Why this book: Selected by my literature reading group. Pulitzer prize winner for literature for 2023. Also we had read (I twice)  Kingslover’s book The Poisonwood Bible and loved it.

Summary in 3 Sentences: A novel written in the first person  retrospective from a young man who has grown up among the rural poor of Appalachia in western Virginia, looking back on his  life from his boyhood living in a trailer with his drug addicted mother through teenag years and young adulthood.  He shares with us the abuse he’d taken from his mother’s boyfriend then husband, then uncertainty and emotional trauma as a foster child, then as a runaway, and finally as a teenager in High School, who’s fallen into the same pattern of drug addiction and self-defeating behavior that is the norm in his community.  All the while, we see that he has a good heart, and a maturity of perspective that belies his bad decisions and the bad luck he’s experienced,  and there is always an undercurrent of hope and the possibility of redemption throughout the novel.  

My Impressions:    Not only a good read, it is also powerful and (at least to me) authentic exposure of  a part of life in America that I have never personally seen nor experienced.  It is a “bildungs roman” – a coming of age novel taking place in the 1990s and early 2000s in economically disadvantaged and backward part of western Virginia (Jonesville in Lee County – a real place).  From the perspective of this one rather precocious young man, we learn about life in a part of America that is largely forgotten or ignored by mainstream media and the state and federal bureaucracy.  

Demon Copperhead is the nickname given to Damon Fields who has had few positive adult role models  – most adults he knows have little money, little faith in the future or in the state, many are alcoholic and making a living in the gray or shadowy parts of the economy.   They fieel dismissed and disenfranchised by the more well-to-do parts of American society, and feel left on their own to get by and find whatever fun or satisfaction they can.  Demon loses his mother and is put into a series of foster homes, of people who accept foster children simply for the money the state gives them.  Demon is exploited, made to do excruciating work on a tobacco farm, is emotionally and physically abused, and given very little of what a child needs to grow and flourish. But he learns to survive and learns a lot of resilience.  

We learn about how ineffective the DSS (Departmetn of Social Services) can be in under resources parts of our country to monitor and support foster children and others who are adrift in society – underpaid, overworked social workers are not held accountable by their underpaid, under qualified and overworked supervisors, who are also not held accountable in a system which is more focused on meeting minimum standards, less on effective action, and does not reward success or creative solutions. Even those individuals who try hard are stymied by too much work, too little pay, few incentives to work hard, an initiative-stifling bureaucracy, poor leadership, and an extremely difficult job.

Demon does have some adult supporters and mentors,  but they are not family or parents  – his adult supporters can only encourage him, but there is no one who he trusts or who has authority to hold him accountable. So he falls prey to the connivers and exploiters and low-lifes that look for vulnerable youth to support their own self-serving and corrupt agendas.

Eventually Demon becomes a teenager, gets involved with girls, sex, alcohol and drugs, high school shenanigans – all of which divert him from a path that would take him out of this cycle of failure and despair, and away from opportunities to grow and prosper.  An important factor in his bad behavior is that he doesn’t believe he can break out of the cycle that most of the youth he knows is in  – no one he knows has, and it is so easy to fall prey to all the incentives and opportunities he experiences take him the other way.  All along the way, he sees and becomes familiar with sexual exploitation, violence, suicide, drug overdoses – and the many tragedies that are commonplace in the world he inhabits,  but are much less common in the schools and upbringings of the middle and upper classes of society.

But there is redemption.  Demon does experience love from his neigbbors and two of his teachers who are there for him when he begins to realize that he is going over a cliff. He has a few close friends who retain faith in him, in spite of his  bad judgment and series of bad decisions.    Eventually the light begins to come on and when he is at one of his lowest points, he makes a fateful and difficult decision to try to take a step in a new direction.  

One of the important themes of the book is how the medical establishment encouraged use of and ultimately addiction to oxycontin, calling it a wonder drug against pain, and not addictive.  Demon becomes addicted after a football injury and then slides into the underworld and blackmarket of oxy-junkies bargaining and trading and dealing in illicit oxycontin and fentanyl.  As hard as he tries to free himself, his physicl pain, the addictive qualities of the drug,  and his environment conspire against him.

Another important theme of the book is how the rural poor, the people of the so called “red neck” culture of the Appalachians are disrespected,  disregarded and disenfranchised by much of America.  Demon sees how the poverty and underachievement of today is the result of decades of coal barons readily exploiting local miners, how they bought up property at fire-sale prices, undercut safety and social services and any other obligations to support the miners that might detract from their exorbitant profits.  Demon has a gift for drawing and has some success creating a syndicated cartoon which satirizes the way the wealthy exploit the poor and how the rest of America looks down upon rural and poor Appalachian culture.

There is also a tribute to rural living, the connection with nature, the simple joy and pleasures of the quiet and serenity of the outdoors, in contrast to the hectic urban environment of Nashville and Chattanooga where Demon also spends some time. and even Atlanta, where he went to rescue a friend who’d been seduced there with drugs and other threats.  These urban centers of activity and ambition are contrasted with the comfort and peace that Demon feels in the outdoors in nature. 

The trajectory of the book is explicitly modeled on Dickens’ David Copperfield. In reading a review of that book, I realize that Kingsolver unashamedly uses names for some of the characters in David Copperfield in Demon Copperhead. And given that David Copperfield had a hopeful ending, I knew that somehow Copperhead would too.   Though not a classic “happy ending” it is hopeful and I liked the way she concluded the book.

One of he things that impressed me about the book is the language that she used – sexual, profane, politically incorrect – representing the way I would imagine young people in that part of rural Virginia actually speak.  We read language somewhat different from how young people in urban environments speak,  and very clever expressions and metaphors which I hadn’t heard before. Kingsolver also does a good job of being the voice of a rowdy and randy young man – which surprised me from a middle aged woman.  She certainly got help from young men to create that credible voice.