Fiction. THE FOURTH OF JULY takes place in the summer 1974 on an island off the coast of Connecticut. All Jack Smith wants is a vacation like he enjoyed in his youth: swimming, sailing, and sunshine. But Jack finds his summer plans 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.

"First novels are always interesting business. It's a special treat to come across a new writer with a unique outlook on the way the sexes cohabit particularly someone as humorous as Kevin Dowd. 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".