Reading this book, or at least getting to the point where I DNF'ed it, confirmed three long-held convictions of mine that I've been reluctant to admit... but at this point I have to accept as fact:

1. I don't like Charles Dickens books.
2. I don't like Barbara Kingsolver books.
3. Just because it won a Pulitzer doesn't mean it's good.

This book is a loose adaptation of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, as told through one of Barbara Kingsolver's favorite settings; the "forgotten America" of the poor, rural Appalachian region. And while the quality of the writing itself is pretty good, I just can't stand the subject matter. There's nothing wrong with stories about the everyday struggles of everyday people, but I feel like I get enough of that in the real world; I don't find it entertaining to read, even if it's amazingly eloquent. I've tried to read several of Barbara Kingsolver's books now, and haven't found a single one that lives up to the hype (i.e., people who consider her one of the greatest living American writers).

Having read several Pulitzer Prize winning books as well, it's also confirmation that those are the kinds of books the Pulitzer committee likes, which means the award is of very little value to me personally. I've read a half dozen Pulitzer Prize winners in the past several years, and I'm hard pressed to name any one of them that I would consider an excellent book. The Pulitzer committee and I just simply do not seem to like the same types of books, so I should probably stop looking at books with that designation as inherently more worthy of being read than another book.

I struggled to get through 200 pages, setting this book down frequently and taking long breaks where I read other stuff in the interim. Ultimately, I decided that forcing myself to read another 330 pages wasn't going to be worth my time, so I set it down and moved on.

 

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Demon Copperhead: A Novel   from Amazon.Com!

Created Jan 18, 2025 at 12:47pm • Submit your own review...