Barbara Kingsolver
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, inspired by Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, is set in Appalachia. The narrative unfolds in the voice of Demon, beginning with his birth to an impoverished, drug-addicted single teenager on the floor of her trailer. Known as Demon Copperhead because of his red hair, Demon charts his growth from a young boy to adulthood. His father died before he was born. Even as a young child, Demon faces hardship. He assumes the role of parenting his own mother, but with help and support from the neighboring Peggot family, his life chugs along fairly smoothly until his mother remarries. And that is when Demon catapults from one tragic situation to another in a series of events over which he has little to no control.
An abusive and violent step-father makes his life miserable. His situation deteriorates after his mother’s tragic death of a drug overdose. Now an orphan, he is shuffled from one foster home to another where he is abused and exploited. He runs away, is robbed of his meager savings, sleeps near dumpsters, and hitchhikes until he locates his grandmother and moves in with her. His situation improves dramatically when his grandmother arranges for him to stay at the home of his high school football coach so he can attend high school. Demon excels in football, becoming a local football hero until he injures his knee. He is prescribed a copious number of painkillers and predictably slides down the slippery path to increased addiction. His circle of friends are all drug-addicts who fuel one another’s addictions. He hits rock bottom when his girl-friend dies of an overdose and two other friends die in a drowning accident. It is only then that he decides to get help for his addiction.
In spite of experiencing a slew of bad luck and engaging in self-destructive behaviors, Demon is fortunate in that there are people who see the good in him and are willing to help him. These include his art teacher who recognizes his talent for drawing and encourages him to pursue it, the coach’s daughter who never gives up on him, and Mrs. Peggot who is always willing to provide him with a meal. His luck turns when a friend with whom he had previously shared a foster home encourages him to draw a comic strip for a local newspaper about an Appalachian super hero. The popularity of the comic strip leads to an opportunity to publish a graphic novel. No longer addicted to drugs, on the verge of a new romance, and a soon-to-be published author, Demon ends the novel on a hopeful note.
Kingsolver’s political agenda is clear throughout. The novel becomes her platform for exposing the many obstacles the Appalachian poor and opioid-addicted experience. She makes no attempt soften their desperate circumstances, the marginalization and bigotry they endure, their poverty, and the child-welfare agencies that fail them. She lays responsibility for the opioid epidemic squarely on the shoulders of the pharmaceutical company for aggressively targeting the poor and desperate. She thrusts Demon from one misfortune to another, all of which seems excessive at times and bordering on overkill. But what saves the novel is Demon’s voice. He is at once funny, desperate, cynical, precocious, engaging, delightful, devoted, and, above all, remarkably resilient.