In Demon Copperhead Damen's father dies before his birth and his mother attempts to bring him up in a community of poverty in Virginia. This had been a mining area but by the beginning of the twenty-first century the mines are closed and the people who remain in the area struggle to survive. Much of the population, including Damen's mother, are addicted to a variety of substances and when Damen becomes an orphan he becomes a victim of a foster care system where boys spend time with adults who are only interested in the money they receive for fostering a child, not helping a child in need.
As in David Copperfield there are people prepared to help Damen but he is not always ready to accept assistance when it is offered. This is a story of poverty, unemployment, drug and alcohol addiction, death and a failed foster care system, but at the end it also a story of survival against all odds.
My father once told me that when reading a book you should read at least forty pages before deciding to go no further. I seriously thought of giving up on this book, especially in the early chapters, but once the author concentrated on letting the main character tell his story in real time, instead of providing description of his environment and early years, I decided to keep reading and did finish this long story.
The book is only 546 pages but I am sure that it would have been more readable at 300 pages. There is only so much repetition of misery until, in my opinion, it becomes too much. However the many good reviews of this novel show that other readers have a different opinion.
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