Scooter.(Brief Article)(Book Review)

Scooter MICK FOLEY. Knopf, $23.95 (320p) ISBN 1-4000-4414-6

Former pro wrestler Foley proves his authorial chops with this hard-edged coming-of-age tale (after Tietam Brown) about a turbulent childhood amid the decay of the Bronx in the late '60s and '70s. Scooter Riley's comfortable existence disintegrates in sudden, steep drops, mirroring the fall of the Bronx as it transitions from working-class stability to urban desolation. Scooter's dad, a drunken yet goodhearted Irish-American cop stuck on the Harlem beat, accidentally shoots his eight-year-old son in the leg during a beer-fueled 1969 Mets-Orioles World Series fracas, saddling the boy with a bad …