RE O Laighleis won a national Oireachtas award for this tale in its original Irish. Titled Gafa in the first language, it tells the story of teenager Alan's slide from heroin addiction into the world of Dublin dealing and drug warfare. Though other family problems surface in the background, the focus remains squarely on the destruction wreaked on Alan's family as a unit, and on its individual members by his drug addiction. O Laighleis also looks at the selfish complicity in Alan's addiction by a philandering father.
The narrative is predominantly revealed from the point of view of the characters - mainly either Alan or his despairing mother, Sandra. The intention was possibly to engender a greater empathy with the dramatis personae. However, the banality with which their thoughts are set out left this reader less than engaged. One hopes that something has been lost in the translation.
O Laighleis certainly seems to know what he is talking about in describing the scenes in night-clubs, of shooting up and the counselling-speak directed at recovering addicts. However, the writing lacks subtlety, development and complexity.
The subject matter, though, remains compelling and one could imagine the average Irish teenager being hooked from beginning to end.
