PARADE

by Dave Wright

Parade is a book about a parade. The 110th Annual Old Timer's Day Parade specifically. It's a simple story about a man named Lonnie Edwards and his attempts to understand what a few Old Timers are trying to tell him about what happened to Merel Gene McAlister at the parade. He's there to make a report of it, you see. But the more he listens to the locals and the more they start to talk over one another, the more confusing it gets. The more entangled the narratives get, the more Lonnie starts to realize how simple it actually Merel Gene McAlister walked out the front door of the Olive Branch and got run over by a hot rod in the middle of the parade. The facts of the parade are simple; the history of the folks in River Grove is not. Parade is a story about storytelling and storytellers. It's a book about how we as human communities make meaning out of public rituals. It's about the power of local customs, the power of reenacting history, and the power of shared experience. And most of all it's a book about the power of the human voice, especially the voice inspired by brotherly/sisterly love.There are no heroes or villains. There is no rising action or climax. The resolution is simply that the parade carries on and people keep going to see it. Lonnie Edwards moves to River Grove and spends the rest of his life trying to write it. And it's written in the vernacular of the people of the American South, a place with as rich an oral storytelling tradition as any place in the world. A place where stories are shared in crowded diners and music halls. A place where stories resist being written down, but people try, nonetheless. And I hope you enjoy it. If I could offer one suggestion it would read this book aloud and with friends. Don't worry too much with whether it makes sense or not. Just remember it's about storytelling and storytellers. "My intentions for the outcome were A story about a town with a A story about real men and women, boys and No heroes or villains. No plot arc. Life isn’t plotted for effect. I wanted a birth and a death. I wanted people to wake up in the morning, and I wanted people to have suitable dreams. I wanted people to die in their sleep. I wanted people to laugh. Eat. Drink. Get addicted. Get redeemed. Learn from one another. I wanted family photos on the wall. A mountain. A dinner bell. A river. Things my father grew up with. I wanted technology to be innately at odds with tradition yet reach an understanding just the same. A clown. A song. A dance. I wanted at least one flower and one bird, even if one of the two had to die. And I wanted not to turn away from the War in the periphery, so big it’s out of sight... I wanted to be mended by love. That’s what I wanted most of all for the heartbroken at the parade, in the little town of River Grove. That’s what I wanted most of Love. I never imagined (people called me crazy) it would be nearly a half-century before I’d learn what happened to Merel Gene McAlister and write the first (and only) few pages of the first and final draft."

452 pages, Hardcover

Published December 24, 2025

About the author

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