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The Queen of Steeplechase Park

David Ciminello

$32.99

Paperback

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English
Forest Avenue Press
14 August 2024
The Queen of Steeplechase Park is the absolutely, positively, practically, almost-true story of infamous burlesque queen and magic meatball maker Belladonna Marie Donato.

Pregnant at fifteen after gleefully losing her virginity to pansexual neighborhood strongman Francis Anthony Mozzarelli, Bella is robbed of her baby by a pack of nefarious nuns and her embittered papa has her sterilized without her consent (legal in 1935). With the help of a besotted Francis, her newfound family of queercentric outcasts, and a top-secret meatball recipe, a devastated Bella embarks on a riotous quest through Depression-era Coney Island sideshows, the tawdry world of peekaboo striptease routines, a doomed mob marriage, and a tasty collection of wisdom-filled recipes to find her lost child, herself, and maybe even true love. It all leads Bella back home, to the scene of her original sin, where she boldly faces matters of life and death, questions of forgiveness, and a holy mess only the healing properties of great Italian cooking can fix.
By:  
Imprint:   Forest Avenue Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 228mm,  Width: 152mm, 
ISBN:   9781942436614
ISBN 10:   1942436610
Pages:   470
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

David Ciminello is a Lambda Literary Fellow and the proud recipient of a Table 4 WritersFoundation Grant. His fiction has appeared in the Lambda Award-winning anthologyPortlandQueer: Tales of the Rose City,Nailed Magazine, and in fine artist Stephen O'Donnell'sTheUntold Gaze. His original screenplayBruno, an Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwritingfinalist, was made into a motion picture directed by Shirley MacLaine and stars Kathy Bates,Gary Sinese, and Jennifer Tilly. As an actor David has guest starred onSeinfeld(""The Barber""),Murder She Wrote,Matlock, andKojak. David and his husband, photographer and podcastartist Brian Delaney, reside in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews for The Queen of Steeplechase Park

"Most anticipated, spring 2024, Annie Bloom's Books ""Bella is a loud, brash, and lovable heroine.""  —Foreword Reviews ""The brilliant David Ciminello 's hilarious and moving novel The Queen of Steeplechase Park is a crazy Italian circus with a heart as big as Sicily. I loved Belladonna Marie Donato and her merry band of misfits, outcasts who become chosen family as she makes peace with her family of origin. A glorious Italian American feast! Bravo David!"" —Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of The Good Left Undone   ""David Ciminello has written a great big rollercoaster of a novel. . . . Read this book! Hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time.""  —Fannie Flagg, author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe “Ciminello is a master of delicious wordplay. His lusciously cinematic story is a veritable carnival ride culled from his family’s kitchen history. The Queen of Steeplechase Park is a tasty tale of love, sex, and the holy magic of homemade Italian cooking.”—Blair Fell, author of The Sign for Home ""Open your mouth and ready your heart because Belladonna Marie from The Queen of Steeplechase Park is about to serve you some unforgettable tales of love and loss, with a side of meatballs. David Ciminello has re-animated Depression era Coney Island with such vivid and dazzling detail that I wanted to laugh, cry, eat a hot dog, and go for a swim all at once. A phenomenal story of a Burlesque queen searching for her lost baby in the glitz, ooze, and hum of sideshows from Brighton to Gravesend. I couldn't put it down.""  —Lidia Yuknavitch, author of Thrust  ""Meet Belladonna Marie, the force of nature plucked from the historical and culinary passions of David Ciminello. Set in depression-era Coney Island, the novel whips up a bevy of queer, memorable eccentrics, served with a heaping side of sumptuous language. From Melanzana to Puttana, The Queen of Steeplechase Park is a whimsical, gastronomical delight."" —Suzy Vitello, author of Bitterroot ""The Queen of Steeplechase Park crackles with the hyper-real comic book energy of a graphic novel, and the recipes are a primer on how to live your best life. Buon appetito! Mangiare bene! Delizioso!"" —Stevan Allred, author of The Alehouse at the End of the World"


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