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A review by priyastoric
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
5.0
"The wonder is that you could start life with nothing, end with nothing, and lose so much in between." - Demon Copperhead
The first thing to know about my experience with <i>Demon Copperhead</i> is that I listened to it. The second is that by sheer coincidence I followed this up by reading <i>Empire of Pain</i> which documented the history of the Sackler family and the tactics they used to push opioids into rural communities like the one Demon lived in. To say that I left both feeling angry is an understatement.
Purposely written (as the quotation before the start of the novel indicates) to follow the style and form of Dickens' <i>David Copperfield</i> this is a novel that takes us through the life of a human being named Demon Copperhead, a young boy growing up in Lee County, Virginia during what we now know as some of the testing grounds for the Opioid Crisis.
In the audio book the narrator (Charlie Thurston) brings life to Demon adding texture to the beautiful writing of Barbara Kingsolver, and we watch as Copperhead lives a life filled with challenges, pain, and so much more. This isn't necessarily a book of big events, but rather the small ones that step by step change the course of ones existence. Copperhead as a character is filled with snarky insight, but also deep perspective having to grow up far too soon. Kingsolver has imbued him at times with unexpected confidence but startling vulnerability that had me laughing and crying from one section to the next.
This is a tough book, an honest book, and a devastating book, and yet a book brimming with a quiet sense of determination when you have nothing left to lose.
The first thing to know about my experience with <i>Demon Copperhead</i> is that I listened to it. The second is that by sheer coincidence I followed this up by reading <i>Empire of Pain</i> which documented the history of the Sackler family and the tactics they used to push opioids into rural communities like the one Demon lived in. To say that I left both feeling angry is an understatement.
Purposely written (as the quotation before the start of the novel indicates) to follow the style and form of Dickens' <i>David Copperfield</i> this is a novel that takes us through the life of a human being named Demon Copperhead, a young boy growing up in Lee County, Virginia during what we now know as some of the testing grounds for the Opioid Crisis.
In the audio book the narrator (Charlie Thurston) brings life to Demon adding texture to the beautiful writing of Barbara Kingsolver, and we watch as Copperhead lives a life filled with challenges, pain, and so much more. This isn't necessarily a book of big events, but rather the small ones that step by step change the course of ones existence. Copperhead as a character is filled with snarky insight, but also deep perspective having to grow up far too soon. Kingsolver has imbued him at times with unexpected confidence but startling vulnerability that had me laughing and crying from one section to the next.
This is a tough book, an honest book, and a devastating book, and yet a book brimming with a quiet sense of determination when you have nothing left to lose.