Book completed

[eve_prime]

Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver. I can see why this book won the Pulitzer - it's extraordinary. It's of course based on David Copperfield, and just as Dickens used his book (based in part on his own life story) to publicize the social problems of England, this book makes the social problems of rural Appalachia vivid and personal. At first I was reading ahead in David Copperfield, and the way Kingsolver makes her parallels is often quite amusing and fun to recognize. However, both stories are so heavy that I decided not to inflict it all on myself twice in close succession, and eventually I decided just to finish this book for now. It's pretty intense, but "Demon" is a resilient young man and able to get through it all. Of course, the more resilient he is, the more our author can make him endure. I especially appreciated the insights shared by the English teacher, Mr Armstrong, a Black man who did a great job of showing the kids what was really going on - not that they were particularly receptive. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts - this is just the beginning.