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might be going on a classics bender?
Jan. 28th, 2024 09:38 pmrich text editor is still gone. sob. anyway, i'm here to talk to you guys about a book, and that book is barbara kingsolver's demon copperhead.
my experience with kingsolver thus far in my life was limited to the bean trees, which i remember as being a mostly alright book. although i haven't read it in several years. this book was on a list of most... holds requested at the library, or something, for 2023. title seemed interesting, story seemed interesting, i figured sure i'd put in a hold.
according to the internet, the biggest complaint people have about this book is that it's poverty porn. now listen i am solidly middle class, college educated, suburbanite who grew up with health insurance, all that jazz--but also i don't think this book is poverty porn. i don't think that kingsolver is trying to spin damon's decisions in a moral, it's-all-his-fault way the way that lots of us northerners talk about appalachia sometimes. honestly, i think kingsolver makes it perfectly clear that damon only sort of got himself into--and out of--the mess that his life was for the back 1/3 of the book. she's very explicit about the foster system, social services, capitalism, class warfare, and the opioid crisis being outside factors that descended to make damon's life really suck. that his addiction made him make bad choices, but it didn't make him irredeemable. there are lots of terrible people in lee county, but there are also people who are victims of their own circumstances, and there are good people too. and those categories aren't even mutually exclusive.
i really got taken on the ride with this book. it took me a bit to get past the early bits--his time at creaky's was particularly difficult for me to get the motivation to read through, not entirely sure why--but once i was in it i was IN IT. i read a bunch of it last night and could barely make myself put it down to go to bed and then i read two more chapters at breakfast this morning before i had to go and catch the train. because the thing is--like, damon makes it explicit, the bad things he's done. he doesn't sugarcoat it for us. and yet you're still rooting for him to make the right decision this time. you want him to finally decide to claw himself out. and he doesn't, and he doesn't, and he doesn't, and then suddenly he's at devil's bathtub in a rainstorm watching people die.
so anyway i liked this book and what the hell am i going to read next. what if i went and checked out original david copperfield from the library. what then.
my experience with kingsolver thus far in my life was limited to the bean trees, which i remember as being a mostly alright book. although i haven't read it in several years. this book was on a list of most... holds requested at the library, or something, for 2023. title seemed interesting, story seemed interesting, i figured sure i'd put in a hold.
according to the internet, the biggest complaint people have about this book is that it's poverty porn. now listen i am solidly middle class, college educated, suburbanite who grew up with health insurance, all that jazz--but also i don't think this book is poverty porn. i don't think that kingsolver is trying to spin damon's decisions in a moral, it's-all-his-fault way the way that lots of us northerners talk about appalachia sometimes. honestly, i think kingsolver makes it perfectly clear that damon only sort of got himself into--and out of--the mess that his life was for the back 1/3 of the book. she's very explicit about the foster system, social services, capitalism, class warfare, and the opioid crisis being outside factors that descended to make damon's life really suck. that his addiction made him make bad choices, but it didn't make him irredeemable. there are lots of terrible people in lee county, but there are also people who are victims of their own circumstances, and there are good people too. and those categories aren't even mutually exclusive.
i really got taken on the ride with this book. it took me a bit to get past the early bits--his time at creaky's was particularly difficult for me to get the motivation to read through, not entirely sure why--but once i was in it i was IN IT. i read a bunch of it last night and could barely make myself put it down to go to bed and then i read two more chapters at breakfast this morning before i had to go and catch the train. because the thing is--like, damon makes it explicit, the bad things he's done. he doesn't sugarcoat it for us. and yet you're still rooting for him to make the right decision this time. you want him to finally decide to claw himself out. and he doesn't, and he doesn't, and he doesn't, and then suddenly he's at devil's bathtub in a rainstorm watching people die.
so anyway i liked this book and what the hell am i going to read next. what if i went and checked out original david copperfield from the library. what then.
