Early Sobrieties was a really interesting and engaging read. I appreciated the character exploration and would read more from Deagler.

This is an interesting exploration of sobriety - one that highlights nuance and the uncertainty. As Dennis Monk moves through the novel, we see him trying to build a life at the age of 27 (i.e. this is a great saturn return novel lol) which is counter to everything he has previously known and experienced.

This book was outside my normal genres but when I read the synopsis I knew I needed to read it. As someone who spent a lot of time partying in college and is now sober but still works in bars - this one packed a punch.

I typically struggle with books that are character driven and lack plot, but Early Sobrieties follows Dennis Monk through a series of stories and living situations as he navigates being a recovering alcoholic. Monk finds himself in a bunch of crazy scenarios, and shows the reader what it’s like to have life happen to them, vs. actually living. I loved reading from his perspective - an Irish-Catholic Philadelphian with a love for the city and a mild disdain for the gentrification around him.

The writing in this book was amazing and I can’t wait to check out more from the author. While navigating such a serious topic, he still manages to find the humor in situations and I laughed out loud a couple of times. Check this one out if you have ever struggled with addiction, have family that has, or want to understand the mind of someone in recovery!

**Thank you to NetGalley and Astra House Books for the eARC of this title. Quotes below may be changed in final publication.**

Quotes:

“How can you ever change if every mistake and humiliation of your life is folklore for those who witnessed it?”

“An anecdote in the mouths of those whose fate sat on the stool next to you while you were young and brutal and gullible and scared?”

“I was sensible. I’d stuck to alcohol, a substance so wholesome they served it in church.”

So glad I cam across this debut; it is full of clear, evocative, and tender writing. Writing is tight and attentive to feeling which really creates a visceral experience of time and space. The author has a convincing grasp of reality and convention that creates a meaningful and nostalgic narrative. Absolutely nailed it as a modern day Jesus' Son.

I am sober. I’m not as early in my sobriety as Dennis Monk, the main character in Michael Deagler’s Early Sobrieties, but I can definitely relate to many of the experiences Dennis encounters in his first year of sobriety. After his parents ask him and his brother to move out the novel follows Dennis as he moves from couch to couch in Philadelphia, making sobriety his sole focus.

The structure of the book feels a bit like short stories; they are firmly connected through Dennis and a few recurring characters, but each chapter places Dennis in different situations and settings as he inches closer to the one year sober mark. Normally I might be put off by this style but it brilliantly fed into the unmoored feeling of being newly sober. The feeling of separating yourself from the thing you have centered your life around (in this case alcohol) is so well represented by Monk’s movement from place to place, never settling anywhere, just drifting around trying to find somewhere to anchor. At the same time, it creates a sense that a steady anchor isn’t necessary because really all that matters is the present.

I sometimes talk about books that have the ability to evoke not only thoughts but feelings and this one does both. Undoubtedly some of the feeling for me comes from a personal connection to the story, but I’m sure some of it is more universal. The depths of emotion Deagler pens faithfully depict the highs and lows of life, which is the gift many get when they decide to stop using their substance of choice and feel their feelings. It’s definitely been that way for me.

I appreciate that this depicts a journey to sobriety outside of the 12 steps which is often centered in recovery stories. It reinforces the fact that journeys to sobriety are as individual and different as the people taking them and regardless of the path there are still shared threads of common experience. It also depicts the reality that sober people still have to figure out how to exist in the world; just because a person changes doesn’t mean the environment they exist in has.

For me this is a book about living. Not living the grand lives we may have dreamed of as a kid but the lives that reality gives us and finding peace in just one day. One of my favorite passages out of the Alcoholics Anonymous “Big Book” has to do with acceptance being the key to problems. And I loved walking along with Monk as he moved toward acceptance and settled into the new life he had been given through sobriety. Whether you are an addict or not there is something beautiful to be found in these pages. I would definitely recommend this one.

Thank you Astra House Books and Netgalley for the gifted ARC.

I requested this e-galley because of the comparison to Denis Johnson, which, in reading the novel now, doesn't feel totally correct, but what I read was just as profound. A poignant novel on sobriety, and change vs stuckness. There's a briskness to the prose that I enjoyed, too.

I'll be thinking about this novel for a while.

Also, Astra House has been publishing some of the most exciting fiction these past few years??? I will read anything they publish at this point.

Thank you for the e-galley!

Picture this: You’re a former blackout drunk navigating your first booze-free summer back in Philly. No, it’s not the setup for a sitcom, it’s Michael Deagler’s pitch-perfect debut, Early Sobrieties.

