“Like all Irish Catholic families, mine was suspicious of admitted alcoholics,” says Dennis Monk, the narrator of Michael Deagler’s Early Sobrieties. This is a problem, because Dennis Monk is newly sober and staying with his parents in the Pennsylvania suburbs. “An admission of alcoholism meant that a frank conversation was about to be had, and an Irish Catholic family abhors nothing so much as a frank conversation.” Instead of risking such a conversation, his mother kicks him out of the house.
Read Full Article »
