Barbara Kingsolver’s new novel is her best in years.

In “Demon Copperhead” she reimagines Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield” (written in 1850) as a story of entrenched, inescapable poverty in modern-day Appalachia. I feared the conceit of a contemporary version of this classic might be an annoying gimmick. 

I could not have been more wrong.

Kingsolver is the best-selling author of nine novels, including “The Bean Trees,” “The Poisonwood Bible,” “The Lacuna,” and more recently, “Unsheltered.” She also has several books of non-fiction, essays, short stories and poetry. She has won many literary awards, including the National Humanities Medal in 2000.

If Dickens is her inspiration for this novel, so is the fact that she was born in Kentucky. But with all her interest in examining the roots of poverty in this region, she never loses sight of the storytelling. We are pulled by the lapels into this fast-paced, coming-of-age tale of a boy born in a trailer to a teenage mother. He has “no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks ... a caustic wit and a fierce talent for survival.”

Just like Copperfield before him, Damon (with an “a”) Fields is the first-person narrator of his life story. Demon is the nickname he is saddled with, though he couldn’t be further from one. And Copperhead, for his copper-colored hair. He is wise beyond his years and innocent at the same time.

He says, “People think they know a lot of things. Here’s what I know.” And we’re off.

Not surprisingly, he is soon to be an orphan. Damon’s keen eye and conversational tone carry us along on his odyssey, as he gets tossed about by well-meaning but ineffective systems (foster care, derelict schools) as well as unprepared or unscrupulous adults. Bad situations, bad choices and bad actors await him, as does much tragedy.

He accepts his fate early on.

“The born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose,” he observes. Later, he concludes nobody in his county gets a “reboot” camp, instead “you keep on living the life you were assigned.”

Fortunately – if you know Dickens at all – you know our hero’s luck will change, and that good folks (grandmas, teachers, a few choice friends) will throw him a lifeline. You don’t need to have read “David Copperfield” to enjoy this page-turner, also filled with many richly drawn characters (maybe a few too many). But if you are a Dickens fan, you’ll appreciate the nods. Kingsolver says she felt Dickens “at her elbow” while writing this novel. “I’ve come to think of him as my genius friend.”

The author’s language may be poetic, but she is also a diligent scientist. She digs deeper into the history of the region – the kin, the clans, the farmers, the miners, the school boards, the business owners – and offers better context for the crushing poverty and lack of upward mobility, than say, J.D. Vance did in “Hillbilly Elegy.”

“Demon Copperhead” shares grim details that we’re, unfortunately, already familiar with from local news coverage or TV dramas (“Dopesick”) about OxyContin’s infiltration of Appalachia. It is ugly and heartbreaking.

Few contemporary authors are as good as Kingsolver at capturing a sense of place. Her descriptions of the mountains, hollers, creeks and waterfalls are so precise, it feels like if you were dropped there from the sky, you’d know your way around.

But it is the character of Damon that will stick with you even longer. He’s right up there with the best classic orphans of literature.

Believe me: You will root for this lost boy.

Carol O’Sullivan is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

First Published: October 25, 2022, 10:00 a.m.