately to an overdose.

Matt’s grandmother, Mrs. Peggott, is an update of  “Peggotty,” the kindly household helper of Dickens’s novel. She takes Demon under her wing, treating him like another grandson.  She and her husband, “Peg,” have grown-up children and a large extended family. With Matt, nicknamed “Maggot,” Demon enjoys an active outdoor life on the Peggotts’s land, and learns from Mr. Peggott how to hunt. Demon thinks Mrs. Peggott is his grandmother:

“I thought all kids got a mammaw, along with a caseworker and free school lunch and the canned beanie-weenies they gave you in a bag to take home for weekends. Like ‘assigned.’” As a child, he doesn’t realize he and his mother are poor.Eventually Demon meets the Peggotts’s  adult daughter, June, one of several strong women characters in Kingsolver’s novel, and a wise presence who helps Demon when he is at a low ebb. June is raising her late brother’s child, a girl named “Emmy”  while working full time as an ER nurse in Knoxville, Tennessee, and studying to be a nurse practitioner. She then returns to Lee County to heal the people she grew up with.  In Dickens’s novel, seaman Daniel Peggotty persists in his effort to rescue his adopted daughter, Little Em’ly, and in Kingsolver’s novel, June plays this role with Emmy.

After his mother’s death, Demon becomes a client of  the Department of Social Services (DSS).  One of his case workers, a young woman named “Miss Bark,” genuinely cares about children, like “Barkis” in David Copperfield. She does her best for Demon, but has too many clients  for too few foster homes.

Demon’s first placement is on a subsistence farm, where, at age ten, he is expected to tend livestock and help with the tobacco harvest. Though Mr. Crickson, the elderly widower farmer, exploits and neglects him, Demon learns a useful life lesson from  him. When Demon asks why the farmer has ‘Hillbilly Cadillac’ painted on his truck, the old man tells him that “hillbilly” is like the “N-word”, a pejorative, negative label.

“Other people made up ‘hillbilly’ to use on us…but they gave us a superpower by accident,” says Crickson. “Saying that word back to people proves they can’t ever be us, and we are untouchable by their shit.”  Wearing a negative label proudly is one way of fighting back in an unjust world.

At the farm, Demon meets an older foster child,  Sterling Ford, a.k.a. “Fast Forward”. Sixteen years of age when Demon first meets him, Fast Forward is handsome, athletic and charming, using his compelling (perhaps sociopathic) personality to extort money and candy from the younger children. He hosts a “farm” party for them, which is actually a “pharm” party, at which they take pills.  Fast Forward’s original character, “Steerforth” in  Dickens’s novel, is the pampered son of a middle class widowed mother, but in Kingsolver’s story, he is just another orphan trying to survive by using the talents he has.   Both Fast Forward and Steerforth cause a lot of misery before they meet similarly dramatic ends.

Demon’s next foster parents, Mr. and Mrs. McCobb  are not the impecunious but good-hearted, loveable Micawbers of Dickens’s novel. Mr. McCobb keeps trying and failing at get-rich-quick small business ventures, and although he and his wife profess to care about Demon, they pocket the stipend the state pays them for his keep and fail to provide him with the necessities of life. After Demon steals from their junk-food stash, they get him a part-time job (he’s eleven) at a mini-market/ garbage dump/ secret meth lab run by a newcomer to the U.S., Mr. Golly.  A “dalet” in India, (member of the untouchable caste) Mr. Golly is kind to Demon and feels fortunate to be in the U.S.A. Demon begins to think that his fellow “hillbillies” of Appalachia are the “dalet” class in America.

“It is vain to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present,” wrote Dickens in David Copperfield . The British 19th century poor he depicts in his novel were casualties of the transition from a land-based economy to industrial capitalism.  In Kingsolver’s novel, the reader becomes aware of the  waves of exploitation that have taken place in Appalachia.  Originally a region of small farmers, this part of the U.S. first encountered capitalism in the form of big coal companies buying up land, paying low wages for dangerous work, and  keeping out other industries so as to have a monopoly on cheap labour.  The miners went on strike for decent pay and conditions; the  unions secured them some gains, but, by the 1990s, coal mining is in decline and the new businesses that have started up, like Walmart, are not unionized.

