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The references to metal and "bear the marks of what has gone before" made me think of kintsugi where the gold repairs still show on the pottery as imperfections. The breakage and repair is part of its history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi

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i’m so dubious of the word “resilient” as a calque from metallurgy hopefully applied to the shape & form of human character.
we do not bounce back to our original shape; we bear the marks of what has gone before. in practice all it means is we have not yet obviously broken; that we’ve resumed some observable function regardless of any stress fractures or crystalline defects left behind by the deformation.
at least we’re not talking about annealing.

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When Mr. Golly told Demon about his people back home and said it sounded like he was saying "Dolly," but Demon was a child so he couldn't understand how that could be real, I knew then (and Demon realizes later in the book) that Mr Golly was talking about "Dalits." When Demon compared it to his own no-touch life, it made me think about the book Caste that we read in the other book club.

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I have been thinking about this novel a lot, but I feel a little tired and unfocused today so I don't know where to start.

I thought this article was interesting.

"...I talked to Kingsolver about how J.D. Vance portrays Appalachia, about leaving home and coming back, and about the forgotten history of Appalachian progressivism..."

https://slate.com/culture/2022/10/barbara-kingsolver-interview-demon-copperhead-appalachia-identity-politics.html

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I liked her style and pacing. I appreciated the humor throughout since much of the subject matter and circumstances the characters were in was pretty sad. I liked him being the narrator, walking us through his story, even trying to figure out for himself where things went right and wrong.

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1. Yes, I would recommend this book. I even made a Facebook post recommending it to family and friends today. I also shared some articles related to the book and some history of the region, particularly focusing on Kingsolver's depiction of Appalachia (who actually grew up there and lives there now) vs the view from someone who didn't actually live there (e.g. JD Vance).

@t0 #ChattrbxBookClub #DemonCopperhead I too wonder if there was anything familiar for any of our readers.

@BookClub #ChattrbxBookClub #DemonCopperhead the writing style worked for me. i continue to cite the narrative voice as maybe the book’s strongest feature. she does such a natural feeling job (to my ear) of capturing dialectal & generational nuance of diction & phrase, which pairs well with seeing the whole world unfold through the lens of demon’s perspective.
pacing was good, held me firm. perhaps a bit artificially episodic, but that didn’t feel out of place. the overall arcs were well served.