Just finished Demon Copperhead and loved it so much. I couldn't stop reading it but also didn't want to read it because I didn't want it to end. It's a rare book that I love this much, whose characters I think about months and years later. "The Overstory" by Richard Powers was another one.
I've never been to Appalachia, but I grew up in a similar rural area in the midwest (not farming but mining and logging) and it's a story so many here could have written. I have a deep love for the "hillbilly" "redneck" "hillfolk" "country" people in the US along with frustration over their difficulty with adapting and changing and wanting to hold on to the past and yet my heart breaks for the losses they feel over their culture and way of life. I grew up rural but went to college and lived in an urban area for 12 years before moving back home. I also married a man from a farming family. Having a foot in both worlds is interesting to observe the divide.
In any case, I also enjoyed Monica Potts "The Forgotten Girls" which is about Appalachia as well. Anything else that is a good rural story you enjoyed that is similarly told, memoir (or fictional memoir style like DH)?
(ending spoiler below)
I would have loved to see Demon's reaction to the ocean. The first time he mentioned it, I thought he'd either die before he got to see it, or he would finally get there. I didn't imagine he'd see it and we couldn't get the reaction 😂 I understand the point is to allow him to see the future and its possibilities with Angus but still!
by KimBrrr1975
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Have you read other Kingsolver? A lot of her books are set in Appalachia. *Prodigal Summer* is a good one. She also wrote a memoir about spending a year only buying things grown within 100 (?) miles of her family’s home in SW Virginia.