Tobacco farming was once subsidized by the U.S. government, but when smoking was found to be carcinogenic, the assistance was removed, leaving farmers facing bankruptcy and foreclosure. Because of high unemployment, military recruiters have found in Appalachia a plentiful source of soldiers to fight in Vietnam and subsequent wars.  In the 1990s, big pharmaceutical companies profited from the health issues of people in the region by encouraging the use of addictive painkillers such as oxycontin. We see a youth with a football injury, who has to travel to another state to get an MRI, killing his pain with prescription medication while continuing to play the game. School boards spend a large proportion of their budgets on football and starve academics and the creative arts.

Though Demon hits bottom, he rises again and, by the novel’s end, is pursuing an artistic activity that subverts the status quo and earns him some money. The open ending  shows Demon fulfilling a long-term aspiration, accompanied by a friend with great strength of character.

Demon hopes to live his life in Lee County, VA, where he can enjoy nature, where he has some friends, and where some community solidarity, though weakened, still exists.  This community spirit is shown by Peg Peggotty’s funeral, a warm affair with  friends and neighbours sharing stories and memories of the deceased. While churches don’t feature prominently in the novel, readers may notice that they do some charitable work on behalf of children.

Dickens’ novel suggests that the answers to the huge social problems of Victorian England lay in personal endurance, generosity, goodwill and domestic happiness. In Kingsolver’s novel we see these virtues alive in Appalachia, along with the attitude that it is better to be self-sufficient than to impose on neighbours or “be beholden” to them.   While R.D Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy , blames poverty and degradation on people’s lack of moral fibre, Kingsolver’s novel implies that the culprit is the negative effects of large-scale private enterprise imposed from outside the region.

Her novel hints at government programs that could help the economy of the region and the well-being of the people in it.  For instance, readers can see from the story that recovering addicts need long-term rehabilitation programs, not those that last only a couple of weeks.  And if  small freeholder agriculture was sustainable when the government subsidized tobacco-growing, the family farm and its way of life close to nature could be revitalized by subsidization of other less dangerous farm endeavours.

Through a radical teacher depicted in her novel, Kingsolver shows that if people are to awaken and act to make their lives better, they must first know their history. Although her story has a specific regional setting, all readers who have experienced life in a depressed area (Northeastern Ontario, Canada, being one example) will see a similarity between their communities and Demon Copperhead’s environment. He is the kind of central character that readers want to cheer for.

About the reviewer: Ruth Latta grew up in Northeastern Ontario, Canada.  Her new novel, A Striking Woman,  (Ottawa, Baico, 2023, [email protected] ) was inspired by the life of a Canadian woman trade unionist.

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Review: 'Demon Copperhead,' by Barbara Kingsolver

FICTION: Barbara Kingsolver's latest, and best, re-creates "David Copperfield" in America's Appalachians.

By Pamela Miller

The lure of Barbara Kingsolver's latest novel begins with its title: "Demon Copperhead." What, now?

This sprawling, brilliant story, set in southwestern Virginia's impoverished Lee County in the 1990s and early 2000s, is a modern retelling of "David Copperfield."

You don't need to have read Charles Dickens' masterpiece to appreciate Kingsolver's work, but some familiarity will add to the appreciation: OMG, is that nasty U-Haul guy really Uriah Heep? Is fragile little addict Dori based on Dora? If so, she's doomed!

Demon Copperhead, birth name Damon Fields, is a green-eyed, red-haired lad born on the grimy floor of a trailer to a doomed teenage addict. Schoolkids twist his first name into "Demon," his last name into that of the lethal snake.

"David Copperfield," one of the finest coming-of-age tales ever written, is largely about the suffering caused by relentless poverty spawned by the greed and corruption of those in power. "Demon Copperhead" is about America's most impoverished, disadvantaged demographic — those who populate the remote hills and coal towns of Appalachia.

