From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Demon Copperhead

Barbara Kingsolver

Start date: May 15, 2023

Finish date: June 15, 2023

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Ann D

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Reading List

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What Members Thought

Dec 30, 2022 Angie rated it it was amazing

From the first few pages of this novel, I knew it would be one of my top reads of the year because of the incredible voice Kingsolver brings to the page in the form of Demon Copperhead, who narrates his life story. Kingsolver updates the story of David Copperfield to modern day Appalachia at the start of the opioid epidemic. (You don't have to have read DC to appreciate this novel--I have not.) As you might expect from the premise, Demon's life is not easy--dealing with his mother's addiction an From the first few pages of this novel, I knew it would be one of my top reads of the year because of the incredible voice Kingsolver brings to the page in the form of Demon Copperhead, who narrates his life story. Kingsolver updates the story of David Copperfield to modern day Appalachia at the start of the opioid epidemic. (You don't have to have read DC to appreciate this novel--I have not.) As you might expect from the premise, Demon's life is not easy--dealing with his mother's addiction and their poverty, going through the foster system, and his own addiction, as well as those of someone he loves. As Demon takes you through his life's ups and downs, his voice is laced with such humor, introspection, heartbreak, and hope. It's been a long time since I've rooted this hard for a fictional person to succeed.

A few of my favorite quotes that illustrate the above:

"She was a skinny sixth-grader with long brown hair and this look to her, cold-blooded. Carrying around at all times a Hello Kitty backpack that she looked ready to bludgeon you with, then tote around your head inside. Getting to the bottom of all that was going to take some time."

"Crickson was a big, meaty guy with a red face and a greasy comb-over like fingers palming a basketball. Little eyes set deep in his head, pointy nose, your basic dog type of face." (the character descriptions are so good!)

"Foolish children. This is what we're meant to say. Look at their choices, leading to a life of ruin. But lives are getting lived right now, this hour, down in the dirty cracks between the tooth-brushed nighty-nights and the full grocery carts, where those words don't pertain. Children, choices. Ruin, that was the labor and materials we were given to work with."

"...my mind had only one thought in it as regards childhood. For any kid that gets that as an option: take that sweet thing and run with it. Hide. Love it so hard. Because it's going to fucking leave you and not come back."

"Some are going to say I was never anything better. Not even born in a hospital to a mom fixing to take me home to a mobile home, but born in the mobile home, so that's like the Eagle Scout of trailer trash. Kids like me with our teen moms putting whiskey on our gums to shut us up, Coke in the baby bottle, we're the pity of the world. But I started out as decent as any kid, saying please and thank you, doing my homework, figuring out how to get smiled at. I played to win, with all my little prides and dreams."

"Emmy said Kent and June didn't use weapons, just mouths, both parties packing serious heat in that department. Kent was a yeller, but mouthwise, June was an AR-15. Instant reload, engineered to kill."

"Show me that universe on TV or the movies. Mountain people, country and farm people. We are nowhere the hell. It's a situation, being invisible. You can get to a point of needing to make the loudest possible noise just to see if you are still alive."

"What I wanted most was to grow up. Hard to explain, given on how I got short-sheeted on the childhood. Carefree, what is that? If I'd never known at all, I couldn't remember. But I was still stuck outside of full adulthood, blowing smoke under its door, eyeing the windows with a cement block. It's all we want, we ragged boys of the world. To live as men."

"The wonder is that you can start life with nothing, end with nothing, and lose so much in between."

"I'm going to tell you something. There's country poor , and there's city poor. As much of my life as I'd spent in front of a TV thinking Oh man, city's where's the money trees grow. I was seeing more to the picture now. I mean yes, that is where they all grow, but plenty of people are sitting in that shade with nothing falling on them."
...more

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May 04, 2023 Erik Steiner rated it it was amazing

Shelves: masterpiece, appalachia, oxycontin, drug-abuse, rehab

This is a masterpiece, and it definitely deserves a place on the "Great American Novel" shortlist. Superbly written, deep and meaningful characters, Appalachia comes alive around you as you follow Demon Copperhead from childhood to adulthood, from sober to addicted to recovered, from loser to star and back again and then some, through multiple love affairs, grief, loss and mourning.

As some cynical reviewers had alluded to, it is somewhat on the PG side of things - but that makes it a superb summ ...more

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Jan 17, 2025 Kathy rated it liked it

Shelves: jan-2025-thru-dec-2025, unfinished, read-non-mystery-fiction

I had to put this away, just as I had to do with Oliver Twist - too hard to get into this kid's life! ...more

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Oct 29, 2023 Pang rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: culture-society-travel, fiction, nyt-recommended, 2023

the theme isn’t my cup-of-tea, but what a story and what a writing. and can’t forget the narration. the book just took me on a journey, the ups and downs of all emotions. just superb. it should have been classified as non-fiction, as it probably mirrors a lot of real lives.

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