I noticed Caesar’s Wife’s review of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, but as I was finishing up the book myself, I held back reading the review. Now that I’ve finished this wondrous book, I can say Caesar’s Wife has it all exactly right. It’s a much better job than I can do here, having just finished the book a few minutes ago, brought to tears.
Demon Copperhead is about a young boy born in the rural south, with little to his name but a mother who loves him but can’t be relied on. The book is an odyssey of Demon’s life, from abject poverty to being a football star to crushing addiction. All along the way, Demon determinately takes on his fate, whether it’s toiling in the tobacco fields or securing drugs from a doctor peddling opioids.
Demon is 11 when the story starts out, though the character’s voice is older than his years. His father long dead, Demon loses his mother to an overdose and soon is pushed into the foster system, where he meets some other boys, including a dazzling teenager nicknamed Fast Forward, the quarterback from the high school hometown team.
The book is not just about Demon’s journey, but a greater critique of the class differences that isolate rural areas like Demon’s hometown as well as a brutal dive into the opioid crisis. We see everything through Demon’s eyes as he makes his way in a harsh world. But that harsh world holds luminous people as well, from his next door neighbors to a previously unknown relative to a good-hearted fellow orphan to his friend Angus, who lives with her football coach father that takes in Demon for a period of time. As we travel with Demon, we see his determination and his aching loneliness. He is fallible and somehow simultaneously indefatigable.
Barbara Kingsolver is a stunning writer. As a reader, I felt like I was in expert hands. She writes so many amazing, thought-provoking things, I wish I could quote the whole book. Truly a moving, engrossing, funny, tragic, and rich five-star read.