Page 8 - Italian-American Herald - June 2023

8 ITALIANAMERICANHERALD.COM | JUNE2023 ITALIAN-AMERICANHERALD BOOK REVIEW
‘Dwell Here’: Novel based on father’s diaries filled with Philly memories
Continued from front page
unmistakable, but Eagle also lays bare the realities of the nation’s broken eldercare system, particularly among those who have no voice regarding where they spend their final years.
While the father’s diaries document the eccentricities of the people he met, his son uses their stories to illuminate the fallout from the closure of state mental hospitals and the impact that privatizing mental health care has on the mentally ill.
It’s easy to see the similarities between Dick Eagle and Kesey’s Chief Bromden in “Cuckoo’s Nest” as they describe institutional life that is by turns comedic, disturbing and heartbreaking. Chief Bromden’s descriptions were sometimes hallucinatory, because, after all, he was a diagnosed schizophrenic.
But Dick Eagle is unquestionably of sound mind. The only thing broken is his body, hobbled by the stroke that landed him in this situation in the first place.
In his introduction to “Dwell Here,” the author describes his father’s eye-opening arrival at one of a series of nursing facilities:
“The place [his social worker] sent him
to was shockingly filthy, disorganized, full of middle-aged schizophrenics, alcoholics, and addicts. One look around the yard told me Dad was the oldest person there. I couldn’t have put things in these terms at the time,
but what I was witnessing first-hand from the second we got out of the car was the downside of the anti-psychiatry movement. For all its triumphalism over the closures of state mental hospitals, a victory I mostly agree with, we’ve never given much thought in this country to what should have replaced them.”
Determined to regain his independence
after the stroke, Dick walks the grounds with his quad cane. But when recovery never comes, Dick finds purpose in fly-on-the-wall observations
of the other fellow residents, chronicling their odd obsessions and their nasty arguments, their breakdowns, drunken debaucheries and their sexual escapades.
He meets memorable
outcasts including a shady jokester who insists
he worked
for the FBI, a
schizophrenic
Catholic who
roams local
cemeteries at
night in search
of the Virgin Mary, a 26-year-old whose teeth mysteriously fell out, and a middle-aged alcoholic who prostitutes herself to other residents for booze and cigarettes.
Because Dick Eagle was a lifelong Philadelphia sports fan, the book is filled with nostalgic Philly sports history such as the disastrous draftings of Mike Mamula and Shawn Bradley, the 1993 pennant and the 1994 baseball strike, and Rich Kotite’s
last season as Eagles coach with its 7-2 start and 0-7 finish.
Originally from Delaware County, the author has lived in Berkeley, Paris, Antwerp, Pasadena, Sydney, Berlin, Chicago, and now Atlanta, where he teaches Health Humanities at Emory University. He is currently at work on a short story collection set in Delco. IAH
BOOK TOUR
Chris Eagle plans several area appearances in connection with his new book “Dwell Here and Prosper.”
JUNE 8
CENTER CITY PHILADELPHIA Dirty Frank’s 347 S. 13th St.
Signing event 6 to 8 p.m. (Ages 21 and older)
JUNE 10
MEDIA, PA.
Off the Rail
109 W. State St.
Launch party 2 to 5 p.m.
JUNE 11
WEST CHESTER, PA.
Baldwin’s Book Barn 865 Lenape Road.
Signing event 2 to 4 p.m.
Chris Eagle, author of “Dwell Here and Prosper.”
COURTESY OF MICHAEL BONASERA
Echoes of Ken Kesey’s seminal work “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” are unmistakable, but Eagle also lays bare the realities of the nation’s broken eldercare system, particularly among those who have no voice regarding where they spend their final years.