This book isn’t just about staying dry; it's a deep dive into trying to glue back a life with sobriety superglue. Think of it as a quarter-life crisis with a twist—hold the vodka.

Deagler serves up a slice of life that’s equal parts hilarious and heart-wrenching. Our protagonist, Dennis, isn’t just trying to avoid the bottle—he’s wrestling with who he is without it. And let me tell you, his inner landscape has more ups and downs than a rollercoaster at Six Flags.

The writing? Sharp as a tack dipped in witty sauce. Every page simmers with the kind of humor that only comes when life's been both a mess and a half.

So, if you're in the mood for a tale that’s a little raw, a tad gritty, and a whole lot insightful, give Early Sobrieties a go. It’s like a sobering slap followed by a comforting hug.

When the novel opens, 26 year old Dennis Monk is back living in his parents’ house in Buck’s County, Pennsylvania. Monk sheepishly observes that when his father was 26, he had been with the post office for four years and had a wife and an apartment. Even Monk’s younger brother, Owen, a recent college graduate, has plans: he is off to San Francisco with a buddy to “get tech jobs,” although he comes to realize that you “can’t show up in Silicon Valley and get a job off the street” so he decides to move to New York and get a finance job and, later, plans to drive to Corpus Christie and find a job on an oil rig.

Monk is a recovering alcoholic. He totaled a car at twenty-one, lost his first job at twenty-two, and booze killed his best friend at twenty-three. After eight years of “ceaseless boozing,” he is now 7 months sober. After his skeptical parents kick him out of their home when he fails to secure employment, the novel follows Monk as he shares housing with old friends, many of whom seem to have lives more precarious then Monk’s, takes on a series of odd jobs, and visits the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of his youth.

What makes the novel special is Monk’s wry insights. When he describes Marc Dogana, a guy with whom he had spent a lot of time drinking and with whom Monk is couch surfing, he says, Dogman was an accountant in the Philadelphia office of one of the country’s largest banks. Boring job with a modest salary, “but the Dogman presented himself like a Wall Street bond trader in 1987 — a figure of surplus and insouciance.” Deagler eschews the typical alcoholic redemption arc and, instead, focuses on how Monk handles his fragile sobriety in a novel that is laugh out loud funny. Thank you Astra House and Net Galley for an advance copy of this captivating novel that introduces readers to the unforgettable Monk.

This book is deep, heartfelt and even a little funny. The book follows 26- year-old Dennis Monk’s itinerant first year of sobriety. He is forced to leave his parents’ house where he was staying and ends back in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. He spends his time couch surfing with friends and bouncing around between jobs, trying to find his place in the world without alcohol. The story unfolds in a realistically unpredictable way that reminds you of the complexities of being human. Each of the characters are painted in a believable manner that forces you into the mind of Monk but also makes you pause to reflect on the complicated nature of other humans. The book reminds you of what it’s like to struggle to find yourself in a world that appears to have changed from the one you were promised as a kid. It forces you to see the world from multiple sides and slows down the side of you that wants to judge things that are different. This book is a simple character driven novel that delivers an amazing story with an amazing cast of characters.

This is the story of Dennis Monk. Monk has quite drinking and is drifting around his home town of Philadelphia, sleeping on friends and relatives couches, washing dishes to pay for his meagre expenses and trying to process where he is in life, and maybe work out where he is going. The structure of the novel is novel - each chapter starts with a new residence, but the previous chapters do not actively end with the end of each tenancy.
This was a book that made me (is still making me) think. Monk and his friends are neither likeable nor unlikable, although one of the key features of the book (for me) is that he always has somewhere to go. Ultimately this is a book about growing up, not so much a coming of age novel and a book about the current age. I'm glad I read this thoughtful, occasionally frustrating book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

This one was a slow exploration of a first year in sobriety. A lot of this novel was more vibes driven as Dennis interacts with various people to see where he fits in life. Deagler is definitely a talented writer and I thought he constructed a plausible story with a realistic scenario. Deagler’s command of language was also impressive. I couldn’t always relate to Dennis but there might be people that can relate to him more.

Thank you Astra House for the ARC of this one.

