Harper Demon Copperhead

Barbara Kingsolver at her peak, and her peak is very high indeed. Don't be put off by all the mentions that this book is partly a modernising of Dickens's David Copperfield. It's not actually that close, and it doesn't matter one bit if you've never read Dickens. What matters is that the plot races along and the voice of the main character manages to be individual and regional and yet easy to read -- no false dialect crap here. Kingsolver herself is one of those writers, like Philip Larkin or Robert Frost, who somehow can produce writing that sounds as natural as talking and yet that somehow comes out as poetry. Best new book from any writer that I've read in the past several years.

Such a powerful raging hopeful against all hope book, it’s going to stay with me a very long time. Kingsolver at the absolute height of her power, this is a love story full of heartbreak to a broken country with its broken people that somehow survive another day. Absolutely wonderful, disturbing and moving exploration of broken families, orphan children, modern-day addiction and corporate greed, all told from the perspective of the resilient Demon Copperhead, who lives to tell many a disturbing story and who you can’t help but hope gets to see the ocean and realise his childhood dream one day. Unmissable and unputdownable.

A vivid portrayal of the American underclass in southern Appalachia. A society where normal social norms do not apply. A world where people find solace through various forms of addiction - alcohol, weed, hard drugs or opioids. A world where the traditional family barely exists. The hero, Damon, sometimes nicknamed "Demon" is the son of an unmarried teenage drug addict who spends most of her life in and out of rehab. His father dies just before he is born. His mother then marries a tattooed monster called Stoner who beats them up. His mother then dies of an overdose. But somehow Damon survives all of this.This is not a book for the faint-hearted, but it is well worth the read. The author makes extensive use of Appalachian slang which is often hard to understand, but which adds to the realism of the narrative.

Loved how she both honoured the Dickens’ original yet made it her own work imbued by Dickens’ outrage at the poverty of his time and compassion for those at the bottom of the heap. I came away with a real understanding of the situation regarding the opiate crisis and the dark underbelly of the American situation. And just loved the characters. Brilliant.

Great book but not an easy read. Uses the type of language that is current in Tennessee which is occasionally incomprehensible to outsiders though meaning is generally clear from the context. Deals with US’s opioid crisis among other things.