“I deal with delicate subjects, not very glamorous at first glance: colonialism, child abuse, climate change… But as I am a well-bred person, I consider that I must keep my end of the bargain with readers: If you trust me, I promise to make you cry, and laugh, and love, as you have rarely done before.”
So says Barbara Kingsolver, winner of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for
They Call Me Demon Copperhead
, a superb rewriting of Charles Dickens'
David Copperfield
, where we follow a battered orphan in a rural America undermined by the opioid crisis.
Although born in a mobile home, Demon Copperhead, so named for his red hair reminiscent of the color of the copper vipers of the region, tries to make his way despite the failures of the foster care system and the tortures of addiction, and carries us away with his unique and irresistible voice in a vibrant coming-of-age novel.
Meeting with a great lady of American letters.
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Madame Figaro.– Why did you want to write about orphans and endemic poverty?
Barbara Kingsolver.–
Because I live where I live – Appalachia.
I could live almost anywhere, and I have lived almost everywhere, including France, but I chose to settle in Appalachia because it is home.
I love the landscapes, the rurality, the beauty.
But it is a place that encounters terrible difficulties linked to history, and more particularly the history of companies coming to exploit our natural resources: wood, then coal, then tobacco and finally, opioids.
They came to deliberately harvest our pain and our sorrow.
They looked at the data and the maps and observed that we were a vulnerable population, with very little medical care, a lot of injuries due to the type of work being done in the area.
Many people are disabled.
And they concluded that we could make them a lot of money.
Addiction is a disease that destroys families and communities.
Barbara Kingsolver
How did these companies do it?
Representatives were sent out en masse and flooded the system with deals like this: "For every one hundred patients you doctors prescribe oxycodon, you'll be offered a vacation to Hawaii...".
They bribed nurses and receptionists with candy and flowers, used all kinds of stratagems to promote their product.
I don't blame the doctors who see their patients once and sometimes never again – because for the latter, it's complicated to go to the doctor – and who cannot refer them to a clinic specializing in the treatment of pain .
They have only one option: prescribe a drug they believe is safe.
And in a handful of years, the entire culture of the region was affected.
Addiction is a disease that destroys families and communities.
People who are victims betray their loved ones and friends, fall into debt to the point of no return, abandon their children.
We no longer count the children who are raised by others than their parents, who have been sent to prison, have become junkies or have died of overdoses...
What pushed you to take on this story?
I had the feeling that it had not been told.
There have been quality investigative and journalistic reports exposing the crimes of drug companies – I am thinking of a book like
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
, which described the lawyers' fight for conviction of these companies.
But I was afraid that the public would say that it was over and that we would leave it there.
But for all the orphans born from addiction, the story will never end – they have experienced so much trauma, have so many needs and difficulties that no one is able to remedy… Not to mention that people addicted to opioids many turned to heroin when legal drugs were taken off the market.
But we do not have the money necessary to finance care and take care of patients and their children.
That's why I wanted to tell this story.
I thought for two years about the form I could give to the novel to prevent people from turning away from the subject by telling themselves that it didn't concern them, that it wasn't their business, that it only happened 'to others…
Hence the choice of a “Dickens-style” novel?
Indeed.
I happened to stay at Charles Dickens' house with my husband and saw the manuscript of
David Copperfield
in his study .
It was his favorite novel, it set his story – he came from a very modest background, his father had been imprisoned for debt, he himself started working at the age of ten – and I really I had the impression that he had handed me his pen... It was as if someone had cast a spell on me: I started writing
They call me Demon Copperhead
and I didn't stop.
I was inspired by it right down to the structure.
I downloaded the manuscript which I reread, and everything was there, both in terms of plot and characters, with regular twists and turns, all the right twists and turns and
cliffhangers
.
Sixty chapters that I have spread out in front of me to give a contemporary version, trying to transpose the realities of Victorian England into Appalachia.
The social system is collapsing and there are very few options, very few solutions for those suffering from addiction.
Barbara Kingsolver
However, you have made some important changes…
From the outset, I wanted to deconstruct the clichés about Appalachia – these preconceived ideas that we are stupid, poorly educated, poorly educated, from a very homogeneous culture… While like everywhere, the population is diverse ethnically, sexually.
This is why Demon's best friend is gay and the female characters have also been modernized, from Demon's mother who is the first to let him down, to June who is strong, strong-willed, non-conformist, and determined not to let it go, through his adoptive mother or Angus, his confidante.
I also had to ensure that Demon's voice remained in our heads, that we could identify with his thirst for love as well as his cynicism, project ourselves into his emotions and follow in his footsteps.
Is that why you chose the novel and not the essay?
Yes.
The system of foster children is managed, as is often the case in America, like a business that must make a profit, and children considered and treated as products.
This is the reason for its failure: the priority is not the well-being of those placed but profitability.
The social system is collapsing and there are very few options, very few solutions for those suffering from addiction.
I work through fiction to find the weakness in the armor.
Diaries and essays are important, but the novel operates differently.
It allows you to get into the head and skin of a character.
His mother becomes yours, his experience becomes yours, his existence becomes yours.
An investigation is aimed at your brain, fiction at your heart.
That's all the difference.
If we want to change the world, we must start by changing the way people look at the world, and that is our job, as novelists.