Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Demon Copperhead (Bookshop|Amazon) is a modern retelling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield (Bookshop|Amazon). Set in Appalachia, it won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. When Martha interviewed Kingsolver at her rustic family farmhouse in Virginia for a newspaper story years ago, Kingsolver was adamant that Appalachians were among the last groups in America it was still acceptable to make fun of. Longtime listeners of this show will recognize many features of the rich Appalachian dialect, including the “punctual” whenever. Actor Charlie Thurston does a splendid job narrating the audio version of Demon Copperhead. This is part of a complete episode.
When you’re talking about the location of an inanimate object, is it okay to say that it lives there, as in The peanut butter lives in that cabinet or The flashlight lives on that shelf? Strictly speaking, of course, that object isn’t...
Sean in Oneonta, New York, says that when he was growing up in New Jersey, his family would pile in the car and set off on a surprise adventure, whether a short distance or long, and the kids would be told only that they were going on Buxtehude...
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