Demon Copperhead narrates his own story in a witty cadence. His early childhood is shaped by his childlike mother, who is either out-of-her-mind high or in rehab; his saving grace is the nearby Peggot family, whose elders shower him with kindness.

When his mother dies, Demon lands in the foster home from hell, a foul farm whose owner uses several "sons" as slave labor. There Demon meets the enigmatic teenager Fast-Forward, a hero to all who know him, especially the young women — until he betrays them like the smooth snake he is.

As he enters his teen years, Demon's fortunes turn — he is taken in by relatives of his dead father who give him food, shelter and love. He becomes a high school football star and a magnet to many a teenage girl.

After a knee injury, he becomes addicted to painkillers. Most of his story is about his struggle with addiction, along with the similar nightmares faced by his friends and enemies.

"What's an oxy, I'd asked," Demon writes. "OxyContin, God's gift for the laid-off deep-hole man with his back and neck bones grinding like bags of gravel. For the bent-over lady pulling double shifts with her shot knees and ADHD grandkids to raise by herself. For every football player with some of this or that torn up, and the whole world riding on his getting back in the game. This was our deliverance."

Despite its bulk — almost 600 pages — "Demon Copperhead" is a page-turner, and Kingsolver's best novel by far. That's saying something — she's written many brilliant ones, including "The Poisonwood Bible" and "Flight Behavior."

This novel's oomph lies in its narration — a taut, witty telling by Damon, long grown, about his mine-laden youth.

Its only flaw also lies in that narration, when Kingsolver wanders off from the story at hand to lay out long, didactic sermons about what is wrong with America today.

It's not that she isn't right. But if we're reading Demon Copperhead's account of troubles at his high school when some teenagers drive a pickup flying a Confederate flag past a Black teacher, we get that that's racist, and why — Demon tells that story well, but then we read on and suddenly we're not reading Demon, but Barbara Kingsolver.

And yet, there is less of that flawed Kingsolver veering than usual in this novel. For the most part, the writing is fine, so much so that you'll stop to reread some parts aloud, just to salute them.

Kingsolver has some of Mark Twain in her, along with 21 st -century gifts of her own. More than ever, she is our literary mirror and window. May this novel be widely read and championed.

Pamela Miller is a retired Star Tribune night metro editor. She lives in Old Frontenac, Minn., and can be reached at [email protected].

Demon Copperhead

By: Barbara Kingsolver.

Publisher: Harper, 560 pages, $29.99.

about the writer

Pamela miller.

Pam Miller is one of two night metro editors for the Star Tribune. In her 30 years at the paper, she has also worked as a copy editor, reporter and West Metro Team editor.

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Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, demon copperhead.

“First, I got myself born. A decent crowd was on hand to watch, and they’ve always given me that much: the worst of the job was up to me, my mother being let’s just say out of it.”

And so begins Barbara Kingsolver’s DEMON COPPERHEAD, a modern-day Appalachian David Copperfield story. A boy cannot escape the horrors of the opioid epidemic in one of the most beautiful yet poor parts of the American expanse. With the social concern of Dickens and the need to share how this happens to people who don’t plan it, Kingsolver brings passion and pathos to one young man’s account.

"The reader will connect to Demon in countless ways, but especially in his lack of agency. The book starts from the moment of his birth, and he offers his account without influencer-type victimization..."

Damon was called “Demon” by kids in the schoolyard. This turns out to be an apt nickname as it refers to the angriest of the many snakes that populate the wilderness around his home, the Copperhead. Demon bites to protect himself; he is born with a sense of love for the world and open mind that is consistently seen as worthy of chopping down like a beautiful young sapling in a dangerous territory. His gay best friend, his evil stepfather, his drugged-out mom, the Uriah Heep types who run the foster homes where he is sent --- they are all Dickensian personalities writ large in this low point of American history.

Demon tells his story like Huck Finn. The rhythm of his thoughts and the playful but lower-class syntax of his speech put him in his place. There are, however, so many opportunities for Demon to not have to bend to the expected in his world. But with a dead dad, well-meaning but powerless friends and family trying to help him, and a broken foster care system, he ends up exactly where we don’t want to see him go --- which is the point. Still, there is a whole journey here and one well worth traveling.

