John Trolan's dream was to be a writer. But as a teenager in Ballymun who was as much into drugs as he was into school, it seemed as unlikely an ambition as a university education. That he has now written Slow Punctures, a brilliant debut novel, and has two more on the way, is as startling to him as his 2:1 degree, acquired as a mature student in Bristol.
Trolan was, he admits, a "gobshite" as a teenager, and it was more the idea of writing than the act of it that appealed to him. "I was attracted towards what I thought would be the lifestyle of a writer," he says. With images of Brendan Behan and Ernest Hemingway in mind, it seemed to the young Trolan "that if you were a writer you had permission to behave in some of the most outrageous ways imaginable, and not to worry about it."
Molly Bloom
Taking part-time jobs, he did all right in his Leaving Certificate, but says he was a lousy student in terms of attendance and application. Yet this man of contradictions read Ulysses when he was 18, although he didn't understand the final third. "I hadn't a clue what was going on in the Molly Bloom soliloquy," he says.
After school, he drifted from job to job, moving to London when he was 25. He dabbled in writing, and at one stage a publisher was interested in his work in progress, but the publisher died before the work was completed.
Meanwhile, Trolan's drug problem had worsened. Then his long-term partner and children left him and moved back to Dublin. Jobless and homeless, he felt there was nothing to live for. He had stopped writing, having reached such depths. A counsellor at his drug treatment centre suggested he should try further education as a form of rehabilitation; he took A-level English, and was encouraged to try for university.
"It was so much like a dream - something I always wanted but didn't like to ask for because I didn't believe I was able for it. It had to be somebody else's suggestion."
The reality of university (UWE at Bristol) failed to match the dream: "I went thinking it was the centre of learning, that everyone was there because they wanted to learn, and the teachers because they wanted to teach, and I quickly discovered that's not the case. As a fantasy it had been a very precious thing. The reality blurred the edges, but I was very lucky with my tutors."
He is especially grateful to Sue Habeshaw, who suggested he write a creative dissertation, and encouraged him when he feared failure. Trolan achieved a First for the dissertation, and an external examiner commented that his writing was the most original he had read.
Following the success of Slow Punctures, a version of Any Other Time, Trolan's original effort, is to be published by Brandon in March next year.
Dublin teenagers
Slow Punctures depicts teenage lie in Dublin in the 1970s. It is not obviously autobiographical (the hero Joxer has brothers, and a father around, unlike Trolan) yet the strength of the novel stems from Trolan's insight into the world he describes.
It is an astonishing first novel, with characters who leap from the page. The style is reminiscent of Roddy Doyle, yet Trolan had not read his work.
"I've just started Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha," he says. "I read very little; I prefer writing to reading. I tend to immerse myself in it. It can envelop you. I haven't the time or energy to do anything else."
Trolan currently works as an addiction counsellor in Bristol. He would like to write full time. Slow Punctures was written in Crete, in a few months, but he writes for only two or three hours a day. He set himself a target of 2,000 words a day, and stuck rigidly to that.
"I will sit down and do it. It doesn't mean that it will be any good. When I do write it's very intense. It takes a lot out of you, the whole process of trying to capture, reliving, or imagining what it was like. It's very draining, feeling empathy for the characters. For three hours afterwards I'm unapproachable. It has to be a very special person to cope with me."
"Wrong reasons"
Trolan has had a special person in his life for the past two years, and with the good reaction to Slow Punctures, life seems complete. Trolan's mother and three sisters are surprised and proud. "I've always surprised them, but usually for the wrong reasons - because of my behaviour over the years, and my drug problem. Now I'm surprising them for the right reasons," he says.
One of his best moments was listening to his book being reviewed on Mike Murphy's Arts Show on RTE radio: "It was getting mixed reviews, when one of the reviewers turned round and said, `I loved this book.' If you believe it something, and it touches someone in some way - that was my main consideration."
Slow Punctures is published by Brandon at £8.99.