Jarrod Furtin, artisan furniture maker in the run down town of Harrumph is putting his life in order. If he can stay out of the bar long enough. Furtin is a freewheeling, fast-talking “dude” full of wisecracks and bravado. He barrels around town getting into verbal or physical confrontations or “confarsinations” as Pruyne has it, using one of a few seemingly made-up words employed throughout the novel. If the town and its inhabitants have seen better days then maybe something even worse is, quite literally, in the pipeline. Furtin stumbles on a plan that could change things forever. What eventually transpires, after much bluff and bluster, is a kind of parable of eco-exploitation and resistance. Out in the swamps, the “flaming hoohahs” of the title, a kind of newt, are the target for a million dollar racket whereby the scent they emit whilst mating is captured and marketed to humans in whom it also induces irresistible aphrodisiac effects. Under the guise of running a pipeline Major “Dick” Head and his crew aim to hoover up the newts and farm them for their scent. In by far the most successful sequence of the novel a rag-tag army of protestors take on the villains until their riotous protest succumbs to the miasma of amphibious pheromones and turns into an orgy with unexpected consequences.

Doc Pruyne’s KAWABUNGA KITTEN! (OR THE MAGNIFICENT TRIUMPH OF THE SPLENDID FLAMING HOOHAH) is filled with zany humor and crazy characters. The founder of the town is disclosed as being Dudley Bonker who was guided by angels called Biggles and Wank. The company suspiciously buying up properties nearby is the unlikely titled Porkinyou LLC who themselves are owned by Nicetrybozo Inc. Sometimes Pruyne pitches too far into the broadest of gags edging into all out spoofery where more subtle satire may have had more bite. Much of the wackiness is driven by the first person narration of the protagonist. Furtin’s skewed vision of the world, seemingly imbued with both hippie idealism and latent old fashioned machismo, is one where a gag is always his first line of attack. Whilst Pruyne may intend his hero to come across as admirably idiosyncratic Furtin skirts the edge of being both pompous and irritating. Indeed his incessant libidinous inner monologue and tendency to stereotype people different to himself becomes a touch tiresome as the book progresses.

A fast paced, full throttle comic novel full of crazy characters and outlandish scenarios. Doc Pruyne’s KAWABUNGA KITTEN! (OR THE MAGNIFICENT TRIUMPH OF THE SPLENDID FLAMING HOOHAH) is a wild ride guided by a freewheeling central character whose wisecracks may annoy just as often as they raise a smile.

~Kent Lane for IndieReader