Kingsolver is a serious studier of American trauma and, as a novelist, tends to set her stories in a real place in a real time with a real problem that seems unsolvable. She manages to give these people more compassion than the real world gives them, and she offers a way out --- not in terms of process, but of how society as a whole can see this issue and shift it into a more positive gear. It will be her legacy as a novelist. As with many great authors like Upton Sinclair, Mark Twain or Toni Morrison, there is the sense that fiction can often get at a societal problem with so much heart and conviction that one can finally start to understand how deep a hole it has created in so many real people’s lives.

The reader will connect to Demon in countless ways, but especially in his lack of agency. The book starts from the moment of his birth, and he offers his account without influencer-type victimization --- he just is, and this is his story. It is that truthful, matter-of-fact tone that reaches into the reader’s heart and mind and pulls out even more compassion than any Appalachian drug documentary could.

Reviewed by Jana Siciliano on October 28, 2022

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

• Publication Date: August 27, 2024
• Genres: Fiction
• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• ISBN-10: 0063251981
• ISBN-13: 9780063251984

Theresa Smith Writes

Delighting in all things bookish, book review: demon copperhead by barbara kingsolver, about the book:.

From the multi-million copy bestselling author of  Flight Behaviour  and  The Poisonwood Bible  comes this heart-rending instant classic.

Demon Copperhead: 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. Demon befriends us on this, his journey through 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.

Inspired by the unflinching truth-telling of  David Copperfield , Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story.  Demon Copperhead  gives voice to a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.

Published by Faber

Released October 2022

My Thoughts:

The thing with Barbara Kingsolver is that you know, if you’ve read her before, that you’re going to get a very good story no matter what she’s writing about. My adoration of her began a long time ago when I was in my early 20’s and I picked up a bargain of a book for only a couple of dollars because I liked the cover and it had an Oprah’s Book Club badge on it. That book was The Poisonwood Bible, and it turned out to be the most incredible novel I had read in my life up to that point. I’ve read others now by Barbara Kingsolver and this is where I get to the abovementioned thing that I was driving towards: no matter how high my expectations are and how much I already know I’m in for a good read, she still manages to floor me. Storytelling, in her hands, is like a whole different entity altogether. No other author does that for me. She is utterly brilliant.

So, Demon Copperhead. Where do I start? I’ll start at the end with the author notes where Barbara Kingsolver pays homage to another incredible author (also a favourite of mine) and the novel of his that she has drawn on and adapted Demon Copperhead from:

‘I’m grateful to Charles Dickens for writing David Copperfield, his impassioned critique of institutional poverty and its damaging effects on children in his society. Those problems are still with us. In adapting his novel to my own place and time, working for years with his outrage, inventiveness, and empathy at my elbow, I’ve come to think of him as my genius friend.’

Demon Copperhead is a novel fuelled by rage. It simmers and boils and is incredibly political throughout. Set in the mountains of Southern Appalachia in North America, and although contemporary, this novel explores the way in which this region has been exploited, over and over, down through North American history, and the crushing effects of this on modern day society and the people who call this place home.

‘This is what I would say if I could, to all the smart people of the world with their dumb hillbilly jokes: We are right here in the stall. We can actually hear you.’

There were a lot of things within this story that I didn’t know about, truly horrifying things that made my heart ache. Children cutting tobacco and getting tobacco poisoning if they didn’t wear gloves. Everything Oxy and the horror of that ripple effect. The American foster care system. Shame. Poverty. An inadequate education system. An even more inadequate health care system. It’s a roll call of the worst of the worst, and yet, despite the gravity and the crushing reality of this story, Demon is an incredible narrator and his story has so many shining moments that were uplifting and life affirming on account of his resilience.

‘She said Purdue looked at data and everything with their computers, and hand-picked targets like Lee County that were gold mines. They actually looked up which doctors had the most pain patients on disability, and sent out their drug reps for the full offensive.’

