Demon Copperhead

I finished Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. A very good book that reminds me of multiple books for multiple reasons: Nick Cave’s The Ass Saw the Angel (alcoholic boy and the atmosphere) and Salingers Catcher in the Rye (a dive into the adolescent mind), for example.

Demon is the son of a junky mother and a father that died when Demon was still young.

The boy ends up in child care and lives with foster parents who are only interested in the allowance that comes with the care. He finds his loving grandmother, who finds a better home for him. The boy is talented in sports and drawing. He has some luck but makes the wrong decisions and ends up addicted to pills himself and with a girlfriend who is addicted to any substance, including heroin.

Will-power and friends try to drag him out of a downward spiral.

My, what a read!

The Mockingbird, a moral story

I got the Mockingbird for my birthday. Along with Go Set A Watchman. I had not read it before and thought it was time now to catch up.

There seems to have been quite a debate about Go Set A Watchman, the Mockingbird sequel. Originally, the early version of the Mockingbird was published only in 2015, about 55 years after the Mockingbird. According to some, the publication was against Harper Lee’s will.  According to other sources, Lee was not mentally capable anymore at that late stage of her life to put off the publication.

Harper Lee recently passed away, in February this year.

I only knew her name as the writer of the classic Mockingbird. She grew up in the south of the US, and some of the stories in the book, let’s say, show parallels to biographical facts in her life. After writing The Mockingbird, she slowly disappeared from public life. Her biography is shockingly uninteresting.

The book breathes the southern small-town countryside feeling I associate with William Faulker’s books, such as As I Lay Dying.

And Nick Cave’s And the Ass Saw The Angel. Rotten characters, Euchrid Eucrow-like. A lazy mood caused by early-day booze.

The introduction is the second-best book introduction.

“Please spare Mockingbird an introduction”

(The best is the Salmon of Doubt introduction by Terry Jones).

I also found a place where J.K. Rowling may have gotten her idea for Dementors in the Harry Potter series from Hot Steams.

‘A Hot Steam’s somebody who can’t get to heaven, just wallows around on lonesome roads an’ if you walk through him, when you die you’ll be one too, an’ you’ll go around at night suckin’ people’s breath -‘

Hot Steam is a southern US superstition.

Boo Radley, a dark small town legend, a potential Euchrid Eucrow, prefers to live indoors. Because he wants to. Because he hates the small town outside. But unlike Euchrid Eucrow, Boo remains on the light side and becomes a hero, saving the kids Jem and Scout from the real dark Euchrid Eucrow character of the story, Bob Ewell.

The story’s hero is Atticus Finch, the father of Jem and Scout. The story is told through Scout, who observes the small-town manners, flaws, prejudices, and discrimination. Atticus Finch is the moral champion. Against the will of the white people in the village, he defends the black Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white girl, even though Atticus knows the case can not be won and the jury has already convicted the black man.

Further reading.

Harper Lee – Go Set A Watchman

Nick Cave – And The Ass Saw The Angel

William Faulkner – As I Lay Dying