This is not so much a retelling or updating of the Dickens epic, more an echo or parallel. Demon narrates his life story from birth to early adulthood spent in rural Kentucky. His circumstances begin badly and rapidly worsen with a few bright spots that turn out to be false dawns. As ever, it’s the hope that kills.
The style of the first person narration reflects the upbringing of young Demon, who is intelligent but streetwise rather than educated. So the prose doesn’t exactly flow, peppered with US slang and adolescent whining – authentic but not easy on the eye. This wears off both as Demon matures and the reader attunes.
The backdrop to the story is increasingly the US opioid epidemic that affected the cash-poor communities Demon moves in, experiencing first-hand the devastating effects on lives.
As for the paralleling, it is not heavy handed. Names are cleverly echoed, and the female characters are given more prominence and feistiness. Inevitably, to those familiar with the original, the plot holds no surprises, though climactic events remain tense and moving.
A curiosity worth
the 600 page investment? The jury is out.
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