A huge part of this novel is about drug use, not just Oxy, which was introduced into rural areas throughout Appalachia as a wonder drug, but also other drugs: meth, heroin, fentanyl – the addiction and deaths are shocking. There are some extraordinary characters within this novel, in addition to Demon, but June Peggart stands out as the superhero of the story. A nurse practioner, the shining jewel of her rural family because she not only got out, but she went to college and became a professional. She returns to her home county and wages war on the pharmaceutical reps who methodically introduced Oxy into already economically and socially repressed rural regions with the specific purpose of making money through addiction. She works tirelessly with addicted patients, is surrounded by addiction within her own family, and makes it her mission to hold someone accountable for the growing number of deaths and destroyed lives she’s seeing on a daily basis. She truly was an extraordinary character. There is a scene in the novel where she is sitting in the backseat of a car with her arms around two teenagers from her extended family, both addicted to drugs, one almost destroyed and on death’s door, and I felt that pain, so much, reaching out from the page, what it would be like to be that person, trying desperately to save people you love from a certain death. The horror of that.

“They did this to us. You understand that, right?”

I don’t want to spoil this novel for potential readers but there’s also so much I’d love to share about it. It’s a delicate balance. One of the more confronting things to happen within it, for me, was when Demon suffered a knee injury playing high school football, the exact same knee injury my own son suffered four months ago, also playing high school football. Whereas my son was immediately recommended for surgery and was operated on within the month with ongoing rehab and a firm recommendation for no playing football for six to nine months, Demon was given a prescription for Oxy and was back on the field within a fortnight, with a promise to look at the knee again in the offseason. By then though, well, you know where this is headed. He was fifteen years old . I cannot tell you how reading that affected me. And that’s just one thing out of so, so many, that broke my heart and shocked me in equal measure.

It’s coming in as a late entry, but Demon Copperhead is definitely going to be on my list of best books for 2022, quite possibly in first place.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

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16 thoughts on “ book review: demon copperhead by barbara kingsolver ”.

Excellent review 🙂 I’ve only read Poisonwood but after all these years (decades!), it sticks in my mind (especially the scene where one of the characters learns to crawl).

You might be interested to know that I am slowly compiling my list of “Best of 2022′ (where I amalgamate all of the published ‘Best of’ lists, and this one features.

Like Liked by 1 person

I’m unsurprised it would be popping up on best of lists. I always enjoy that post of yours, with all the lists. I started on my own the other night, it’s currently far, far too long, but I know this one, Horse, and The Marriage Portrait are definitely on it.

Agree with your review. Things wouldn’t be much better in the U.K. but we are stricter with Oxy. Have you read ‘transcendent kingdom’? Worth it as the oxy epidemic’s really brought home

I haven’t read that, I’ll look it up! Thanks.

Hi! I’m looking forward to reading this. I’ve read some of Kingsolver’s other books, but nothing in a long time. Thanks for sharing your review!

Thanks for stopping by. Please let me know what you think of it if you do read it. I read it with a friend who is also a book reviewer and we had much to discuss.

It’s been a while since I’ve read Kingsolver, but this one piques my interest.

From a sociological perspective, it has it all!

What a review! I must admit at the moment I’m leaning a little away from anything dense with sociopolitically-constructed misery (there’s a mouthful) purely because I’m a bit fatigued by it. But you’ve made this irresistible! I read Poisonwood Bible many years ago and have only dabbled in Kingsolver since. Shall rectify, thank you! xx

I’m not going to lie, this is definitely dense with sociopolitically-constructed misery. But it’s also very good, lol. Her previous release, Unsheltered, was also excellent.

YES! Oh, this is SUCH an excellent review – and I completely, emphatically, 100% agree with everything. This is definitely one of my best reads of the year as well, for all the reasons you cited.

Yes!! Love it when we are in accord! 🙌

I also loved this book. I enjoyed your review except you got the location wrong. The book is set on Appalachian Virginia, not Kentucky. You might want to change that in your review. Thanks.

