WORLD WITHOUT END, AMEN

by JIMMY BRESLIN

329 pages. Viking. $6.95.

In his first novel, Columnist Jimmy Breslin copped a plea. Instead of drawing on his vast knowledge of New York's underbelly, he turned out a spoof on the Mafia called The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. In his second effort, a richer and wiser Breslin pleads a cop, comes up with a truly arresting character: Dermot Davey, 29, an Irish Catholic New York patrolman who does not "like one hour of one day of one week of his life."

Breslin runs—or rather walks—his hero...