The Parade - by Ben Miller (Paperback)

About the Book

The residents of Upton have marched in a permanent parade promoting pride in the flag and its conformity, unbridled consumption, nationalist nihilism

Book Synopsis

For generations the residents of Upton have marched in a permanent parade promoting pride in the New Glory flag and its cult of conformity, unbridled consumption, and nationalist nihilism. Infants born on elaborate floats are whisked away to Spectator House, on the edge of the tumult, and there molded into ardent worshipers of the celebration apparatus.

Tyranny's spell appears invincible until a child exchanges glances with a terrified parent snared in the droning nightmare. In a runaway quest to rescue her, Tove encounters eerie characters and transformational challenges. A story of the power of a single voice yearning for a home that is truly a home-a bastion of safety and justice-the genre-bending narrative of The Parade installs a fresh frame around the turbulence of American experience.

Review Quotes

Ben Miller's Parade is a breathless, wildly imaginative, dystopian romp. Think Dr. Seuss on steroids, Kerouac on a carousel, Orwell through the Looking Glass. It's a movie in words, a kaleidoscope mural, motion in poetry. You'll never read anything like it again.

-Dean King, New York Times bestselling author of Skeletons on the Zahara

Witty farce meets phantasmagorical nightmare, The Parade is a biting commentary on patriotism taken to its furthest extremes. Bursting with alliterative language and evocatively weird imagery...Miller's fiction debut is eccentric and ambitious, a refreshing departure from the navel-gazing instincts that dominate modern fiction.

-Ariadne Blayde, author of Ash Tuesday

The Parade is a dystopian tour de force, an over-the-top epic of brainwashed mandatory patriotism run-I should say force-marched-amok.

-Stephen Kessler, author of The Tolstoy of the Zulus: On Culture, Arts & Letters