#Pulitzer 2023 Barbara Kingslover
Demon Copperhead
by 
Barbara Kingsolver
Finished: 17.05.2023
Genre: novel
Rating: D-
Bad news:
Everybody loves this book….I did not. It didn’t feel like a boy writing his story. To be fair Demon has a tough childhood but tried hard to make something of himself. He earned his street cred….but it was just a bit too much swag for me (“in your face” language and activity).
Bad news: Dialogue: filled with hillbilly stereotypes: poverty, backwardness and low levels of education.
Plot: too melodramatic
…everyone is tragic or battling some horrible fate.
Characters: children who fall victim to neglect, abuse and addiction.
Characters: adults who are far from role models….they are just disasters.
Bad news: Gimmick: Kingslover transfers the setting of 1820s England in David Copperfield to 20th C Lee County, Virginia in Demon Copperhead. The comparison between David Copperfield (first chapter: I am born) Demon Copperhead (first sentence: First I got myself born.)
David is packed off to gloomy Mr Creakle.
Demon is off to tobacco farmer called Crickson.
My feeling is that while there is some entertainment value initially…it wears off quickly
Personal:
- Well, my Pulitzer Reading Challenge did not start out with a winner IMHO.
- I have read Kingsolver’s book Animal Dreams…loved it but
- …this one is a chore.
- Book feels…like a channel swim, I was exhausted after reading it.
- Regardless of the Pulitzer Prize 2023 this book did not entertain me.
- But to be fair, again….the book did win the Pulitzer Prize 2023…so the author
must be doing something right!
7 Comments
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NancyElin.blog 
I didn’t love it either Nancy. I thought the politics were too on the nose and I wasn’t that interested in Demon’s story.
The book felt like its storyline (opioid crisis) was selected for
(I hate to say it) ….book sales. Ms Kingslover can write…Animal Dreams was wonderful, but authors sometime make choices that their trusted readers have no interest in. Happy to hear I’m not out on a lonely branch in the “blog reading tree” who at times does not agree with literary prize committees! Thanks for your comment.
Well that’s disappointing! I read her Poisonwood Bible years ago and loved it. I’ll never forget the ants…
I know…Ms Kingslover can write but this time it just did not “feel” like the writer I loved who wrote Animal Dreams.
I have never gotten into any of Kingsolver’s books and decided that this wouldn’t be for me when it first came out. Whereas the other fiction winner, Trust does interest me. Whether enough so to actually read it remains to be seen :-)
One of my colleagues who is a fan of early Kingsolver also could not finish this book. As you say, sometimes a favourite author picks a topic/tone/content that is of no interest to some of their readers. This sounds like one of those.
Book was just awful…
I have to jump in here now to say I’ve changed my mind completely! I’m as surprised as you are!
My book group picked this for our Sept read…I’m only halfway through but I’m loving every single word.
I love Demon’s voice and I really like how Kingsolver has brought Dickens’ story into the modern world to remind us how many people still live in poverty, how many children in particular still live in poverty and how hard it is to break the cycle.
Maybe going in with such low expectations has allowed great expectations to thrive instead (see what I did there?!)
:-D