Michael Deagler On The Rich Territory Of Sobriety
Dennis Monk is a newly sober twenty-six-year-old figuring out the next steps of his life. When his mother tells him he can’t live at home in the suburbs any longer, Dennis couch surfs with various friends and acquaintances throughout South Philadelphia. Michael Deagler’s wry and incisive Early Sobrieties charts Dennis’s first sober summer as he navigates the complexities of this new phase and cautiously forms a plan for his future. Through it all, Dennis proves to be a winningly perceptive narrator, describing his various housemates with wit and compassion as he makes his way through the ever-changing neighborhoods of South Philadelphia. Deagler spoke with us about how achieving distance from his initial manuscript strengthened the novel, writing a book that was funnier than his friends expected, and the dramatically rich terrain of sobriety.
