Mar 2024 FBR - Main Buddy Read: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

[Ashley, The Tipsy Challenger]

Welcome to the March "Main" Buddy Read!
starts 1-Mar-2024, ends 31-Mar-2024

Our theme this month is 📜Historical Fiction📜 and we're reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.

When using this Buddy Read to get Bonus Points for a Challenge, please check with the mod running the Challenge for any posting requirements not listed below!
✨(Impossible) Disney Challenge - to receive bonus points for this challenge, you must read the book and participate (at least 3 meaningful comments) in discussions.

[Ashley, The Tipsy Challenger]

Discussion Questions, if you need a jumping off point for discussion. These are not required.

1. Demon Copperhead is filled with many different colorful characters, which do you identify with the most (or least)? And why?

2. What did you think about the setting (Appalachia) for this novel?

3. Dickens’ David Copperfield is the inspiration for Demon Copperhead. Have you read it? Discuss the similarities and differences between the two novels. Also, how well do you think Kingsolver has rewritten Dickens’ story for the modern age?

[Ashley, The Tipsy Challenger]

Started this today!

[Ashley, The Tipsy Challenger]

So I'm in Chapter 20, and this book is heavy. I'm enjoying it, but so far I find it incredibly depressing. I don't know if I expect anything different as the book progresses, but I am hopeful I might find something to be excited about.

[Ashley, The Tipsy Challenger]

I'm halfway done, Chapter 34. Life is getting better, if that can even be a thing for this kid.

I am, so far really compelled by these characters. I think the author is doing a great job of representing some of the horrors of life in foster care, especially given the setting of Appalachia, being notoriously poor and prone for drug abuse.

[Ashley, The Tipsy Challenger]

I'm to the end of Chapter 40, and I am finding it difficult to remember that the author was describing a CHILD and not an adult.

[Ashley, The Tipsy Challenger]

Well, I'm finished. I'm giving it 4.5 stars because I struggled a bit with the ending. Overall, I think it's a masterful (albeit tragic) look into life in the area of the US.

[Sammy]

I enjoyed this, but it didn't have a patch on David Copperfield, IMO.

There are a LOT of similarities, but all-in-all there isn't any of what made Dickens' novel great.

[Ashley, The Tipsy Challenger]

Sammy wrote: "I enjoyed this, but it didn't have a patch on David Copperfield, IMO.

There are a LOT of similarities, but all-in-all there isn't any of what made Dickens' novel great."

It helps that I haven't read David Copperfield, so I don't have anything to compare it to!

[Sammy]

It's my favourite Dickens.

May need to do a re-read soon 😁

[Angie ☯]

I have to say, it is incredibly hard reading this being from the area being trashed in the book. I know the people in the Appalachian area are stereotyped but I think it has progressed from the completely backwards and anti-progressive that is usually portrayed.

But...whenever local news want to interview people for anything that happens in the area, they always seem to find the most backwards people around! LOL So, maybe it's no wonder that it is still seen that way.

[Angie ☯]

The story is very depressing and it is very hard, like Ashley said, to remember that the book is about a young boy!!

[Angie ☯]

1. Demon Copperhead is filled with many different colorful characters, which do you identify with the most (or least)? And why?
I don't really identify with any of them. I feel for all of them. The story is super sad and the characters are all sorts of messed up!

2. What did you think about the setting (Appalachia) for this novel?
I sort of answered this in Post #11) I think the setting is perfect for the stereotype of people in the area. But also, there are many people in this area that do not fit the stereotype at all. It's a colorful area. Seeing that I live smack in the middle of all the real places that are mentioned in the book, I feel like I can say all of these things about the people and the area!!

3. Dickens’ David Copperfield is the inspiration for Demon Copperhead. Have you read it? Discuss the similarities and differences between the two novels. Also, how well do you think Kingsolver has rewritten Dickens’ story for the modern age?
I have not red David Copperfiled; so can't discuss a comparison of the two novels. I think that Kingsolver did a good with the story and the area. I'll have to read Dicken's book to see how they compare.