Mango Press
paperback, 2020
fiction, 239 pages
Carter Kirchner struggles to stay sane and sober as a counselor on Six West, an adolescent drug treatment center run by a hard-drinking nun with an MBA. The young man is caught between Sister Mary Xavier’s plan to rescue the center by reforming a hard case kid and the dysfunctional staff’s clumsy plan to intervene on their boss’s drinking. Meanwhile, Carter’s mother–who never forgave him for giving up a promising hockey career to treat his own addiction–lands in the hospital with an advanced case of cirrhosis. Before Carter can help the young addict commissioned to his care or safely navigate the staff’s dysfunctional intervention effort, he must rescue himself from his family’s past.
What they’re saying about A Clean Heart:
“With echoes of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Rosengren writes with great empathy for the misfits and outsiders of Six West (whose halls are stalked by the unforgettable Sister X). A Clean Heart grapples with life’s most difficult puzzles: how we navigate the tangled bonds of family, and how we save ourselves, ultimately, by becoming vulnerable. A redemptive and affecting novel.”
–Will McGrath, author of Everything Lost Is Found Again
In A Clean Heart, John Rosengren has created a wonderfully empathetic protagonist Carter and a wonderfully complicated situation. After seven years in AA, Carter finds himself being tested both by a new patient at the rehabilitation unit where he works, and by his boss, the charismatic Sister Xavier. The result is a gripping and suspenseful novel about the dangerous art of helping.
–Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy
In his powerful new book, A Clean Heart, John Rosengren reminds us that the journey of body and soul is best taken with another, or others, that somehow tie their healing to our own. Set in a rehab center for teens, each level of recovery–or descent–is housed in a character. Whether client or employee, they are recognizable, flawed, at times hilarious and lovable in their struggles. This is a book of lessons and offered insights, but never at the expense of a well-told and gripping story.
–Kevin Kling, author of The Dog Says How and Holiday Inn
“Rosengren’s A Clean Heart thrums with vibrant characters yearning to do the right thing, often at great personal cost to themselves. Witty and totally absorbing, here is a novel about helping those snared by drugs and alcohol see that they, too, are worthy of love. Along the way, the characters learn that painful memories and secrets are a type of drug in their own right—that the past is just as mind altering and addictive as anything found in a syringe or shot glass. Both heart-breaking and heart-lifting, this is a narrative about coming clean that will haunt the imagination long after the last page has been read. Spellbinding, mesmerizing, and deeply human, this is fiction about the toxins and tonics that beat in all of our hearts.”
–Patrick Hicks, author of The Commandant of Lubizec and Library of the Mind
“Set in 1991 in the early days of chemical dependency treatment, John Rosengren’s A Clean Heart follows the daily routine of Carter, a young counselor at a teen treatment facility. The book, which switches back and forth from Carter’s troubled childhood to present day, provides a wealth of details and insight into the daily life and struggles of both staff and residents at a typical treatment center of the time. A novel that will strike a chord with readers wrestling with substance abuse, the Catholic faith, or family trauma.”
–Alison McGhee, author of Shadow Baby and Never Coming Back
“A Clean Heart picks at the knot of addiction and recovery insistently and with a wholesomeness intriguingly at odds with its subject. I enjoyed this book.”
–Thomas Beller, author of The Sleep-Over Artist
Review & Media
“It was like reading one of my favorite Dean Koontz books, only the evil in this book was the disease of alcoholism and drug addiction. And it has a happy(ish) ending that I’m sure Koontz would love. I give this book FIVE STARS.” –Jeannie Rabb Marshall, Keys to Recovery Newspaper
Rosengren knows how to limn a character in just a few words. Of Mindy, Carter’s clueless co-worker, he writes: “Her perpetual expression was that of someone suddenly asking herself if she had remembered to turn off the iron.” And Sister Mary Xavier’s eyes are “dark-blue beams that gripped you in their gaze and would not let go until they had finished their business with you.” –Nancy Roberts, Catholic Sentinel Read the full review.
• The Minneapolis Star Tribune got the scoop on how art imitates life in A Clean Heart: http://www.johnrosengren.net/clean-heart
• If you missed the Virtual Book Launch Party, it’s not too late to attend: https://bit.ly/36iBVfO You’ll need this password to get in: 4J%D#l8&
• Interview with Deborah Kalb for her Book Blog where I talk about being a baby dope fiend, throwing a Tonka fire engine into a television screen and the paradox of surrender: https://bit.ly/2zg2gPm
• Podcast with Bizzy Chance on “Busy Living Sober” where we talk about everything from parenting to applying the 12 Steps during a pandemic: https://bit.ly/2Ykiam0
Reader Mail
“I loved your book. It was like reading one of my favorite Dean Koontz books, only the evil in this book was the disease of alcoholism and drug addiction.”
