Crashing into Sunrise portrays a rowdy youth's transition from teenage mayhem to the awareness of the larger world around him. It depicts the emotional and intellectual upheaval of a young man of the 1940s surrounded by his adventurous buddies and the girls who shine along his path. This is Jim Mahoney, a reckless teenager with an unfinished personality and flawed character who discovers the force and power of ideas, books, love and music in college. Crashing into Sunruse is one of several stand-alone novels about the lives of an Irish-American family in the 20th century.