In the interest of full disclosure, I have not read
David Copperfield, the book that
inspired this one. Here we have
first-person narrator Damon Fields, aka Demon Copperhead, whose teenage mom has
substance abuse issues and bad taste in men, with the possible exception of
Demon’s father, who died before Demon was born.
Demon bounces around in the southwest Virginia foster system, buffeted
from one bad situation to another. There
always seems to be someone in his life who does not want him to thrive. Fortunately for us readers, the author tells
this hard-luck story with ample doses of humor to soften the blows. Even when things are going well for Demon, he
is constantly looking over his shoulder, bracing for the next setback. His expectation of doom becomes a
self-fulfilling prophecy as he becomes his own worst enemy, self-destructing with
some help from Dori. She is a girl with
whom he falls hopelessly in love, because or in spite of the fact that she has
a lot in common with his mother. Whatever
else Demon sees in Dori is never quite clear, and I see her as a character who
does not come across as particularly loveable.
Demon’s struggles sometimes seem never-ending, but he frequently comes
up with some great words of wisdom. In
one of my favorite paragraphs, he says that studying for his GED “turned out to
be a hell of a lot easier than being physical present to two more years of
disgrace and overpriced drugs cut with sheep wormer.” Then he adds that he thinks “most of
humankind would agree that the hard part of high school is the people.” So true, Demon, and I would further posit that the hard part of almost everything is the people.
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