As Donald O’Donovan tells it, it was the desire to finish a novel that led to his homelessness. And it’s that period of living on the streets that eventually became a published novel.
Talk about sacrificing for your art.
“Night Train” is a fast-paced tale full of interesting characters. It is the story of Jerzy Mulvaney and his struggles on the streets of Los Angeles. There’s a lot here, with Jerzy’s adventures taking him all the way to North Carolina and back. The rapid-fire prose comes at breakneck speed, with various unique people entering and exiting Jerzy’s life. While it is a fictionalized account of O’Donovan’s first-hand experiences, this autobiographical novel offers a good insight into one man’s experience of being homeless.
Before setting out on this period of his life, O’Donovan says he had a day job but slowly neglected his work. He focused more on his writing, slept on friends’ couches and eventually found himself hitting rock bottom.
“That’s a threat for a writer,” O’Donovan, 56, said during a recent phone interview from his home in the Normal Heights neighborhood of San Diego. “Your day job will be more consuming. I’m not one for compartmentalizing.”
His life on the street ultimately became the catalyst for “Night Train.” O’Donovan also had a period of homelessness in the mid-90s, and he incorporated those experiences as well.
During his time on the streets, O’Donovan saw the homeless population increase. He met people who never thought they’d be in his situation, but they were poor and lower middle-class and the recession of the last year and a half sent them over the edge.
“I feel especially sorry for the people dropping down from the middle class,” O’Donovan said. “They’re not accustomed to it. It’s difficult for them. They’re not alcoholics or drug abusers. They lost their job, their home, their car, and bingo.”
“Night Train” is available only as an e-book through www.smashwords.com. According to O’Donovan’s bio on Smashwords, he’s an optioned screenwriter and voice actor. Born in Cooperstown, N.Y., O’Donovan was a teenage runaway, traveled the county, joined the army and has had more than 200 occupations, including long-distance truck driver. He wrote “Night Train” on 23 yellow legal pads and, according to the Internet Movie Database, he narrated the 2009 documentary “The Forgotten.”
The author has an interesting take on homelessness in America: “If you’re smart, you’re not going to starve in America.”
O’Donovan says he’s now “dusting off” five other novels he has in the works and doing some freelance technical writing for a newsletter. He’s living in San Diego but still considers Los Angeles home.
O’Donovan hopes that readers of “Night Train” will have a better understanding of “what’s it’s like to be homeless or poor.”
The most disturbing thing he took away from his experience was how those who weren’t homeless treated him. “They look through you as a person. It’s like you’ve lost your humanity.”
