Early Sobrieties

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 parents kick him out of their suburban home, mere months into his frangible sobriety, the twenty-six-year-old spends his first dry summer couch surfing through South Philadelphia, struggling to find a place for himself. Monk's haphazard pilgrimage leads him...
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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 parents kick him out of their suburban home, mere months into his frangible sobriety, the twenty-six-year-old spends his first dry summer couch surfing through South Philadelphia, struggling to find a place for himself. 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. 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. 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.