Thank you for picking that up! I have adjusted. I appreciate it. 😊

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BookBrowse Reviews Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Summary  |  Excerpt  |  Reviews  |  Beyond the book  |  Read-Alikes  |  Genres & Themes  |  Author Bio

Demon Copperhead

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• First Published:
• Oct 18, 2022, 560 pages
• Aug 2024, 560 pages

• Literary Fiction
• Tenn. Va. W.Va. Ky.
• Contemporary
• Coming of Age
• Adult-YA Crossover Fiction
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About This Book

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A retelling of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield set in modern-day Appalachia

Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Demon Copperhead is a captivating coming-of-age tale set in rural Virginia. Her protagonist, Damon Fields (aka Demon Copperhead for his fiery temperament and red hair), narrates his life’s story, beginning with his inauspicious birth in a mobile home. On the path to adulthood he encounters adversity as well as the occasional lucky break and more than a few surprises. I confess I usually find the bildungsroman genre challenging, primarily because these novels' story arcs tend, by their very nature, to follow a predictable pattern. Consequently only a truly exceptional entry in the genre will make its way onto my reading list; Demon Copperfield is such a book. First and foremost, the novel’s narrator is one of the most fully developed, multi-faceted characters I’ve encountered in a very long time — no easy task when a story is told entirely in the first person. Demon’s singular voice claims to be a worthless, throwaway individual (“the Eagle Scout of trailer trash”), while at the same time exhibiting admirable self-reliance and a steely determination to rise above his circumstances even when so much lies beyond his control. He’s a clear-headed survivor who will undoubtedly succeed in the end. Kingsolver’s writing, too, is stellar. Her prose brilliantly captures the rhythm and humor of rural Appalachian speech. In telling the story of his birth, for example, Demon colorfully relays the role played by his neighbors:

Mr. Peggot was outside idling his truck, headed for evening service, probably thinking about how much of his life he’d spent waiting on women. His wife would have told him the Jesusing could hold on a minute, first she needed to go see if the little pregnant gal had got herself liquored up again. Mrs. Peggot being a lady that doesn’t beat around the bushes and if need be, will tell Christ Jesus to sit tight and keep his pretty hair on.

Finally, the story itself is riveting. When confronted by other hefty novels (this one tops out at nearly 600 pages), I often find myself thinking they could have used a good editor. Not so here; the plot moves along quickly, and I never once felt it was a slog. I enjoyed each and every word and found myself consistently eager to get back to the story. As you might have guessed, Demon Copperhead is a contemporary retelling of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield , spanning the late 1990s to the present day; and perhaps hidden inside the book's title Kingsolver has included a subtle nod to Dickens himself, because in the 19th century dickens was a euphemism for the devil, as in "what the dickens", which is why Dickens initially wrote under the pseudonym of "Boz." Attempting to rewrite such a well-known, beloved work is either very brave or foolhardy, but Kingsolver achieves the impossible, creating a narrative that stands up to its source material and, by some measures, may even surpass it. The plots certainly share a lot of similarities (e.g., both boys’ mothers get involved with abusive men) but Kingsolver tailors the details to make them more appropriate to the time or place (David works in a wine-bottling business, for example, while Demon harvests tobacco). Each also has, at its core, the central theme of weak, helpless individuals being mercilessly taken advantage of by those in power. Kingsolver’s themes go beyond Dickens’, however, addressing opioid and other drug addiction while condemning both “Big Pharma” and the US healthcare system. Although Kingsolver incorporates many clever nods to the original (Uriah Heap becomes Ryan “U-Haul” Pyle, Agnus is named Angus, etc.) readers need not be familiar with David Copperfield to fully appreciate Demon Copperhead. Those who do know the Dickens novel, though, will likely get a kick out of how Kingsolver adapts the plot to a new time, place and set of social circumstances. I have no doubt that Demon Copperhead will spend weeks at the top of bestseller lists, and deservedly so; the novel is nothing short of excellent and may well be Kingsolver’s best work to date. It’s a must-read for the author’s legions of fans, and certainly those who enjoy well-constructed, entertaining literary fiction will want to pick up a copy.

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Beyond the Book:    David Copperfield , by Charles Dickens

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Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver | Book Review

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver is a heartbreaking reimagining of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield . This is institutional poverty American style, set against the backdrop of the rugged Appalachians, with Hillbilly racism and an unhealthy dose of opioid crisis.

