“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.