The conversation ended well for Kingsolver and her readers. “I asked him, ‘How do I do that”’ And he said: “Let the kid tell the story. “I sat at his desk and I just started communing with Dickens,” she said. When her husband went to bed, she settled into the study where Dickens had worked. She and her husband were the only guests. The novel is a retelling of Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield,” which provided Kingsolver with a framework to tell a contemporary tale of the opioid plague and its impact on Appalachia.Īccording to the New York Times, on a book tour in England in 2018, Kingsolver stayed at Bleak House, where Dickens wrote much of David Copperfield. He and the other foster boys manage to make some connections, and Demon uses his gift of drawing as a way to develop what passes for friendship in an environment of cruelty and exploitation. This reader never imagined that the stark realities of foster care could include placement with a truly demonic foster parent who used his charges for free labor.Īs a result, Demon is always hungry, dirty, and trying to avoid further punishment and degradation. Through the institution of foster care, he is taken in by families that bank on the payments received for admitting a child into their home. When the step-father reveals a darker and more abusive side, Demon’s mother goes back to drugs and Demon’s fall from what seemed like about five minutes of grace plummets him into the depths.ĭemon’s plight is intensified by school, foster services, and poverty.

His mother is sober when she marries Murrell Stone, “Stoner,” to Demon. Peggy, in fact, is the only one who calls him Damon “after everybody else let it go, Mom included,” Demon says.ĭemon is our fearless narrator, smart-aleck and fast talking, yet he reveals insight and compassion beyond his years. Nearby neighbors, the Peggots, provide some stability.

His teenage mother is an addict and his young father is dead before the child is born. “That’s like the Eagle Scout of trailer trash,” he declares. Not only did Demon live in that single-wide, he was born there. His home is “dead in the heart of Lee County, between the Ruelynn coal camp and a settlement people call Right Poor, the top of a road between two steep mountains is where our single-wide was set.” In so many ways, Demon is in danger of being dragged down by the circumstances of his birth. So what do I know about ocean, still yet to stand on its sandy beard and look it in the eye? Still waiting to meet the one big thing I know is not going to swallow me alive.” He reveals his attraction to the ocean on page 2: “Although I’ve not seen the real thing, just pictures, and this hypnotizing screen saver of waves rearing up and spilling over on a library computer. “Demon Copperhead” is published by HarperCollins.įor Demon, it is the part about water that gives him hope for the future.

Barbara kingsolvers new book