Book review | Barbara Kingsolver's 'Demon Copperfield' is a coming-of-age story of an orphan boy named Daemon

'Demon Copperfield' by Barbara Kingsolver is about lost children being raised by adults who aren't their parents; the painting 'Orphans' by Thomas Benjamin Kennington (Image via Wkimedia Commons)

Demon Copperfield is an extraordinary coming-of-age story of a boy named Daemon Fields who has to fight for survival from Day One. The “little blue prizefighter” was born in a trailer home to his teen mom who had been self-medicating. An expert at rehab, Demon’s mother fought for her survival. But life isn’t easy for a single mother living in a trailer home in Lee County, Virginia. She succumbed to the opioid epidemic of America, taking Demon’s unborn brother with her. Demon’s story is that of a generation of lost children being raised by adults who are not their parents. The parents are incarcerated or dead due to drug abuse.

There is hope for the child narrator telling his tale of survival. At times, you will only read further because you know Demon has survived to be telling this tale. The narration is raw and honest, with a child-like innocence to it, and coloured by dark humour.

From foster homes to football fame

There comes a time in Demon’s life when his stars line up and everything is going good for him. He is a football star player in Lee County and he is enjoying high school, making art that he loves. He is gifted like that, he can make comics and drawings of anyone and anything. For a while, life is a joyful ride. Then it all comes crashing down when Demon busts his knee and a doctor prescribes him pain pills. And once again, the addiction of Lee County catches up with Demon.

All that said and done, Demon Copperhead is still one of the most beautiful books I have come across. There are parts of Demon’s stories that will plunge you into the darkest corners of human suffering, but if you stick it out, if you survive as Demon did, there is a heartwarming ending waiting for you. Perhaps it was this knowledge, knowing that our kid Demon is going to be okay in the end, that kept me going, turning page after page.

Some people are made of gold, and Demon is that. He survives an uncaring system of child protection services, gets hurt by caseworkers who give up on him, is starved by shitty foster parents, and ends up working as a child labourer, but he never turns his back on the people who once cared for him. He finds his community of people he loves. Darker days come in his life, days that no child should have to face, but Demon is made of different metal. Unfortunately, not everyone is as tough and resilient as Demon and their story has a different ending. Barbara Kingsolver writes in the acknowledgements, ‘For the kids who wake up hungry in those dark places every day, who’ve lost their family to poverty and pain pills, whose caseworkers keep losing their files, who feel invisible, or wish they were: this book is for you.’