Demon Copperhead

Ohhhhhh….I really wanted to lovelovelove Demon Copperhead, by the beloved Barbara Kingsolver. I did like her much-anticipated novel (very much so), a retelling of Dickens’ David Copperfield. It’s the ultimate “Bildungsroman,” as readers follow protagonist Damon (nickname Demon) from the first line (“First, I got myself born.”) to young adulthood set (mostly) amidst Lee County, Virginia — just one area in the middle of a pigeonholed-for-all-the-wrong-reasons region.

But I didn’t ~love~ it, and I think that’s mostly because I wanted Demon Copperhead to capture something I felt when I first discovered Kingsolver’s books. (Those would be The Bean Trees, Pigs in Heaven, and Animal Dreams.) I’m wondering if that’s like so much of life — trying to relive something that isn’t possible either because memory is faulty or, more likely, you’ve changed. And I suppose that in and of itself is actually the ultimate “Bildungsroman.” (Here’s a definition: “In literary criticism, a Bildungsroman is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood, in which character change is important.”)

PS: If you like sprawling, character-driven fiction, you’ll definitely like Demon Copperhead. Just don’t go in thinking you’ll be transported back to age 18. #youcantgoback

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originally published on instagram