Book Review: Early Sobrieties

Early Sobrieties
by Michael Deagler
Review by Renata

Tales of drunks and drinking fill the literary canon, but when writer Michael Deagler got sober, he couldn’t find much outside the memoir section that explored that experience. The novel he wrote in response is a spare, affecting picture of a young man trying to pin his fragile sobriety to a version of self and future that he can believe in. As his fallible protagonist – the wryly named Denis Monk – bounces between friends’ couches and gig jobs, Deagler draws real insight from his stumbling, determined attempts at connection. Monk is no plaster saint, but this makes his genuine transformation – realised one dogged day at a time – all the more illuminating. This funny, fresh and surprising debut avoids all the cliches of the redemptive arc and delivers a nuanced picture of what it really takes to change.

For fans of Ben Lerner and Jonathan Franzen