Much Madness is Divinest Sense

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“Kingsolver is a writer who can help us understand and navigate the chaos of these times.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

From the New York Times bestselling author of Unsheltered and Flight Behavior, a brilliant novel which enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero's unforgettable journey to maturity.

”Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose.” Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It's the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.

I’ve been listening to this book for a long time—it’s a long book! I marvel at how well the classic Dickens novel, David Copperfield, translates to modern-day Appalachia. If anything, the story is even more believable when set in Lee County, Virginia, as I can very well believe everything Demon describes could have really happened to someone in his circumstances.

Kingsolver gave a fascinating interview about what inspired her to write a retelling of David Copperfield. The whole thing is worth reading/listening to, but it’s this passage that jumped out at me:

I had a visit from Dickens, this sort of ethereal visit in his house in Broadstairs, and he told me to tell this story. He said, “Look, nobody in my time wanted to hear about these orphans either, and I made them listen.” I sat up and took note. And what he told me is, “Point of view is your tool. Let the child tell the story.” And I started writing it that night on his desk, the desk in his house at Broadstairs where he wrote David Copperfield.

That’s kind of goosebump-inducing, you know? I happen to agree with Kingsolver about Dickens’s ability to create wonderful characters. In fact, I think he’s second to none in creating secondary characters and antagonists. Is there a more smarmy villain than Uriah Heep? A more memorable pair than Betsey Trotwood and Mr. Dick?

Charlie Thurston is an outstanding narrator and captures Demon’s voice well. If you have the time, I highly recommend the audiobook. The audiobook is highly rated on Audible, with an average of 4.9/5 for narration, which beats the average for the story at 4.8/5. It’s over 21 hours long, so it’s a significant investment, but I believe the audiobook is the way to read this book.

I wonder why it is that this part of the country works so well for classic British retellings, but it really does. I read a wonderful retelling of Wuthering Heights that incorporated the Ballad of Tom Dooley, and some years ago for NaNoWriMo, I drafted a book based on Hamlet but set in Kentucky. I have to say the story worked, even if it’s unfinished right now. There may be other retellings I’m unaware of. I don’t now what that says about this part of the United States and its people, but one reviewer on Audible remarked, “I have family in these mountains. I know this landscape, the physical and emotional. Kingsolver hits both perfectly bringing you the story in a raw but tender way. ” I couldn’t agree more with this sentiment. My father’s mother was from Appalachia, and digging into her family tree has been sad and illuminating.

I highly recommend this one. It shines a light on problems we don’t want to know about without blaming the victims like the book written by a certain Vice President does.

Update, July 5, 2025: The Guardian published an article about how Kingsolver is using proceeds from Demon Copperhead to give back to the community she writes about in that novel. Great article, well worth the read.