Since Demon Copperhead is such a hype book (queue Oprah), I was sceptical to jump on the bandwagon for the fear of being disappointed. I can however tell you, that this book was worth every penny. Please, do yourself a favour and pick this one up. Thank you.
Demon Copperhead is a Bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age story inspired by Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. Demon Copperhead is set in Southern Appalachia, Lee County, and is about a boy born to an addict teenage mother in a trailer. His life becomes a battle with abandonment, death, addiction, foster care and love – the good and the bad sort.
The first thing that caught my attention was the unique writing style, the voice of the protagonist Demon, real name Damon Fields. Every other page, I found myself highlighting a quote, laughing out loud or smiling. Try this one on and see for yourself: “It was hot as hell in there, and crowded with knickknacks and whatnots all over the place. Big old clocks on the mantel, and I’m saying more than one. If you wasted this lady’s time, she was going to know it.” (Page 288) and “She asked more questions, such as why Mom took up with such a bad apple after my father died. I could think of a few answers, starting with Mom having shit for brains, but due to politeness I just said lonesome I guess.” (Page 237). There is humour in each sentence, balanced well with bits that make you think wow, that’s actually really sad. Demon’s character is formed from the first sentence by this narrator’s voice; I instantly loved him and wanted to know his story.
This voice that Kingsolver used to tell Demon’s story stays uniform throughout the book. The story takes place over a long period of time, where Demon develops from a boy to a young man. She adjusts the voice subtly to become darker and more adult towards the end of the story, while at the same time keeping the unique language of Demon intact.
Demon’s heritage plays an important part of his voice and story, being ‘Melungeon’ and a ‘redneck’. He describes Melungeon to be a derogatory word given to a group of people from the Appalachian mountains, of mixed origin (origin including Portuguese and Cherokee). This group eventually turned the negative connotations of the term around and started using it as a term of pride (Page 313). He describes rednecks as “Twenty thousand guys from all over these mountains, fighting in regiments. They wore red bandannas on their necks to show they were all on the same side, working men…people calling us rednecks, that goes back to the red bandannas. Redneck is badass.” (Page 325). These cultures are very foreign to me, having grown up in Namibia, Africa. It was insightful and truly refreshing to read a story from the perspective of a protagonist from this area, thrown into the school setting from the late 80s and early 90s timeframe.
There were a lot of characters in the book, but the ones that really drew me in were Angus and Maggot. They were both such wonderful compliments to Demon’s life – one for stability and one to show him a mirror of his own mistakes. They truly stood out, both having such eccentric personalities. Demon’s character was also well developed and, even though at times I wanted to shake him for his stupid choices, I could understand why he made those choices.
The story itself was at times hard to take in, purely because it was painful to read what Demon was going through. He spent his entire childhood dealing with abandonment, from the moment he was born. But his character is built on resilience, choosing to laugh at the pain and make something positive out of anything. This makes the parts where Demon does break down so much harder, because you truly understand that this is a moment in the book that hit him hard. My favourite part of the book was where Demon moves out of Dori’s home and the chapter ends with him dealing with dear old forgotten Jip. This part tells so much to me about who Demon is, and how he still cares for those who have wronged him. Sorry, you’ll have to read it to understand what I’m on about.
Once we reach the halfway mark of the book, the story slows down. This was due to the story actually going well for Demon for a little while; he’d become a rising football star and had a taste of being the ‘popular kid’. At last, some stability…but of course, like a roller-coaster, we know that when things go up, they’re probably going to come back down and probably at ten times the speed.
Reading the second half of Demon’s story really did bring everything full circle for me, all the way to Devil’s Bathtub, the place his father was known to have died.
By the end of the story, all the necessary loose ends had also been tied up with a positive new adventure on the horizon.
I give this story five stars. It was an amazing read and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys stories of characters overcoming immense difficulties. If you don’t enjoy strong language or discussions about addiction, then this one is not for you. It can be considered triggering to those dealing with similar issues.
Maan Atelier 