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A Novel
by Michael Deagler
Book Reviewed by:Like a sober, millennial Jesus' Son, Michael Deagler's debut novel is the poignant confession of a recovering addict adrift in the fragmenting landscape of America's middle class.
Don't worry about what Dennis Monk did when he was drinking. He's sober now, ready to rejoin the world of leases and paychecks, reciprocal friendships and healthy romances—if only the world would agree to take him back. When his working-stiff parents kick him out of their suburban home, mere months into his frangible sobriety, the 26-year-old spends his first dry summer couch surfing through South Philadelphia, struggling to find a place for himself in the throng of adulthood.
Monk's haphazard pilgrimage leads him through a city in flux: growing, gentrifying, haunted by its history and its unrealized potential. Everyone he knew from college seems to be doing better than him—and most of them aren't even doing that well. His run-ins with former classmates, estranged drinking buddies, and prospective lovers challenge his version of events past and present, revealing that recovery is not the happy ending he'd expected, only a fraught next chapter.
Shot through with humor, hubris, and hard-earned insight, Early Sobrieties charts the limbos that exist between our better and worst selves, offering a portrait of a stifled generation collectively slouching towards grace.
PASSYUNK
News of my sobriety had spread throughout the land, at least among a certain subset of individuals for whom sobriety was a rare and ill- considered state. It was Oktoberfest at the Brauhaus, which, in the name of public merriment, had shut down a block of South Street in order to validate a lot of debased and antisocial behavior. Not that such conduct didn't occur nightly on South Street, but the Brauhaus had welcomed it into the reputable light of day—to the accompaniment of Schlager and Volksmusik no less—which surely represented, if not an act of outright delinquency, at least some form of civic negligence. I came for a soft pretzel and to reaffirm my own constructive life choices.
Philadelphia was a small town when you got down to it, particularly if you sifted out those people for whom the Brauhaus Oktoberfest held little appeal. I ran into a number of acquaintances. Katie Doran was working the pretzel stand, and I imagine she mentioned my presence to Lilah Noth...
Despite the frequent urge to grab Monk by the shoulders and give him a good shake, his character grew on me. The book begins with him at a few fragile months of sobriety, and one would be mistaken thinking this was a sort of turning point in his recovery, as if everything before the start was old/drunk Monk and everything after a happy ending. As Deagler illustrates for us, and as anyone who has ever supported themselves or a loved one through recovery can confirm, there is no narrative turning point that marks the before and after of sobriety. If there was any such moment, one could call it the day that Monk decided to get sober. But how did he know that this time it would stick? Early Sobrieties highlights poignantly that in the battle against addiction, each day is an ongoing fight to stay away from your drug of choice and to continue the process of rebuilding your life...continued
Full Review
(846 words)
(Reviewed by Pei Chen).
Aimee Bender, author of The Butterfly Lampshade
Illuminating and moving—Deagler's debut pulls in a reader with such an inviting clarity. There's something about the honesty in this voice that creates a lot of room for the reader to connect, imagine, and feel. Percival Everett, 2023 Windham Campbell Prize recipient and author of Dr. No
Michael Deagler is the real deal. This novel is surprising in all the best ways. The actions of the complex and complicated people in this world are not predictable, but always, frighteningly, believable. Deagler writes with great control and understatement. This is a truly intelligent work from a clearly intelligent writer.
After Michael Deagler's protagonist Dennis Monk in Early Sobrieties is ejected from his parent's house in suburban Bucks County, he drifts, as many former small-town and suburban kids do, to the nearest big city. As much as Early Sobrieties is a book about new starts to life, it is also an ode to South Philadelphia, which officially became included in the city proper starting in 1854 and has changed in many ways since then. South Philly neighborhoods feature prominently in chapters of Deagler's novel, from Southwark ("Southwark") to Grays Ferry ("Kid Stuff") and Moyamensing ("Moyamensing").
The area that is now South Philadelphia was first inhabited by the Lenape, then by Dutch settlers, and over time took on the cultural identities ...
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