“An irresistibly funny novel. . . . King blends myth, folklore and contemporary events to create his satirical look at society.”
—Toronto Star
“Green Grass, Running Water is a novel novel. In many ways it’s a groundbreaker in an area that needed it. . . . Once you catch on to the style, it’s hard to get the book out of your hands. I read it in one sitting, accelerating through the pages, laughing out loud several times, silent with admiration at others.”
—Ottawa Citizen
“Original, witty and stylishly executed, and all adding up to more than a little bit of truth.”
—Maclean’s
“A witty, wild, woolly romp of a story; wonderful is the best way to describe it. . . . Green Grass, Running Water is a sharp-witted and warm-hearted novel fuelled by oral storytelling traditions. Its pages brim with titillating In(dian)-jokes and sparkle with puns, pokes and post-modern plot polkas. It may well be one of the most significant novels of the past two decades.”
—Edmonton Journal
“Elegant and outrageous: a richly rewarding saga from a first-rate talent.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“This is storytelling in the best tradition, with plot lines and people that wander in and out of things, ravelling and unravelling themselves to the rhythms of musical language. . . . The humour here is crackling dry.”
—The Vancouver Sun
“Green Grass, Running Water is wonderfully well written, and it highlights one transcendent aspect of human culture: the pervasiveness of storytelling. . . . Those who love ingenuity in storytelling will revel in this book and in Thomas King’s mastery of a difficult art.”
—Books in Canada
“Thomas King . . . introduces the reader to characters who will stay in the memory long after the last page is turned. . . . Like a metaphor for American Indian culture, the story evolves in a layered circle-fashion, in tune with nature.”
—The Milwaukee Journal
“The book’s devilish wit and fireside storytelling make it a marvellous read.”
—The Edmonton Sun
“Hilarious and deeply moving. . . . Cleverly written and structurally sophisticated, Green Grass, Running Water . . . describes the excruciatingly painful process of cultural annihilation with wit and humour, leavened with compassion and generosity of spirit.”
—Kitchener-Waterloo Record
“King has a marvellous way of mixing the past and present, the worlds of men and women, the worlds of white and native people, and the worlds of the real and the imaginary.”
—Times-Colonist (Victoria)
“King has produced a novel of great ambition and fun. . . . With its wonderfully crazy logic and its commitment to the multiple voices of storytelling, this novel promises to be one of the most successful ‘crossovers’ in Native American literature and contemporary American literature.”
—The Boston Sunday Globe
“King has established himself as a first-rate comic novelist . . . as savagely and darkly funny as Twain.”
—Newsweek