THE WILD COLONIAL BOY

New York, NY: Washington Square Press/Pocket Books, 1990. First Edition, First Printing . Soft cover. Collectible - Very Good/None as Issued. Text/NEW, showing trace margin discoloration. Softcover/VG w/faint creasing to lower front corner & trace shelfwear. Michigan-born novelist James Hynes (1955 -) has taught creative writing and philosophy as several institutions of higher learning. This, his excellent first novel, deals w/terrorism in Northern Ireland, home to the brand of terrorism practiced by the Provos, the outlaw branch of the Irish Republican Army. A fast paced thriller, using grittily realistic dialogue flushed w/details, the narrative juxtaposes youth & innocence against an escalating violence, linking Detroit-based sympathizers w/a violent faction within the IRA. College student Brian Donovan of Chicago, for his family, delivers funds to Ireland for the ``cause.'' Successful, he meets up with the leader of the faction, Jimmy Coogan, who is married to his cousin Maire. Task accomplished, Brian agrees to transfer plastique explosives to London. Within one shattering week, events lead to the death of Coogan, and to Brian's involvement with Claire Delaney, another young American whose Irish heritage has led her to embrace values contrary to his. Bonds between the Irish-Americans linkage are woven into this intelligent, compelling & informative depiction of how enduring homeland issues variously continue to burden the shoulders of immigrants in search of life-a-new.