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A book full of pictures and hope

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I was given this book at almost the same time as I finished Demon Copperhead.

Demon Copperhead, as long as a battle, wound me in beside its main character to witness the traumas of his growing up, while The Last Tree – A Seed of Hope, by Luke Adam Hawker, is very different.

This book spun me like a leaf through its roots, allowing me to drift along with its young protagonist Olive when she loses touch with her classmates on a visit to the Tree Museum. There she becomes absorbed by a picture of The Last Tree. She sits in front of it, imagining how it would have been to climb trees and to live amongst them. At the end of the visit, when the class leaves for home, she is eager to see her father, and is clutching a seed that they will plant together for the generations to come.

That’s the story, but it’s the illustrations – pages of lovely drawings in black and white – that really pull the narrative wide, exploring and imagining through the eyes of a small child in a big world, and using only a few lines of text to do so.

I loved this book. It’s gentle but intense, and hard to resist flicking through again and again.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

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I’ve finished! Longest book I’ve read for a while (546 pages) … and I didn’t abandon it.

I read the novel a chapter at a time, and occasionally not even that. The reason was the lack of minutes in my day, but each time I picked the book up, I was surprised to find myself engrossed again.

The reason I think is the voice. Demon Copperfield’s voice. It is fascinating, trapped like a stone in a barrel rolling down a hill, the barrel being the Appalachian community that Demon finds himself born into. Both his personal circumstances and the community are potholed with hardship, and his own path through them as dysfunctional as any.

Orphaned as a young child Demon is reliant on the damaged hands of others – foster carers, relatives, guardians. He bounces from one difficult situation to the next, always hopeful that things will get better. But they don’t seem too.

In his late teens his body shows real sporting potential, but when that too suffers breakdown the cracks in his life split wide open. Vulnerable and willing they are soon stuffed with drugs, some prescription and some not, all available and seemingly everywhere.

“I stopped caring around this point because the little white submarine-shaped pill he’d given me to swallow was starting to sing its pretty song in my head.”

And down Demon goes, taking us with him, and showing us why through this book. Its pace is as fast as a young child growing, its tragedy as restless as Demon as he searches for a way out.

I found the story engrossing, and feel richer for having read it. If you have the time, and like a strong voice, I think you’ll enjoy this.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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A thought on Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

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I have had the great good fortune of being lent a hardback copy of this novel. It is a big book – some 550 pages in this edition – and I am a little over halfway through, the reason being that I only manage a few pages a day.

Why so slow? Lack of time is the main reason, plus the distractions drawing me otherwards. However, I treasure the few daily pages I have with Demon Copperhead, and have no desire to leave him to his fate unread. His resiliance and his voice draw me behind him, as he navigates his way into and through worlds I know little about.

Today, I sneaked a few extra pages, and opened the book at the end of the chapter where I had left it. As I turned to the start of the next I read these opening lines:

“Where does the road to ruin start? That’s the point of getting all this down, I’m told. To get the handle on some choice you made. Or was made for you. By the bullies that curdled your heart’s milk and honey, or the ones that went before and curdled theirs.”

Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver – opening lines of Chapter 41 – (Faber and Faber)

I’m looking forward to finding out the remainder of the story. I fear it may not end well for Demon Copperhead.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023