Demon Copperhead

By Barbara Kingsolver, 2022, HarperCollins, 560 pages
Reviewed by Sue Fountain, June 16, 2023

I have been waiting for someone else to review Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. The book won a Pulitzer Prize for Kingsolver, and since I have liked her other books, I was eager to read this one. 

I have to say, it was a tough read. Not because it isn't well-written but because it is painful.

The story is set in Appalachia, and the character is a young boy who is plagued with poverty, opioid addiction, and all the things that go with that situation. He is left to the state after his teenage mother is jailed for all sorts of drug-related problems. He moves from foster home to foster home, and some of those experiences are harrowing.

At age 10 he has to work in the fields all day and is given very little to eat.

Still, Damon is a good kid with convictions and artistic talent. When he is sent to live with a football coach, he becomes a star player. However, he breaks his leg, and is given opioids for the pain. It goes downhill from there.

If you have watched the movie "Dopesick" you know how the story goes. 

The book is described as a retelling of David Copperfield, which I admit, I have never read. Although it is tough to read, I stuck with it because I had hope for Damon, and he didn't let me down. Also, I gained a lot of insight into how people in his part of the country are tired of being the American joke, the illiterate ne'er-do-wells.

Barbara Kingsolver does a great job of giving them a sense of worth and self-respect. In the end, I really liked the book.