Everyone has been raving about Demon Copperhead, but I’ve had a more mixed reaction to it. This is because the novel is an update for Dickens’s David Copperfield, which is one of my favorite books.
In one way, this is a good match, because both Dickens and Kingsolver are political writers with social consciences. Dickens’s target was the effects of industrialization on poor children. Kingsolver’s in this novel is the effects on the people of Appalachia of what she sees as a war on agriculture.
Damon Fields, named Demon Copperhead because of his red hair, is a young Melungeon (I had to look it up) boy at the start of the novel. His father died before he was born, and his teenage mother has a very weak control of her sobriety. Residents of Lee County in Southwestern Virginia, they live in a single-wide mobile home owned by the Peggots next door. The kindly Peggots provide most of the stability in young Demon’s life.
Readers familiar with David Copperfield will be familiar with the plot, for it follows that book almost exactly. Although they are very poor, things are going fairly well and Demon’s mother has been sober for two years when she meets Stoner, soon to become Demon’s abusive stepfather. It goes mostly downhill from there, with Demon, after a brief career as a high school football hero, becoming addicted to oxy after an injury.
I couldn’t help noticing differences from Dickens, though. For one thing, the McCob family, Kingsolver’s equivalent of the Micawbers, are not the feckless, lovable, comic characters of Dickens, but a couple who, as Demon’s foster family, illegally send him to work instead of school, illegally charge him rent, and steal his money. (The Micawbers send David to work, too, but that assumed to be at the behest of his stepfather.) That leads to the biggest difference. Although Kingsolver can depict sympathetic characters, she doesn’t really do funny ones, Dickens’s gift. Further, the very young Demon at the beginning of the novel lacks the absolute innocence of young David that makes him so endearing. Demon’s narrative is too cynical.
Finally, Dickens is more willing than Kingsolver to let his story make his political points. Still, it’s a gripping novel with a serious message about the rural addiction problem, the lack of services for rural citizens, and the mistreatment of the poor. Although I read this novel before it made the list, Demon Copperhead is part of my James Tait Black project.
What? Me Read? 
Interesting insights that point to the risk of fan fiction, especially of an author as esteemed and long admired as Dickens. I still haven’t read David Copperfield but I’d probably read it second based on your thoughtful, considered review.
It’s true that I probably would have liked it better if it wasn’t based on David Copperfield.
Good point about how Dickens was able to inject humor into his social commentary. I thought this was one of Kingsolver’s best – in some books her story development feels uneven and dialogue a little meandering and unrealistic, but this story worked great (though Demon seemed a little more mature, like those kids on TV shows who are way more mature and reasonable than any kid I’ve known). A good read with a call to attention on important issues. Kingsolver points out that we have ignored the economic losses and growing problems in rural areas, and residents there feel it and resent it.
Yes, I think her points are well taken. Good point about the dialogue. It got a little preachy sometimes.
I have not read David Copperfield since school so was a bit vague sometimes over comparative details. Will read it very soon. I did, however, love Demon and feel it has been my read of 2023 so far. Thanks enjoyed your review and for reminding me about the James Tait prize. So much to read ….
Well, of course the middle part of David Copperfield is more positive once he goes to live with Aunt Trotwood, and he doesn’t have the personal problems that Demon did, but there are many parallels. I’m glad you enjoyed the review.
I don’t always like updates of classic novels, so I’m not sure if I want to read this or not. I’m glad you found it gripping, even if you had mixed feelings overall.
I resisted it for a long time, but then I decided I should probably read it.
I’ve been swithering over this one, mainly because I rarely get on with books that are based on other books, especially ones I love. I think it takes quite an ego for an author to deliberately make readers think of one of truly great authors while reading their books – they have to be very confident their skill will match up to the original since it will inevitably invite comparisons. Sounds like Kingsolver might have been better to write her own novel on the same theme rather than to try to mirror David Copperfield.
Well, I don’t know. A lot of people liked this book. I am just so attached to the original.
I’ve never read any Kingsolver, but it sounds to me that this is certainly NOT the one I should start with. Trying to update Dickens with no humor… nope! Not for me.
It’s not that it has no humor. It’s just the satirical, ironic kind of humor. I suggest that you start with one of her early books, The Bean Trees, if you can find it. I think you’ll love it, and you’ll probably want to follow it with Pigs in Heaven, which is a sequel. Some of her later books are polemic, some of which I’ve avoided because of that, but others are not. Some are very powerful.
Okay… I’ll try to keep this in mind.
Other really good ones are The Poisonwood Bible and The Lacuna, but The Bean Trees, although it has its serious side, is lovely.
I, too, had mixed feelings, and David Copperfield is my favourite novel. I think this has been working better for people who are unfamiliar with, or indifferent to, the Dickens original. I did find Demon’s voice entertaining — a Holden Caulfield sort of narrator.
Yes, much more like Holden than David! I think you are right about people who are unfamiliar liking it better.
This novel has cause a lot of hype lately, and most people seem to like it a lot. I love Kingsolver, but am not a fan of Dickens, so I don’t know if I will venture into this one. But who knows …
Ah, but that means you are probably more likely to like it than people who ARE fans of Dickens, since those seem to be the ones who like it least.
OK, I see. Maybe should give it a try then.
You might be surprised.