What an absolute tour-de-force from Barbara Kingsolver.

David Copperfield (one of the finest of Dickens' novels) is transplanted to Appalachia in the 1990s and 2000s and it is genius. For those familiar with the original, the way Kingsolver reframes characters and events will surprise and delight but provide no bar to enjoyment for those who haven't read David Copperfield. Here David is Damon "Demon Copperhead" Fields, who is raised in poverty by his teenage single mother until she marries the repulsive Stoner who alienates mother and son leading to tragedy as Demon begins a journey through a youth of exploitation in the foster system, child labour, failing schools and the ever-present background of the Opioid Crisis.

Kingsolver's ability to inhabit the voice of Demon through childhood and into adulthood is remarkable. Through him she vividly and often heart-breakingly evokes Appalachia, from it's struggles to its strengths. Pairing this with the well-known story of Copperfield creates a powerful contrast with Dickens' time and an astute understanding of the things that still have not changed. It's possible that readers not familiar with Copperfield will find some of the narrative choices a little odd as Kingsolver recreates the dramatics and coincidences of the original but she manages this with flair and subtlety where they are needed.

So late to the party but I loved this! Barbara does it again. She has such a brilliant way of pulling you in and through a narrative. Sometimes books really do live up to the hype.

Cleverly constructed, current retelling of Dickens’s ‘David Copperfield’. ‘Demon Copperhead’ is breathtaking in its scope. Barbara Kingsolver paints the stark reality of the opioid crisis and flaws within the care system. The characters are all superb. It's a very special book indeed and yet further proof that Kingsolver is a writer of extreme talent.

An absolute tour-de-force of a novel, which deserves all the acclaim it has received since publication. Demon Copperhead is one of the most compelling fictional characters I've read in several years and I felt so invested in him and the cast of characters that surround him in his small Appalachian community. In this book Barbara Kingsolver successfully uses fiction to shine a light on social injustice and prejudice, just as effectively as Dickens did two centuries before her. A future modern classic.

Apologies for the late review! This is, of course, utterly brilliant and deserving of all the awards. Demon jumps off the page. Fun to spot all the David Copperfield references. We sold loads in HB and it will be core stock in paperback. Such a wonderful writer who just keeps getting better and better.

Really pleased to see that this just won the Women's Prize. I love Kingsolver's writing and couldn't wait to start Copperhead. It's a tough read - not because of the voice; that's spot on - but because of the subject. It faithfully follows Dickens in terms of outlining the poverty and limited opportunity for some of society. But it's so beautifully written I just couldn't stop reading

A modern retelling of "David Copperfield" (and in fact, I often found myself calling it Demon Copperfield instead of its correct title), set amid the Opioid crisis in the Appalachian Mountains of the U.S. Heartbreaking and harrowing, but ultimately triumphant. Yes, it's long and it demands your care and attention, but it's also well worth your time. It's a worthy winner of the Pulitzer Prize. This novel will stay with me for a long, long time.

First, I got myself born. Are the opening words of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. From then on you are taken deep into the Appalachian Mountains. I’ve seen Demon Copperhead likened to a modern day telling of David Copperfield but don’t let that put you off. I detested David Copperfield but absolutely loved Demon Copperhead. Mind you The Poisonwood Bible and the Lacuna also by Barbara Kingsolver are among my best ever reads.

I have loved spending my time with this book. Demon Copperhead is a guy with bags of character who falls on very hard times through his teenage years, but tells his story with such relatable wit and affability that there would be times I didn't realise just how awful the situation was until I took the time to process his words. This is a boy without a family of his own that is put through foster care, neglect, drug addiction, death and love. You name the subject and it is in here. I never once thought it was too long or meandering, which I have read in a lot of other reviews. I was obsessed with finding out if Demon would get his happy ending.

This retelling of David Copperfield, set in 1990s Virginia, is epic in every sense. Born into poverty, young Damon is very soon reliant on his neighbours and friends, and ends up working his way through the care system.

He meets a number of memorable characters along the way, and the impact they have on his life, whether positive or negative, can be followed throughout the novel, which is vast in scale. The backdrop of the opioid crisis in the US at this time marries perfectly with the source material’s tale of almost inescapable poverty, and the story is heartbreaking in so many ways.

There are so many beautifully written, poignant scenes, and others that are so rage-inducing that I almost couldn’t continue reading. This was by no means an easy read, but I savoured every word and can’t recommend it more highly.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for the arc to review.

Longlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver is a modern retelling of ‘David Copperfield’ by Charles Dickens set in southwest Virginia in the 1990s. Demon Copperhead is the nickname of Damon Fields who is born in a trailer to an alcoholic teenage mother and taken into foster care after she dies. I haven’t read ‘David Copperfield’ so it’s likely that there are nuances and parallels with specific characters and events that I missed, although it’s still possible to see the more general Dickensian tropes, particularly where messages about compassion and depictions of poverty are concerned. The danger of using ‘David Copperfield’ as an inspiration is that some elements of the plot can appear clichéd. However, Kingsolver demonstrates a lot of empathy for her characters, and the book is a powerful examination in its own right of the devastating impact of the OxyContin epidemic. Many thanks to Faber and Faber for sending me a review copy via NetGalley.

Late to the party. The relentless ableist language was painful. Extra star for the audio, which I bought to get through the book.

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An evocative novel with a strong narratorial voice that doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of life, Demon Copperhead draws inspiration for its trajectory from Dickens, but is a complete tale in its own right. Kingsolver discusses the opioid crisis of the 1990's and how it impacted small towns in America - those often forgotten by the richer folk in society. It is a tale of the working classes and survival, it discusses the healing power of art, it talks about adolescence and how everything in the world is in the moment - how bad decisions can be thoughtlessly made because of this. We have characters so perfectly-drawn that I forgot this was a work of fiction. Simply superb.

Inspired by the early life of Charles Dickens and based on "David Copperfield", Barbara Kingsolver has written a episodic novel about Daemon Fielding [ aka Demon Copperhead]. Her novel tells the story of Demon's early life in which he is orphaned, fostered and exposed to a multitude of hardships, some of which are self-inflicted. Also, however, kindness and love are out there but, somehow, Demon repeatedly makes bad choices and so is forever perpetuating his own misery.
But Kingsolver's aim in writing this novel is to try and explain how, if you are born into poverty and social hardship, avoiding succumbing to drugs, alcohol and petty crime is always going to require high levels of confidence and self-belief. So where good education and family love are thin on the ground, as they are in Demon's remote, near abandoned community in rural Virginia, bad choices are all too often the norm.
Demon has spells of good fortune but these are greatly outnumbered by grim phases in his life brought on by his mis-reading of personal relationships, sheer bad luck, and by his repeated attempts to find solace in opioids.
Kingsolver pulls no punches in this Dickens-length novel but her genuine empathy with Demon's situation educates us, as readers, to respect his fight to climb out of the pit he was born into. Is he destined to succeed?
You'll find no spoiler here. Better to immerse yourself in Demon's world and fight the battle with him.
Demon Copperhead is a worthy successor to "David Copperfield" and thoroughly merits 5 stars.

Couldn’t get into this so I didn’t read it all, I found it difficult to engage with. Sorry! Thanks for letting me review this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed Demon Copperhead. The nods to David Copperfield though present do not feel forced and whilst taking the basic 'orphan' theme, Kingsolver gives it a very modern twist. Demon is a great character, jumping off the page in his adolescent realism, unable to avoid the mistakes that you can see are lining up for him. Explorations of substance abuse and domestic violence are dealt with using a sensitive touch, enabling the story to remain uplifting as Demon battles his own and familial demons.

As with all Kingsolver fiction, the sense of place is so tangible that you feel as if you have tagged along for a visit.

I would love to read a follow up!

It took me a while to pass the first short chapters. It wasn't the writing, or the pace... it was the sheer brutality and verisimilitude in this first-person narration of a young man's life from birth in a trailer, from an adict very young mother in 1990s Lee County, Virginia. It was too painful. I persevere (Demon's voice is persuasive, intelligent, quirky and fun) and was not disappointed in this Dickens for the 21st century.

Tragedy abounds (poverty, dependancy, exploitation, the failure of social services, addiction, parental absence...) but there is very much humour, convincing characters, fairy grandmothers, serendipity, good luck... and a real if fractured culture anchored in a rural landscape which always ends bringing sustenance to this clever, beaten yet always moving forward one way or another, protagonist. His adventures and misadventures, his raw pain I felt as I kept reading. I found the story difficult to read but rewarding. Kingsolver seems to give voice to a multitude of voiceless victims of a (capitalist) system which seems blind to need and thrives on need... the depiction of a schizoid society of haves and have nots is remarkable, and the critique of the pharmaceutical companies which are to be found at the bottom of the opioids crisis, convincing, but in the end what is totally engrossing is the wonderful peripeteia of Damon Fields aka Demon Copperhead. A book worth reading and discussing, and which politicians and voters should be acting upon.

