I know that this novel is a contemporary spin on Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield. In fact, almost everything written about this book centers around that comparison. I guess that her naming of the main character (also the title of the book) makes that discussion unavoidable. But, I would argue that a lot of Kingsolver novels are Dickensian: following the lives of people who are often dismissed as unintelligent, unapproachable, and strange. People who are held responsible for their own misfortune. People that are kept in their places to serve as cautionary tales and scapegoats.
In Demon Copperhead, Kingsolver drops us at the intersection of poverty, the opioid crisis, and the politics that divide America. A perfect storm that continues to propagate stereotypes and dig the trenches of far-right and left thinking deeper and wider. Damon Fields, nicknamed Demon Copperhead, grows up in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia. His teenage mother does the best she can as a single mom living in a small rural community that affords few opportunities. Eventually ending up in the foster system, Demon begins to see himself as the world sees him: ignorant and undeserving of success. A life of surviving leaves no room for thriving.
Along the way, Kingsolver peppers the book with family, neighbors, teachers, and friends that help to patch together the quilt of Demon even as he is haunted by the demons of abandonment, addiction, and death. Told through his voice, the bleakness of much of his childhood and young adulthood is made even starker. We can see and hear the potential that he can’t fathom. We can envision a future that is impossible for him to imagine.
This is Kingsolver’s rebuttal to the offhanded dismissal and oversimplification of an entire swath of America as “deplorable.” It’s her exploration of the notion that where you were born, raised, or live is all that is needed to determine your character.