–Jeannie R., Lake Balboa, California
I just finished A Clean Heart. Of course it was beautifully written and still wanting more. I want to know what happens to Sister X? What happens to Oscar and the rest of the kids in treatment? Did Carter stay on at Six West?
So many questions. I hope you are working on book two.
Thank you for sharing this with me. I loved it.
–Pam Z, Golden Valley, Minnesota
Finished. OUTSTANDING. For me, it’s a wonderful story about finding peace amidst chaos and disappointment, and offering forgiveness for those who have caused us pain. What an inspiring story about faith, acceptance and surrender. Page 110 alone captures the beauty and power that you, the author, have bestowed upon each character. The reader is left with hope and the notion that every single person matters. This story also underscores the truth that self-loathing is so often what gets in the way of spiritual freedom. When Sister X tells Carter “you have no idea how much I hate these things,” she might be talking about her cigarettes, but she really is talking about herself and the things she’s done. SisterX stating the sinner’s psalm at the end is brilliantly fitting.
I truly loved the book John.
–Joel C., in Minneapolis
I laughed for minutes at the exchange over toothpicks on p. 53!
–Patrick, Minneapolis
I read your book in a couple sittings as it captured me from the beginning. Everyone’s story/journey to sobriety is unique and yet the same. I enjoyed the characters as patients and staff (some doozies!). I laughed and was teary and wasn’t ready to reach the end.
–Cele D., in Milwaukee
Started and finished your book yesterday. Honestly, I could not put it down. First off, you write beautifully. Your descriptive character development really helped me visualize all of the players.
I could really picture Oscar. My home group is a large Men’s group and we have seen plenty of Oscars come and go. As you know many don’t stay which is tragic but the ones that do stick give us a glimpse of the miraculous.
I loved the “Nun Twist” and the tragic yet realistic journey that Carter’s mom took.
–John C., Louisville
I finished your book today. Congratulations it’s really effective. I have been kind of in a reflective state all day so very well done. You surprised me at the ending which is what good fiction does, makes you think about what we can and can’t do. But it was very sad. So there you go, you created empathy too. I couldn’t believe how much sadness lingers after that book because of the flashbacks of childhood in alcoholic families. So it’s very deceptive because it’s very breezy and then you catch a right hook like the girl who is promiscuous is hiding abuse from her father.
It’s a heavy lift in a small package. I feel like more of a purveyor of cheap thrills after that lol.
–Paul S., Rochester, Minnesota
Congratulations on A Clean Heart, which I finished yesterday. It starts with the characters, and I liked them all and wanted to know more about each of them, especially Buddha. I know there is always some of the author in novels, especially first novels, and I saw plenty of you. And I applaud your courage for putting yourself out there. Heartbreaking stuff between Carter and the mom and Sister Mary Xavier. A tragic ending but true to the recovery world. Also, i like how you didn’t flood us with recovery, that there was a story there.
Inspiring stuff.
–Gary L., Minneapolis
I liked Carter right off the bat, and he developed into a really strong character, the literary equivalent of Ricard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben tone poem. I hope he did not become a priest as his dying mommy requested! It appears he was unable to save her, but made peace with the situation. And he was completely human too, hooking up with a co-worker in bed, and almost falling into a slip – that certainly was tense for me.
Finally, my fav line about being Catholic and raised by nuns,
“She didn’t so much lose her faith as get stuck in it. She goes through the routine but without putting any soul into it.”
–Martin S., Avon
I read the second half of A Clean Heart last week. It’s a fine novel, John, a cri d’couer, with a lot of couer. Carter’s struggle with his parents, especially his mother, the way she unknowingly bequeathes her addiction and it defines not only her but Carter, is moving. She is quite a character — disappointed by the past, prematurely defeated. She is recognizable as a figure but unique as a character. There is a lot of convincing detail about the inner workings and politics of the institution. Sister Xavier is something, the depths to which she sinks then seems to forget, and with an ability to accept or put aside her own frailty with less concerns about others. She has submitted less to a divine judge than to the institution, which I feel is a broader comment about clergy and church. The comments about how it changed from a cause and a mission to a profit-center are on the mark. You have a lot of moving parts and you keep them grinding against each other very expertly. I also enjoyed the detail and ambiance of the late 20th century.
–Todd P., Philadelphia
Wanted to let you know I finished reading “A Clean Heart” last night and really enjoyed it. I admire both your writing and commitment to recovery. Congrats and thanks for the great read. Some time you’ll have to give me the background on the Sister X character. WOW!
–Don S., Minneapolis