By Robert McCool

After a spell of ill health, I find myself back at the books and the keyboard during a winter storm, ready to talk about a book I wanted to hate, but couldn't.

Barbara Kingsolver is a great writer who presents her stories as plain-faced as a tale can be. This leads to some unpleasant topics sometimes when a story absolutely must be told. Such is “Demon Copperhead” ($34.50 ISBN:987-0-06-326746-6), an Oprah's Book Club 2022 selection.

The book is all about a boy (Daemon) with red hair (Copperhead) growing up up in the Apalachicola South, with all its poverty–which means plenty of teen mothers and drugs, among other things like high school football, drinking excessively and having not much future to look forward to. On the other hand, family is tight and most important in life.

This is what Demon faces.

And this is why I wanted to hate this book. Not for the writing, which is brilliant, but for the subject matter. It hurts.

As a teenager in an alcoholic white-trash family, I was faced with one future with the Ford Motor Company. College was out of the question unless I alone did something about it. I moved out, and then worked for a university while I studied there. I did it, so why couldn't anybody try? I know from experience it's not that easy, and this book shows the dark side of futility. That's why it bothered me. I wanted to  stop reading at times, but instead I couldn't put it down. It's a big book, 883 pages in large print, but I read it in three days. It's that good.

Demon faces his challenges, even loves playing football with chemical assistance. He is a hero to his hometown, with girls wanting to have his baby, and an alcoholic coach with a fascinating daughter who tries to keep his head straight after a debilitating injury takes his beloved football away and leaves him with an Oxycontin addiction, which creates a taste for other drugs.

But all Demon wants to do is to see the ocean.

Will Demon escape his job at the feed store and leave poverty behind? Will he find love and travel successfully to the sea? The truth is the last four pages redeem Demon and actually causes you to begin to like the poor boy. He is who he is and the world is what it is.

It's winter now, and a good time to pick up a project like “Demon Copperhead” and take the short, slow days of bad weather to explore a world beyond your imagining.

I recommend this book for all it is, and all it isn't. It is a masterpiece of world and character building, and worth your time.

It's snowing outside, but it's good to be back.