Early Sobrieties

A story about when one person gets sober but the others around him do not, nor have much regard for his sobriety. Reading this, I found Monk to be acquiescing to the realities of his lifelong peers and not doing much work on himself to create a new reality for himself. Brand new feathers on the same old bird.

Deagler has written one heck of a novel.
As the title suggests, this book is about one young man who gets sober and deals with all that entails.

His parents kick him out of their home when he is newly sober. He relies on the kindness of his friends as he couch surfs with them all. He deals with all of the issues confronting the newly sober in a world that they are navigating for the first time.

He encounters former friends that he drank with, former classmates and others that he knew when he was drunk. He finds sobriety and the accompanying adulthood tough roads to ho.

This book is a good look at what is a really hard time for the newly sober. I have been sober decades and found this book true to form in the issues - and the young man himself.

Thank you to Astra House and NetGalley for this ARC of Michael Deagler's 'Early Sobrieties.'

We follow Dennis Monk as he spends his first year of sobriety couch-surfing with friends (new and old) and acquaintances all over South Philadelphia after a decade or more of wanton drunkenness.

I wouldn't say that this is an overly original narrative or theme but I can say it's highly enjoyable due to the warmth and humor that the author injects into his characters and story and also for the way in which he makes South Philly and its myriad and changing neighborhoods into one of the indelible characters in the novel.

Monk - a son of a blue collar Bucks County family - is a recovering alcoholic who eschews the 12 steps and figures that his getting sober is reward enough for the people he might've harmed along the way. He starts off in the novel self-righteously proclaiming his sobriety to all and sundry but comes to loathe having to explain himself.

It's an interesting structure, while there are characters who have a thread throughout the book we engage pretty deeply with each new housemate for a while and then, all of a sudden, he's in a new spot with a new housemate and the previous one and the reason for their jettisoning not discussed and we never hear from them again in most cases. I eventually liked it because I think it reflect the disjointed nature and lack of forethought to his meanderings across South Philly for that year.

Monk is a great character - very human and with all the nuances and burgeoning self-awareness you'd hope to see - and all of the consistent and fleeting characters that appear in the book are also very enjoyable - from the blue collar no-nonsense mailman father to sex club owning neighbor we meet briefly towards the end.

I'm not sure what the approach would be but I would love to know more about what happens next for Monk.

This book is as fascinating as it is monotonous. It’s truly just plodding along in someone’s first year of sobriety, which I imagine can be quite boring compared to their lives before. This book for me was a slow delight and a chance to get to know a man named Dennis, a man working hard to get his life back. A refreshing change of pace after other books I’ve read recently.

Thank you NetGalley and Astra House (maybe my new favorite indie) for the ARC!

I don't normally love coming-of-age stories about dysfunctional young men (did we not grow up with so many of them), but this book reeled me in with one of the best opening lines I've read all year: "Like all mailmen, my father hated James Farley, William Kendall, and Herodotus." It's just out of nowhere--I know nothing about mailmen, this guy's father, or any of these three characters/historical figures, but now I want to! This is a great book about the often simultaneous challenge of adapting to one's adult self and kicking a brutal addiction (while trying to build a career as a journalist). Places and spaces are described stunningly, from kitchens to landscapes, but even more so the fight to stay alive when the world assumes you have your whole life ahead of you. And, as our protagonist adds about wrestling away one's life from the jaws of death..."Then what?" Looking forward to much much more from Michael Deagler!

Gah, I loved this book so much. I rarely enjoy collections of linked short stories, which I would consider this to be, but Deagler's character drew me into the mess of his world. This is a book that made me think about young life, sobriety, and Philadelphia differently. My favorite moments came in the interactions between people who he thought he knew and people who thought they knew him and the disconnects that took place. I'll be thinking about his carpet removal of the old house for a long time, and the way it idolized work (in a way not dissimilar to the book's commentary on the post office). All this to say, read it. This book is funny and true and great.

Thank you so much for this arc. It really means a lot to me because I am in recovery. This book really pulled at my heart strings and brought back memories and feelings from when I was getting sober.

I love how every chapter felt like a short story. Dennis is one of the most frustrating but lovable characters I have ever read. This is an easy read and makes you root for everyone who has ever had an addiction.