JOHN BUTLER’S main work has been in film and TV. In 2006 he moved to Los Angeles, and started writing a blog.
That led to a column in the Irish Times, lasting for two years. Meanwhile John secured an agent, and a publisher. He wrote a memoir about his time, in the ’90s in San Francisco, and was advised to turn this into a novel.
“The character is not me, and 90% of what happens to him is not my story, but it’s definitely my view of the city, and a lot is drawn from my memory. Once I was given permission to lie, to push my characters in different directions and see what happened, the writing flowed.”
Date of birth: 4th July 1972. Place: Dublin.
Education: Blackrock College then UCD. Degree in English Greek and Roman; MA in Film Studies.
Home: London, NW18.
Family: Parents, two sisters and a brother.
The Day Job: Full-time writer of novels, short stories and film scripts.
Hobbies: Football and film.
Favourite Writers: Richard Yates, John Updike, Sam Lypsyte and Jonathan Dee.
Second Novel: “It’s going to be different, but definitely funny. I’m also writing a film script.”
The Tenderloin by John Butler. Picador. €13.99. Kindle €8.74.
Evan and Milo, innocents from Dublin arrive in San Francisco in the mid 1990’s, when the city is on the cusp of a revolution. The internet is booming, and the rave scene is in full flow. “It’s a comic coming-of-age story. In the course of a year Evan tries to figure out who he is as everything changes.”
The Verdict
Bold and feisty. A modern version of JP Donleavy’s The Ginger Man.
— Sue Leonard
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, June 04, 2011
