Kingsolver pours her heart and writing skill into giving Demon a voice that soars above all the poverty, wickedness and hard times he and his fellow orphans sent into care-more like work on run down farms where the farmer is only picking up some bucks taking in fosters. Southern Appalachia is the setting, rednecks, picture it, and yet. One bad choice ends up leaving Demon an orphan, he never knew his father, dead before his birth but a death that shapes his life, dead dad, dead mom and then into care of the DSS which is a tremendous joke. And then Angus, real name Agnes, who saves his sorry ass umpteen times as his foster sister, who understands him, who never loses sight of him, through thick or thin, even his bad choices in girlfriend Dori and a slide into oxy to make a football injured knee better.ĭamon/Demon tells this story and it is a wonder, how he lives with his single mom in a trailer belonging to the Peggots, how he grows up with their clan, how his once druggie mom got clean, how she got duped by a man, Stoner, who treats Demon like crap. Peggot and his boyhood buds Maggot and Tommy, especially. Certainly there are similarities but Demon Copperhead, real name Damon Fields, is one heck of a resilient boy, from birth to about 20, his life is a hellish mess and he comes through, on his own stubborn merit and with help from mentors like Annie, Mr. Cover blurb calls this a modern day Dickens David Copperfield. My book has so many sticky notes, want to remember all the brilliant parts Kingsolver delivers.
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