Your Sparkle Cavalcade of Death

by Robert Shiarella, Jon Koons (Editor)

Back In Print After 40 Years!
The cult classic Your Sparkle Cavalcade of Death gets a new life in this stunning edition by Metamorphic Press. "Robert Shiarella's Your Sparkle Cavalcade of Death combines all the bizarre elements of broadcasting and burlesque in a funny, crazy, sexy tale of the first electrocution to be telecast on prime time. Shiarella satirizes violent death as the profitable, pornographic vaudeville it has become in our culture. -Penthouse Magazine
"This novel is the epitome of black humor/satire that has a cult following and appears on several lists of the best Best Books of the past hundred years. It's about a sad sack loser named Lewd Noogie, whose wife has novuplets-a world record nine babies- all of whom Lewd accidentally kills. His execution is broadcast worldwide in a lavish TV Special sponsored by Sparkle Wax. The show features a humongously devastating finale, with endless hilarious outrages all along the way, from cover to cover." -OpenLiberary.org
"I suspect the title throws people off a bit when they're wondering what kind of book this might be. William Kotzwinkle calls it "a weird and wonderful book" and that got me to read it when it was released in paperback in 1975. It's unique in its humor, as funny as any written during the period and I'd be willing to say anyone who considers himself (or herself) knowledgeable and well-read who hasn't read this book has missed one of the great ones. -Yes, this is off the wall, full bore satire, a send up of 70's mainstream culture along the lines of a Nathanial West (Miss Lonely Hearts), a Terry Southern (The Blood of a Wig) and a William Kotzwinkle (The Fan Man). I'll throw in Hunter Thompson as well. You may say that's pretty far over the top comparison, but I'm saying if you recognize the writers mentioned (and have read their books), you need to read Shiarella. The worst that can happen is you only rate it one of the great works of satire of the last fifty years as opposed to one of the very greatest. Yes. I'm serious."-Robert Follett on amazon.com
I read this book in 1974 and 35 years later I still remember it and laugh out loud about it. I hadn't thought of it for some time and was talking with a friend tonight and it came up in the conversation. I looked it up- hoping to get a copy of it to read again... Any book that has a staying power of 35 years has got to be worth reading! Lewd and Fila Noogie (I hope I spelled their names right!!) rule and if you want to read a hysterical book this is one you should consider." -Cindy Martinez on Amazon.com

335 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Peter Landau · Rating 4 out of 5]

YOUR SPARKLE CAVALCADE OF DEATH by Robert Shiarella is a ribald farce. It might be a satire, but it’s targets are so broad that everyone and everything comes off as so horrible and perverse that death, more than merely exposing the foibles of its charters, is the only fitting end, the sparklier the better. There is no subtlety to this death trip, a sparkly magnum opus of every kind of stereotype and debased act, served up in a cocktail that doesn’t end with a hangover but a hallelujah. The book opens with the most depressing sex, its guts are full of copulation and it terminates in a gang rape that sends everyone off in style. Along the way there’s an old millionaire working on the perfect cocktail that doesn’t result in a hangover. Unlike the book, he never succeeds. There’s a TV host in lust with his sister. A subway conductor whose wife wants a baby so bad she rides his piss erection to a foul end. A warden who curses in a slang as obscene as it is obscure, who’s fetish for the electric chair is threatened by a nationwide ban on the death penalty. And on and on, every page is a knee-slapper. Published in the early 1970s, a comic novel that is so aggressively offensive and funny would have a hard time finding an audience, let alone a publisher, today, which is a shame. I haven’t had so much fun reading since, well, since I opened my eyes.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toy boat. Toy boat. Toy boat.

Seventies' ham-handed satire at its finest.

Think "Americathon" on paper (not steroids).

[Summer Migliori Soto]

I don’t even know how to rate this book.

Cyrus, wtf did you just make me read!?

[Kira Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

imagine writing infinite jest 21 years before it came out and getting no recognition for it