By Barbara Kingsolver (Amazon's 4th Best Book of 2022) ★★★★★
The very last book I read in 2022 (I literally finished it at 11:57pm on 12/31/21 -- that's the sort of party animal I am these days!), Demon Copperhead is Barbara Kingsolver’s ode to Charles Dickens in the form of a modern retelling of David Copperfield, set in Appalachian Virginia over the last 30+ years. While significant events in Demon’s life mirror those of David's, and several characters have similar or nearly identical names, Kingsolver managed to somehow put together a derivative work that feels wholly original. I’m sure the fact that it has been decades since I read Copperfield helped this one feel new and fresh, but I suspect even a scholar of that work would find joy and nuance in the unique differences, as well as probably hundreds of more subtle connections than I picked up on.
Demon narrates the novel, and it traces his life literally from the beginning (“First, I got myself born” is the opening line) and chronicles his journey through his difficult childhood and into his twenties. Demon’s voice is unique and consistent throughout, and where Copperfield is often called semi-autobiographical for Dickens, I suspect there are elements of Kingsolver’s life that she has witnessed firsthand growing up in rural Kentucky and now currently living in Appalachian Virginia. Just as Dickens wished to shine a light on several less savory aspects of Victorian England, so does Kingsolver on her own community.
In Copperfield, Dickens focused on “the plight of prostitutes, the status of women in marriage, class structure, the criminal justice system, the quality of schools, and the employment of children in factories.” (per the wikipedia article on the novel -- as I mentioned, it’s been a few decades). By comparison, Kingsolver focuses on teen pregnancy, male/female perceived roles and gender identity, classism and the general lack of respect given to rural America by the rest of America, the rural education system and deficiencies in opportunities, and the rise of drug addiction in Appalachia, particularly the abuse of pills / pain medication.
The end result is a main character who is imperfect but lovable, whose suffers through the rough hand his life deals him and manages to keep going. I’ll finish with a quick excerpt, so you get a fuller picture of the language and voice that Kingsolver manages to keep consistent throughout the novel, an accomplishment in and of itself:
“My thinking here is to put everything in order of how it happened, give or take certain intervals of a young man skunked out of his skull box, some dots duly connected. But damn. A kid is a terrible thing to be, in charge of nothing,. If you get past that and grown, it’s easiest to forget about the misery and pretend you knew all along what you were doing. Assuming you’ve ended up someplace you’re proud to be. And if not, easier to forget the whole thing, period. So this is going to be option three, not proud, not forgetting. Not easy.”
This was probably the best written book I encountered in 2022. And for those of you who prefer listening to reading, I have it on good authority that the audiobook is fantastic. But “best written” doesn’t always equate to “best overall” in my nonsensical rankings, and in 2022 there were three others I enjoyed a smidge more.
Previous Best of 2022: #3 - All My Rage
Next Best of 2022: #1 - Thistlefoot