WEST HARTFORD, Conn., July 2, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Fourth of July, a hilarious novella written by Kevin Dowd and published in paperback by Roundabout Press, is now available as an audio book — just in time for the long holiday weekend. Multiple formats can be downloaded from the author's website, kevindowd.com, at no cost. A Kindle version is also available.
Read by an ensemble cast, The Fourth of July is the laugh-out-loud story of a summer vacation gone very wrong. It's the perfect "beach read" for anyone planning a vacation this summer or just dreaming of one.
It's summer 1974 on an island off the coast of Connecticut, and all Jack Smith wants is a vacation like he enjoyed in his youth: swimming, sailing and sunshine. But Jack finds his summer plans quickly spiraling out of control. His estranged wife follows him to the island looking for money. The priest and constable are conspiring his ruin. And the local Lolita is intent upon seducing him. Jack suddenly has more problems than he can handle, and he deals with them the only way he knows how: with rum and romance, all leading to a calamitous Fourth of July in Kevin Dowd's hilarious first novel.
Praise for The Fourth of July:
"The Fourth of July" reminded me of such gin-soaked comic classics as "A Confederacy of Dunces" and "The Ginger Man." Dowd's hero, Jack Smith, joins the rank of those lovable rogues, a man who spends his summer tippling into all sorts of trouble with only the best intentions. I laughed out loud.
— Rand Richards Cooper, author "The Last to Go."
It only takes a minor event — that one extra drink, a nosy neighbor rapping on the front door, an alienated spouse's unexpected entrance — to spark the collapse of a relaxing summer escape... And that's what makes "The Fourth of July" enjoyable: the constant feeling that we're experiencing a long-lost Saturday afternoon matinee designed to provide a few laughs and a couple hours of zany diversion.
— Benjamin Woodward, Rain Taxi Review of Books
Were this a film, the parts would be played by Chevy Chase and Catherine O'Hara. Jack returns to the island for the holiday weekend in 1974 (think Mungo Jerry, no cell phones, no texting, no Internet) to nurse the psychic wounds of middle age, little suspecting that all hell would soon break loose.
— Alan Bisbort, The Advocate
Contact the Author:
Kevin Dowd
dowd@atlantic.com
Media Inquiries:
Cheryl Cooper
Cooper Marketing Solutions
(813) 908-2131
ccooper@coopermktg.com