In this passionate depiction of Irish immigrant life in the early 1980s, the Bronx is burning, Bobby Sands is dying, John Lennon is being stalked, the Reagan Revolution has begun, and AIDS is about to be identified. But life goes on in the boisterous bars of Bainbridge Avenue and the crude construction sights of the city, as Sean Kelly arrives from Ireland looking for his girlfriend, Mary, and finds a lot more than he bargained for.

Sean is taken under the wing of Danny McCorley, a new type of gay hero - a hard-hitting, bookloving, immigrant construction worker with a shadowy past in the Irish Republican movement.

They brought it all with them from Ireland: the music, dancing, drinking, and politics, and all came head-to-head with Latino culture in a battle for Bainbridge Avenue. Rockin' The Bronx shows unsparingly the inter-racial tensions that would lead to the flight of the Irish, while at the same time providing a tender snapshot of the glory days of Irish influence in the Bronx.

ISBN 978-0-86322-418-8 Paperback Original, 5½ x 8½
384 pages, $19.95

Larry reading at the
Glucksman Ireland House
at the launch for
Rockin’ the Bronx

 

“A tremendous rock ‘n’ roll saga… [Kirwan’s] lovingly rendered portrait of
American and Irish social political realities in the 1980s is both brutal and magical.”
— Library Journal

"Pitting the lilt of an Irish brogue against the jazzy rhythm of pimps and drug dealers
in the Bronx of the early 1980s, Irish-American author and playwright Kirwan (Green
Suede Shoes) begins this roman à clef with arresting musicality."
— Publishers Weekly

“A brilliant tale set in the gritty streets of the Yankee borough that
was the epicenter of Irish Americana during the early eighties.”
— The Irish Voice

"It’s a tale of music, romantic conflict, late night stands–and Irish inflected
rock n roll. Sounds like a Black 47 bash, if ever there was one!"
— Irish American News

“Larry Kirwan writes with all the charm of his music.
This is Angela’s Ashes for a new generation.”
— Thomas Keneally (Schindler’s List)

“In Rockin’ the Bronx Larry Kirwan delivers a brilliant mash up of a novel that
is part coming of age tale, part portrait of the artist as a young man, and part
immigrant saga. His portrayal of young Irish loose on the hard streets of the Bronx
in the 1980's is powerful and evocative and his characters, whether they are experiencing
elation or desolation in a strange land, are deftly drawn. This novel serves as an elegy for
a lost time and place - the vibrant and chaotic New York City that thrived in the shadows
of the Age of Reagan. It is the kind of book that will stay with you long after you put it down.
— Thomas Kelly (Empire Rising)

“With language that is electric and at times even startling, Larry Kirwan deftly tells
an authentic New York story: about the Bronx of the early 1980s; about the lost
children of Ireland; about sex and drugs and the healing gift of rock and roll; about
our ache for connection. Not a single word is false; he has the gift.”
— Dan Barry (City Lights: Stories About New York)

“This is a Bronx tale full of raucous life and unvarnished reality.
It captures a time when the Bronx had become a synonym for urban decay and
conflict, and a new generation of Irish immigrants struggled to get a toehold on America.
There are no ethnic niceties in these pages, no phony-baloney version of multicultural
harmony. This is the urban American of the 80s in all its raw squalor and splendor.
Every page sparkles with memorable characters and lyrical accuracy.”
— Peter Quinn (Banished Children of Eve)

“A tale of the tunes, the beats, the rhythms and the blues of two
closely-related islands, Ireland and Manhattan, connected by an Atlantic
of bittersweet stories. This is a sixteen-wheeler, power-chord boogie of a book,
which will delight all Black 47 fans and many more besides.”
— Joseph O’Connor (Star of the Sea)

“In Rockin’ the Bronx Larry Kirwan has certainly spiraled up his ability
to shake, rattle, and roll the English language. This is a wonderful, fast paced, head
twirling story that comes at you like a laugh loaded tommy gun. You will pass this
book to friends and family and they will be forever thankful.”
— Dennis Smith (Report From Ground Zero)

“I thoroughly enjoyed Rockin' the Bronx. With his songwriter's skill for picking just the
right detail to evoke a mood and time, Larry Kirwan has brought back to life a pivotal
moment in the story of Irish America, one that needs to be retold and remembered.”
— Tyler Anbinder (Five Points)

"Larry Kirwan is a unique voice, combining a genetic bent for Irish storytelling
with a rebellious rock ethos. His powerful wordplay stabs the popular image of a
drooling, illiterate rock star straight through the heart!"
— Mike Farragher (The Irish Voice and author of Collared)

"The novel includes some of the best descriptions of Irish music,
both listening and playing, you're likely to read."
- Gwen Orel, Irish Examiner

"Part Piri Thomas, part Richard Price, a little bit Children of Lir, Larry Kirwan's
frantic alleycat of a novel prances, dances, shimmies, smirks, skips and leaps, so daringly,
from Joycean ribaldry to urban aisling to McGahern-like desolation with exquisite grace,
precision, and promise. A monument of emigrant literature."
— Christopher Kelly, writer/filmmaker

"When Larry Kirwan named his band Black47 he made an important statement about
the Irish experience that resonates through his music. Now in Rockin' the Bronx he uses
words to set the tumultuous 1980's to his own special beat. Exuberant and insightful!"
— Mary Pat Kelly (Galway Bay)

"Larry's writing is not unlike his music-always and all ways surprising and always and all
ways entertaining. As someone who reads for a living, rarely do I get the pleasure that I
had in reading Rockin' The Bronx. Larry Kirwan has a style of writing that is like that rare
friend in a bar telling you stories that - albeit – satisfying, you never get enough."
— Louie b. Free Brainfood from the Heartland - The Louie b. Free Radio Show

"Rockin' the Bronx is a story well told and brings a startling freshness to a
time that we must never forget. No matter how hard we might try."
— Drew Gallagher, The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg)

""Kirwan's language is dense, rich and frenzied, mirroring Sean's naïveté and
stubborn inability to cope with the hard facts of Bainbridge Avenue."
— Irish America Magazine

"[Rockin' the Bronx] takes the reader on a wild, vivid ride through the
world of hard-working, hard-drinking, hard-playing Irish immigrants and
musicians in New York around 1980." — Lucid Culture

WICB FM (Ithaca College Radio)

Walkin' the Bronx with Larry

Larry on The Adrian Flannely Show Feb. 20, 2010

Soundcheck with John Schaefer on WNYC, New York St. Patrick's Day 2010

 

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