Thursday, June 29, 2023

“Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver

 I bought this book because I enjoyed Kingsolver’s “The Poisonwood Bible” and because I liked the novel “David Copperfield, of which this is an updated rendering. It takes place in Appalachia, and I’ve liked Sharon McCrumb’s books about this region. 

This is a very long novel, and sadly it lacked Dickens’ light touch and ironic sense of humour. Reading it was, for the most part, a slog. It read like a documentary on human misery. I did enjoy the last 200 pages or so, because they were actually finally hopeful, and as expected, Demon got the girl, Angus.

Friday, June 9, 2023

“Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century” by Kim Fu

 I would have to say that this mostly unpleasant set of bizarre short stories was right up my alley.