Dear Great Book Guru, I heard recently there are some great books out that are based on Charles Dickens’s novels but set in present time. Sounds very interesting…are you familiar with them? Lover of Dickens

Dear Lover of Dickens, Yes - I just finished DEMON COPPERHEAD by the award-winning author Barbara Kingsolver, and it was great!  Based on Dickens’s DAVID COPPERFIELD, this novel is set in present time Appalachia – Lee County, Virginia and many of the same issues Dickens’s addressed in 1800’s London are covered here.  Demon Copperhead - born Damon Fields - to a young drug addicted mother - tells his life story from birth to adulthood and quite a story it is.  His first years are spent with his mother and although impoverished, the pair are relatively happy. This somewhatsecure existence comes to an end when she marries Stoner, a harshly cruel man who abuses her and tortures Demon.  She soon falls back into addiction and dies leaving Demon in the care of his stepfather who turns him over to a corrupt, dehumanizing foster care system.  Demon goes from one bad situation to the next when a sports injury causes him to become addicted to doctor-prescribed painkillers.   Along the way he encounters a few caring adults, but, for the most part, family,friends, and community fail him, and it is only through his own perseverance that he manages to survive.  Like Dickens’s David, our Demon fights many demons not of his making - but those created by failures of society and its institutions. A painful tale but a very worthwhile read and highly recommended!