This was my favourite read of 2022. Such a heartfelt rich family saga set in the Appalachian mountains. You don't need to have read David Copperfield before Demon Copperhead, but it definitely enrich the experience.

3★
“Mom said he could grow hair if he wanted to, but liked shaving his head. To her mind, a ripped, bald guy in a denim vest and no shirt was the be-all end-all of manhood. If you’re surprised a mom would discuss boyfriend hotness with a kid still learning not to pick his nose, you’ve not seen the far end of lonely. Mom would light me a cigarette and we’d have our chats, menthols of course, this being in her mind the child-friendly option. I thought smoking with Mom and discussing various men’s stud factors was a sign of deep respect.”

He's not even a teen, he’s only ten, but his mother was so young and alone when she had him, that she treats him like a companion, cigarettes and all. He’s not a bad kid. He’s a normal kid born into dreadful circumstances. His father died in an accident, and both sets of grandparents had disowned them, so his parents were left to their own devices. Mom is a recovering alcoholic, at least sometimes.

This takes place in the western-most corner of Virginia, USA, in the coal country on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee. This is the middle of Appalachia, a long region that runs down from New York to the deep south, inland from the east coast. It is referred to disparagingly as hillbilly country.

Damon is not happy about his name, a “boy band” name as he says, because it’s so easy to turn into Demon at school. He used his mother’s last name, Fields, but because of his red hair, he got Copperhead instead.

Is there a name that it isn’t possible to twisted or bastardise in the name of so-called fun? I doubt it. Demon it is. His best friend is Maggot (Matthew), and surely that’s worse.

It’s a very long, very drawn-out story of his bouncing painfully between foster homes that are really available to him only because they want his government welfare check and the free labour that a good-sized ten-year-old can provide.

School? If it’s convenient, but if it’s tobacco harvesttime, forget it. Department inspections? Minimal if anything. The assigned officers mean well but are overwhelmed with cases, and a boy like Demon is hard to place.

I’m afraid I am too familiar with the flaws and dangers in the child welfare system and with the deprivation and inequality of societies around the world. I don’t think Virginia and Appalachia is better or worse, but it’s awful, and Kingsolver includes everything she can think of to spread the message.

I nearly gave up on this many times, but I decided to stick it out to see how she wound it up. I know there are readers who have loved this story. I’m not one of them.

Something I did really enjoy was the author’s essay at the end, where she wrote about her inspiration while she and her husband were visiting England. She had booked a place in an inn.

“Because this was Bleak House. Not in my mind, but in actual fact. This guest house had once been the seaside residence of Charles Dickens. I’d run across it online and booked us in on impulse, thinking it might be inspiring.
. . .
If I wished to spend my holiday weekend sitting at the desk where Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield, I should feel free.
. . .
Once we’d settled in for the night, I took the blank notebook I’d carried for a month and excused myself to the little room down the hall that Dickens used to call his ‘airy nest’. I closed the door, rolled up my sleeves and rested my forearms, then my forehead, on the wooden desk. Trying to ignore the question I couldn’t stop hearing: ‘what next?’
. . .
I live in the southern Appalachian Mountains, a beautiful, rural place where we’re now watching a generation of kids grow up damaged or orphaned by prescription drug abuse. The story is much bigger than a bottle of pills: it’s about generational anguish, limited choices and suffocated hopes, poverty built into a region by historical design. That place is my home, I know its beauties and tragedies by heart, but this project daunted me.”

She saw all the David Copperfield memorabilia on the walls, realising the David was actually Charles, who grew up in the poorhouse as a child labourer, a miserable childhood. She says it’s the artists job to make people hear things they don’t want to. She swears she heard Dickens speak to her.

“‘Look to the child,’ he said. What I am telling you, believe it or don’t, is that I heard these words, spoken. Possibly in exasperation for my failure to grasp the basics: nobody doubts or blames the child. It’s the straightest shot to the heart.”

She is exactly right. If this book speaks to you, it will go straight to your heart. I hope the essay is included in the published version. I’m quoting from a preview copy, because I think it’s important to stress that I believe Kingsolver’s motives are genuine and the story is real. She isn’t one of those writers jumping on a popular bandwagon to sell a book.

I wish I’d had more of a connection with the characters and wanted to know what happened to them. I didn’t feel at all compelled to find out, I’m afraid. I suspect that’s my problem, not the author’s. Thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber for the copy for review.