Rockin' the Bronx

On a rash quest to track down his girlfriend Mary, naïve Irishman Sean Kelly becomes embroiled in the hellish wasteland of the 1980s Bronx. He stays on, determined to uncover the reason behind the sudden change in Mary. But the only job available for an undocumented Paddy is hard labor, and the only solace is found in beer and music. A vibrant, colorful evocation of New York City in the watershed years through the eyes of four young Irish immigrants, Rockin' the Bronx captures the visceral realities of life and death in the Irish slum-scape on Bainbridge Avenue. Faced with the excesses of the early 80s: drugs, aids, the Burning Bronx, and at home, the Troubles, Sean eventually emerges into manhood. ""Larry Kirwan writes with all the charm of his music. This is Angela's Ashes for a new generation.""--Thomas Keneally. ""A tremendous rock `n' roll saga . The prolific Kirwan offers writing about the transformative and curative powers of music and performance that is brilliant on its own, but his lovingly rendered portrait of American and Irish social and political realties in the 1980s is both brutal and magical."" -Library Journal ""A brilliant tales set in the gritty streets of the Yankee borough that was the epicenter of Irish Americana during the early eighties."" - Irish Voice ""Rockin' the Bronx has a headlong momentum and street-level immediacy, teeming with drama, romance, and politics."" - Philadelphia Inquirer