Dick, a blunt and bawdy Philly sports fan, finds himself in an assisted living facility following a stroke. Determined to regain his independence, he does daily laps around the grounds with his quad cane. But when recovery never comes, and days swell into years, Dick finds purpose instead by studying his fellow residents, chronicling their odd obsessions and their nasty arguments, their breakdowns, their drunken debaucheries—and yes, even their sexual escapades.
Dwell Here and Prosper is a gritty but heartfelt novel, heavily informed by the author’s father and his experiences in assisted living near Philadelphia in the 90s. With its set of memorable outcasts—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 twenty-six-year-old whose teeth mysteriously fell out, a middle-aged alcoholic who prostitutes herself to other residents for booze and cigarettes—it’s a One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for a different generation and a different kind of institution. This timeless book offers a funny yet honest meditation on aging and community, and what it means to thrive in purgatory.
Download and start listening now!
“Eagle’s Dwell Here and Prosper is a pointed and poignant account of the American convalescent home system. Based on his own father’s journals, it offers a rare and deeply moving record of the daily routine in these underfunded institutions. Leaving nothing to the imagination, Eagle describes with wit and a keen eye for detail how the American health care system deals with those who are pitched precariously between homelessness and mental health units. It is a story of one man’s struggle to retain a sense of control even as he realizes his humbling journey of endurance is all he might have left. Not since Kesey or Ernaux has the desperation, brutality, and inevitability of the care home hit home so powerfully.”
—
Michael O’Sullivan, author of Lockdown Lovers