Dennis Monk returns to Philadelphia at the beginning of Michael Deagler’s EARLY SOBRIETIES, newly sober. He spends his days horny and spottily-employed and couch surfing in the company of people from his past. People who once tied him to his addiction like it was his only identity, do the same at first to his sobriety, as he struggles to recalibrate his life into something more. For Monk, staying sober day-to-day is hard enough, leaving seemingly no space to even imagine what a future beyond that holds. Each day, a new temptation: the friend that orders booze while he sips on water, the bottle of gin thrust in his hands while an acquaintance flees from a crime scene, the drunk he helps even as their behavior brings out every insecurity he has about his blackout past. A past that includes sins and bad behavior he isn’t sure how to atone for, a death of a friend whose ghost he can’t seem to leave behind. There is a certain part of Monk that can’t seem to work out whether his addiction inherently means there is something bad inside of him, whether taking away the drink will leave behind a violence rotting in his soul. “Addition and sobriety are different cities,” a friend tells him, and it seems this mirrors his experience of returning to Philadelphia as well, as he rediscovers a changing and gentrifying city and people he thought he once thought he knew inside of it.

EARLY SOBRIETIES can be described as a series of connected chronological encounters. I like how time is loose here; there is a leisure to it, and when I say “leisure” I mean in an anti-capitalist way, because while Monk is rebuilding the small components of his life he is also rejecting what one character calls tough love, as in pull-yourself-together-and-get-a-real-job-like-a-real-adult. EARLY SOBRIETIES really shows us that the precarity of addiction doesn’t always allow for this. It is not easy to like Monk at times; his judgment of himself sometimes reflects as judgement on others, but you can’t help but root for him, because he is trying, trying with the people around him, fighting the individuality of addiction, of sobriety, of disability. Trying towards the possibility of a future stretching out before him each day he remains alive.

Thank you again Astra House for sending me this gifted book! EARLY SOBRIETIES is out May 7.

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.

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 have 13+ years of sobriety, thought this book would be good to read, and found out I didn't really enjoy the book. Follow the year-long journey into sobriety, a book of couch hopping, and the highs/lows that happened to Dennis Monk. I would have enjoyed stories of his drunken shenanigans, but the author didn't go there. Sobriety is hard, especially without AA helping you learn from others.
Thanks to Astra House and NetGalley for this ARC.

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 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!

The protagonist, Dennis Monk, goes through some pretty wild times as he works his way back to sobriety. Deagler’s novel attempts to tell the story of recovery through humor and self-reflection. I didn’t find it to be as engaging as I thought it would be. The interactions with old friends and a possible relationship felt a bit forced. Deagler tries to tell the story in a way that doesn’t really work for me. He tries to paint a picture of recovery that’s full of insight, but it just falls a little short.

“Early Sobrieties” by Michael Deagler is a raw and striking debut novel that delves into the themes of redemption and recovery. The story follows Dennis Monk, a 26-year-old man who is about to spend his first summer sober. As he navigates his newfound sobriety, he grapples with the challenges of rejoining sensible adult life, while also confronting his past through run-ins with former classmates, estranged drinking buddies, and prospective lovers. Deagler’s novel offers a poignant and unflinching portrayal of the complexities of addiction and the journey toward recovery. The author’s ability to capture the internal and external struggles of the protagonist adds depth and authenticity to the narrative, making it a truly intelligent work that offers profound insights into the human experience.

One of the most compelling aspects of the novel is its ability to shed light on the day-to-day realities of early sobriety. The story avoids sensationalism and instead focuses on the nuances of Dennis’s experiences, offering a realistic and relatable portrayal of the challenges and triumphs that come with embracing a life of sobriety. This approach allows the novel to resonate deeply with readers who may have similar experiences, as well as those who seek a better understanding of the complexities of addiction and recovery. While the novel’s focus on the day-to-day realities of early sobriety may be seen as monotonous by some readers, it is this very quality that adds to the authenticity and relatability of the narrative. Deagler’s decision to avoid melodrama and instead focus on the quiet, internal battles of the protagonist is a testament to his skill as a writer, as it allows the novel to offer a truly immersive and thought-provoking reading experience.

In conclusion, “Early Sobrieties” by Michael Deagler is a compelling and thought-provoking novel that offers a raw and unflinching portrayal of the complexities of addiction and the journey toward recovery. The book’s engaging narrative, well-developed characters, and the author’s ability to capture the day-to-day realities of early sobriety make it a valuable and inspiring read for fans of literary fiction. Deagler’s attention to detail, vivid imagery, and multifaceted portrayal of the protagonist add authenticity and depth to the novel, making it a truly intelligent work that offers profound insights into the human experience.

I’m not really sure what I expected from this book but it was a bit of a let down for me. Chapters seemingly ended out of nowhere and it felt like reading a thesaurus.