Damon (nicknamed Demon) Copperfield, is a young man navigating the trials and tribulations of growing up in a small Appalachian town. Much like his literary predecessor, Demon encounters a cast of colourful characters who shape his journey, from the enigmatic Mr. Peggot to the sinister U-Haul Pyles. Damon is knee deep in poverty, over his head in opioids, and caught in the middle of America’s clash between rural and urban values.

Demon loses his family to poverty and pain pills, he loses his school friends and sense of belonging as quickly as his caseworkers lose his files, and he’s invisible and then far too visible as he moves from orphan to football star, where he then loses everything again. This novel is about survival, and you are never quite sure if Demon is going to make it. Indeed, his narrative throughout is about trying to pinpoint where his great unravelling begins. Is it when he’s born to the drug addict mother or is it at some point along the way—because this kid is let down so many times, it is hard to put your finger on just one moment.

Hillbillies, crackers, rednecks, and white trash. There are so many labels for poor and working-class white southerners. Demon Copperhead forces the reader to think about those labels, where they came from, and what they mean for the those folks who have a love-hate relationship their culture and the place they live. Kingsolver won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for this novel and it’s no surprise. She’s deftly woven Appalachian history with that of the coal, tobacco and pharmaceutical industries to reveals the lost boys and cursed places left in the wake of the great American dream.

Barbara Kingsolver is the award-winning author of a great number of books, including The Poisonwood Bible . Check out her official site for more.

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From the New York Times bestselling author of UNSHELTERED and FLIGHT BEHAVIOR, a brilliant novel that enthralls, compels and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero’s unforgettable journey to maturity.

“Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose.”

DEMON COPPERHEAD is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It’s 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. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he 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.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

• Publication Date: August 27, 2024
• Genres: Fiction
• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• ISBN-10: 0063251981
• ISBN-13: 9780063251984

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Children’s Books

At 95, Jules Feiffer Tries Something New: A Graphic Novel for Young Readers

With “Amazing Grapes,” the legendary cartoonist has composed a wondrous hymn to what’s lost and found.

From “Amazing Grapes.” Credit... Jules Feiffer

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By Ben Hatke

Ben Hatke is the author of the Zita the Spacegirl and Mighty Jack graphic novel series. His most recent graphic novel is “Things in the Basement.”

• Sept. 13, 2024
• Apple Books
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• Books-A-Million
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AMAZING GRAPES , by Jules Feiffer

At the end of May I found myself on a voyage across the Atlantic aboard the Queen Mary 2, a mere week before the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Among the passengers were several World War II veterans. Four of them were well over the century mark, and another four were 99. My own grandfather was in Normandy in 1944, so to be traveling with the veterans was humbling, to put it mildly.

One of the highlights for me was listening to the stories of Harold Radish, a Jewish man who grew up in 1930s Brooklyn before shipping out to the war and, after a series of harrowing experiences, ended up in a German P.O.W. camp. Radish was nearly 100, but still witty and sharp, with a voice that was a dead ringer for the late Stan Lee. He was a piece of Living History.

The legendary cartoonist Jules Feiffer is only four years younger than Radish. Just a bit too young to be claimed by the war, but old enough to be shaped by it. He is of the generation , so to speak.

And now, with a lifetime of achievement as a playwright, screenwriter and novelist — a Pulitzer and Oscar winner with a place in the Comic Book Hall of Fame — here he is with a middle grade graphic novel called “Amazing Grapes.”

As a storytelling format, the middle grade graphic novel seems ubiquitous now. It’s easy to forget that 25 years ago there was barely such a thing. There was “Bone,” sure, and manga, and there were collections of Scrooge McDuck. But there was nothing like Dog Man, InvestiGators, Amulet, Smile.

Feiffer had a whole career before middle grade graphic novels had shelves of their own.

His new book is wondrous in its own right, but with it we also get a glimpse of what we might have seen if titans like Shel Silverstein, Maurice Sendak or Tomi Ungerer had tried their hand at a book-length comic.

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