Of the seven species Homo, only Sapiens survived, because evolution gave us imagination. Yet managing modern chaos, we cage and kill claiming, “It’s a zoo out there.” Michael Deagler’s novel Early Sobrieties extends the zoo metaphor into a conceit as we follow 26-year-old Monk—Dennis Monk—along his sober quest for identity after nine years of blackout drinking.
Deagler’s picaresque novel is a frightfully accurate illustration of will-powered abstinence stumbling through a jungle of good intentions, confusion, and temptation. Monk’s missteps in sobriety include tagging along on a meth run, insisting he’s “just” there as moral support. Deagler’s witty prose, like “Silence swung between us,” enriches the narrative, making Monk’s meanderings genuinely entertaining.
The novel’s settings, suburban Pennsylvania and South Philadelphia, are enriched with cultural references to Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, Manhattan, Aleppo, and Catholic mortification of the flesh. Curiously diverse characters, witty intrigue, and Monk’s pluck inspire readers to root for him without realizing it’s his relapse process they cheer. With action and banter this brisk, some will even be lulled into co-dependence with Monk.
Monk truly fights to protect his sobriety. But he confuses sobriety, what a cop’s breathalyzer measures, with recovery, intentional healing, and growth that would enable him to meet his needs to love and be loved. His “dry drunk” confusion reveals the bestial cunning of addiction, as Monk convinces himself he can control this disease without help.
He’s been in treatment before, so part of him knows his anxieties, depression, and shame will persist even with abstinence. Deagler masterfully portrays the torment of white-knuckle sobriety, Monk’s cognitively distorted brain and hyper-aroused nervous system flailing against cravings, floods of emotion, and painful memories throughout his year-long quest.
To resist temptation, Monk rides the “Night Owl,” the all-night bus. Colorful characters, some of whom should know better, unknowingly reinforce his denial. His younger brother mocks Monk’s sobriety as weakness, while Monk’s faith in his own righteous will prevents him from asking for help. No one hips Monk to grim truth, that addiction has hijacked his judgment, leaving him unable to trust himself.
In the context of this enabling, his conflation of sincere courage with ego-driven pride drives Monk, and the hooked reader, in the direction of tragedy. While Deagler employs pop psychology dramatically, he obscures the lethality of a common but complex disease entangling common human needs.
On the day he’s achieved a full year of sobriety, Monk invites his brother to celebrate. His brother tells him a family friend, a woman Monk had a fling with at the start of the year, has attempted self-immolation and may not survive. Pushing grief down, Monk simply says, “Let’s go to the zoo.”
Deagler’s brilliance lies in subtly guiding readers toward a grand tragic irony: humanity must find the patience to wait for the evolutionary milestone when our bestial drives and the intelligent imagination that made Sapiens the fittest of species, finally cooperate.
Reviewed by E. Douglas Pratt, DSW, LCSW (retired). For 42 years Pratt’s practice integrated the psychotherapist role with that of the organizational development consultant to large behavioral health systems. Thirty-six years of continuous recovery enabled him to develop sub-specializations in neuro-science informed milieu therapy for the integrated treatment of dual disorders.