A review by da_bos
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

2.0

I’m really not sure why this received so many glowing reviews, let alone a Pulitzer. I understand that a retelling of a classic text has pitfalls, but this effort seems to encounter all of them — perhaps most glaringly that it is thoroughly unoriginal. There is no good reason why Dickens’ entire convoluted plot (which was the product of serialized publication rather than narrative necessity) had to be recreated; Kingsolver could have told Demon’s story in half the pages and done so more tightly, tautly, tidily.