Scan barcode
A review by caitlin_89
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
5.0
Wiping tears away as I write this. I burst into tears immediately after reading the last sentence.
I was attracted to this novel because of the Dickens angle: modern Appalachian retelling of David Copperfield. No prior knowkedge of Barbara Kingsolver, only the caution from other readers who love her other works that this book was off-puttingly vulgar.
And vulgar it was. And ugly. And dirty and gritty. And so, so sad.
And so, so good.
I am glad that I read a David Joy novel before this - When These Mountains Burn prepared me for the detailed and devastating drug use.
But nothing could have prepared me for how much Kingsolver made me love the main character. The first-person narration was immaculate. The clever names mirroring the original Dickens characters were genius. The whole Dickens angle of submersing you so deep in a perspective that everything is caricatured and drowning in pathos and yet so genuinely compelling...
It's darkly funny, clever, and heavy. It took me a whole month to read it - not my usual pace for fiction.
But I'm impressed. I laughed. I cried three times. I thought it was incredible. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.
I was attracted to this novel because of the Dickens angle: modern Appalachian retelling of David Copperfield. No prior knowkedge of Barbara Kingsolver, only the caution from other readers who love her other works that this book was off-puttingly vulgar.
And vulgar it was. And ugly. And dirty and gritty. And so, so sad.
And so, so good.
I am glad that I read a David Joy novel before this - When These Mountains Burn prepared me for the detailed and devastating drug use.
But nothing could have prepared me for how much Kingsolver made me love the main character. The first-person narration was immaculate. The clever names mirroring the original Dickens characters were genius. The whole Dickens angle of submersing you so deep in a perspective that everything is caricatured and drowning in pathos and yet so genuinely compelling...
It's darkly funny, clever, and heavy. It took me a whole month to read it - not my usual pace for fiction.
But I'm impressed. I laughed. I cried three times. I thought it was incredible. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.