Yesterday’s book: World Without End, Amen

Jimmy Breslin has written about New York for nearly 50 years now, mainly in newspaper columns and occasionally in novels as well. His most famous novel was a comic tale of mobsters, “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight,” that was funny and entertaining. I came across “World Without End, Amen” in a second hand shop for $1.50 and figured I’d check it out. The problem is that Breslin has no story here, no real plot, he just follows a drunken Irish New York beat cop through some troubles and then onto a trip to the Old Country. Which is really a completely separate story that Breslin mainly uses as a showcase to display how terrible conditions are for Catholics in Northern Ireland, or at least how bad they were 30-odd years ago when the novel came out. He goes nowhere plotwise and even the most significant event takes place offstage. Not recommended