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Demon Copperhead
Demon Copperhead is a 2022 novel by Barbara Kingsolver. It was a co-recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and won the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction. Kingsolver was inspired by the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield.[1][2] While Kingsolver's novel is similarly about a boy who experiences poverty, Demon Copperhead is set in Appalachia and explores contemporary issues.[3][4][5] The book touches on themes of the social and economic stratification in Appalachia, child poverty in rural America, and drug addiction with a focus on the opioid crisis.[6] PlotDamon Fields is born to a single teenage mother in a trailer home in Lee County, located in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. He has red hair, inherited from his dead father, who was a Melungeon. He is nicknamed "Demon Copperhead" for the colour of his hair and his attitude. (Copperhead referring to the colour as well as snake species). Demon is raised by his mother and their neighbours, the Peggots. The latter includes Mr. and Mrs. Peggot, who are old and are raising their grandchild Matt Peggot (nicknamed Maggot). Maggot and Demon are the same age and the two become best friends growing up. When Demon is in primary school, his mother meets a trucker named Stoner and gets into a relationship with him. Over the summer, the Peggots take Demon on a trip to Knoxville, where he meets Maggot’s aunt June and his cousin Emmy. Upon his return, he discovers that his mother has married Stoner, following which Stoner’s behaviour becomes abusive. She relapses into her former drug addiction and ODs. Stoner pays for her to be sent to rehab. Demon’s DSS agent puts him in short-term foster care. His foster home is at Creaky Farms, run by Mr. Crickson who also fosters three other kids: Tommy, Swap-Out, and Fast Forward. Tommy and Swap-Out are in primary school with Demon, while Fast Forward is in high-school playing as a quarterback for the Lee High School football team, the Generals. Demon's time at Creaky Farms is coloured by Crickson's mean demeanour, the squalid living conditions, and assisting with farm work. This includes the tobacco season, where the foster-children are forced to miss school and Demon gets nicotine poisoning from handling the plants without gloves. Fast Forward has a magnetic personality and holds influence over the other foster children, introducing them to drugs. Demon's mom ODs again, on oxycontin, and dies. His time at Creaky Farms over, Demon decides to spend Christmas with the Peggots instead, and joins them uninvited on another trip to Knoxville. He discovers that June has decided to move back to Lee County from the city due to the fact that her colleagues demean her for being a 'redneck'. After a second failed foster family, Demon decides to hitchhike to Murder Valley, Tennessee, where he hopes to find his paternal grandmother. En route, he meets a preacher, gets his money stolen by a prostitute, and sleeps in a barn. Finally, he reaches his grandmother, Betsy Woodall, a hardy old woman who lives with her disabled brother Dick who is confined to a wheelchair and cannot speak normally, but is sharp and well-read. Using her connections, she contacts the Coach of the Lee High Generals, who agrees to take Demon in. Demon moves to a mansion where he meets Coach, his daughter Angus, and a young man who assists the coach named U-Haul. Coach struggles with alcoholism, but recognises Demon's potential as a football player. He starts training him to be a tight end, and Demon eventually becomes a player for the Generals. Demon learns about the history of the Appalachian Mountains and the coal miners from Mr. Armstrong, who tells them the story of the Battle of Blair Mountain. In the summer after he joins high school, Demon takes a job at a farm supply store and meets Dori, a young girl his age who he instantly falls in love with. Dori's mother is dead and she has dropped out of school to take care of her ailing father. During one of the football games, Demon gets tackled and badly injures his knee. The team doctor puts him on oxycontin and Demon quickly gets addicted despite warnings from June. After a school dance, Demon and Dori drive to a spot where she gives Demon fentanyl that she has stolen from her dad. Dori's father dies and she falls apart. Demon decides to drop out of school and move in with Dori. During this time, Emmy runs away with Fast Forward. After months of searching, June finds Emmy's location and rescues her with the assistance of Demon and her brother. June sends her to an expensive rehab facility. Angus calls Demon after U-Haul tries to sexually assault her. She has discovered that U-Haul has been framing Coach for embezzlement from the school. Angus and Demon manage to chase U-Haul away. Eventually, the scandal breaks, but Coach's reputation and Angus' intervention allows them to control the damage. Dori grows increasingly disconnected, insecure, and thin. At one point, Dori says that she is pregnant but soon after seems to miscarry. Finally, Dori ODs and dies. Demon moves in with Maggot. On a particularly rainy day, Demon and Maggot are invited to go up to a waterfall called the Devil's Bathtub to meet Fast Forward, and they go there with Hammer Kelly. The following confrontation results in the deaths of both Hammer Kelly and Fast Forward. Maggot gets sent to juvenile prison for supplying Hammer with drugs before the incident. June sponsors Demon's stay at a rehab centre in Knoxville. Here, Demon resumes drawing and decides to make a graphic novel about the history of the Appalachian people. He stays in touch with Angus who is now at university in Nashville and develops feelings for her. Three and a half years later, Demon returns to Lee County. He and Angus catch up and decide to drive down to the ocean so that Demon can finally see it. Demon realises she has feelings for him too. CharactersMany of the characters in the book are inspired by characters in Dickens's David Copperfield. In the following list, the Dickensian characters are parenthesised:
ReceptionAccording to Book Marks, Demon Copperhead received "positive" reviews based on twenty-eight critic reviews with seventeen being "rave" and six being "positive" and four being "mixed" and one being "pan".[7] On Bookmarks January/February 2023 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a Ron Charles of The Washington Post praises Demon Copperhead as his "favorite novel of 2022"[6] as it is "equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this is the story of an irrepressible boy nobody wants, but readers will love."[6] Writing for The Guardian, Elizabeth Lowry contends that "while the task of modernising [Dickens's] novel is complicated by the fact that mores have shifted so radically since the mid-19th century … the ferocious critique of institutional poverty and its damaging effects on children is as pertinent as ever."[10] However, Lorraine Berry of The Boston Globe criticizes the novel as poverty porn, arguing that,
AccoladesDemon Copperhead was named one of the "10 Best Books of 2022" by The Washington Post[12] and The New York Times.[13] The novel was named the recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction alongside Hernan Diaz's Trust; this was the first time in its history that the award was shared.[14] It won the 2022 James Tait Black Prize for Fiction.[15] The novel was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.[16] In 2024, it was ranked #61 by the New York Times in its list of the best 100 books of the 21st century[17] and ranked #1 in its Reader's Picks List [18] Barbara Kingsolver won the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction for the novel,[19][20][21]making her the first author to win the prize twice; she had previously won in 2010 for The Lacuna.[22] References
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