---

. . .  This is from the gentleman who read the manuscript first.

"I think it's a great comic novel. Kimball's examination of a loony crew of washed-up sixties dropouts trying to turn a broken-down tourist resort into a going concern calls to mind the work of Tom Robbins, the Vonnegut of Player Piano and Cat's Cradle, and a twist of Richard Hooker's M*A*S*H. Kimball is humane enough to capture our hearts and wicked enough to make us laugh our asses off.

"My readers might think I wouldn't know a good comic novel from a chainsaw brochure, but I love to laugh and love the idea of the really comic American novel. I don't very often guffaw out loud, the way I did when I first read Thurber, but Firewater Pond did provoke that reaction. There was one point when I laughed until I thought I was going to wet my pants...just sitting here at the typewriter and recalling it, I've got a big grin spread on my face. A lot of people are going to read Firewater Pond. And love it."

Stephen King

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REVIEWS

 

"Here is a genuinely funny comic novel wherein the humor arises from a vigorous plot and refreshingly human characters...a top-notch first showing by an extremely talented humorist."
/ Kirkus Reviews

"The storytelling is energetic and the disaster-rich plot has been orchestrated for maximum thrills."
/ New York Times

"Firewater Pond succeeds in part because it's consistent in tone and outlook; in part because its language crackles and pops. Kimball can make a character jump up live and kicking on the page."
/ Christopher Fahy, in Downeast

"Favorite new book read in '84: Firewater Pond, by Michael Kimball.
/ Stephen King, in The Maine Times

"The frantic goings on among the vivid if raunchy cast of characters should appeal to those who like realism combined with an eye for the ridiculous."
/ Publishers Weekly

"Side-splitting humor and riotous characters. It gets funnier with every page. A howling good time."
/ Ocala Star Banner

"Firewater Pond is a wonderfully profane situation comedy... In his mission to be funny, Kimball succeeded wildly."
/ Edgar Alan Beem, Maine Times

"Firewater Pond moves along like an express train, gearing through an endless series of intertwined plots and characters. Kimball's narrative is fluid and his gift for comic situation is uncanny. At all times the action is fast-paced and sometimes frenetic. . . Firewater Pond is first and foremost entertaining. But beneath the fun there is much to hold onto and the seething potential for more."
/ Art Mayers, Kennebec

"Firewater Pond is so hilarious it will bring tears to your eyes page after page."
/ Ken Francklins, UPI

"Firewater Pond introduces as memorable a bunch of characters as can be found in any recent literary work."
/ Lincoln County News

"Sleazeballs who'll have you laughing out loud... Firewater Pond is a whole lot of fun. It lacerates so many of the tacky excesses of the '80s with such fine precision. It is the kind of book that a lot of people who felt tuned in in the '60s and aware in the '80s probably think they could write. But they didn't, and Kimball did."
/ Providence Sunday Journal

"A page-turning, thigh-slapping comedy about as bizarre a group of misfits as you can imagine."
/ Worcester Telegram

"A Rollicking Good Time... Like any good humor, Firewater Pond reminds us of people we've known and places we've been and gives us a new perspective on them. With a keen eye for absurd detail and an ear for speech patterns, Kimball makes them good enough to laugh at."
/ Brunswick Times Record

"As a novel, it is wonderful. As a comic novel, it is uproarious. As a first novel, it is simply superb... Someone once described life as a tragedy to the person who feels, and a comedy to the man who thinks. Michael Kimball does a lot of both. And so do his readers."
/ Kennebec Journal

"Some of Michael Kimball's humor is black and some of it is blue, and he shoots it at us at a whiz-bang slapstick pace that leaves us alternately laughing, squirming and gasping for breath."
/ The Boston Globe