Excerpts and Art from The River Troll
The Reason Why this special edition of the book is in color!
IN COLOR
This is a poem | about color
We made my book once in black and white
And it felt fine | but some of the magic was hidden
I had a chance to reprint in color
And I leapt on it
It felt | so | great
There are secrets about color in this book
One, the one you might think the least true
Is the most true
Be careful in school
Your teachers will get very upset if you tell them you can mix
Red Yellow Or Blue —
Listen to a Sample from the Audiobook | The Animations | Some Reader Reviews
Illustrations by Rich Théroux | Download the pdf from here if you have come here from an audiobook link
The most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Naked. Snoring a little.
She sleeps with her mouth open and her breath will have a tang in the morning.
I slide out of bed, pull on my jeans careful not to catch my penis in the zipper,
dip into a cotton t-shirt, and slide into sneakers without socks.
I see a gang of pirates letting themselves in
To kidnap my sleeping beauty
There’s a drunk in the lobby.
He sits so his one leg looks amputated at the knee, he asks for help.
Under the bridge is a different matter. Under the bridge is the River Troll.
He’s so ugly you can’t look him in the eye.
---
Some Reader Reviews
A review of "The River Troll" by
https://books.google.ca/
A familiar and universally private mystery.
Vivid, forgotten memories of the present's relentless narrative.
Echoes of cries and laughter from a fading, primordial dream.
The most honest lies, safely dressed in fantasy's clothing.
A gift, shining outward from the same mirror we all consult...
A story, shaped like a human face.
Reminding readers, authors, and protagonists to love completely.
Because life is a fatal adventure.
And sometimes, there are trolls.
.../The_River_Troll_A_Story_about...
By Chris Evans
So my friend Rich Théroux wrote a book.
I've now read it twice and I'm going back in again.
This unique novella is a winding river of poetry, folklore, with Rich's mind blowing artwork through out. If you listen carefully you can feel the subtle strains of the jazz trumpet in the background, even if you don't know from jazz.
This one will stop you in your tracks, and make you read that page, again, again, and again....
Hobbit fans? You gotta read this.... It's the real modern hero's adventure....
Dear Rich,
I read this in one sitting, swept away by the tumultuous, funny, despairing, and hopeful account of the inner life of one of my favorite artists. Even Theroux’s writing reminds me of the way he paints: in the same way that he seems to scorch crevasses into his canvas with his energy and passion, he sears images in my mind through his words and stories. I think all of us would benefit seeing the world through the eyes of an extraordinary artist who wrestles with and delves into visions, imagination, life-and-love, personal and collective myth, and who, in spite of enormous challenges, creates a living, loving, vibrant community for other artists and for young art students. Reading The River Troll, I laughed out loud, I cried, and closed the book feeling inspired and grateful that there were people like Rich Theroux in the world, especially in the world of art. Most importantly, however, as the subtitle says, this is a love story, and its profoundly dear heroine shines like a beautiful, glowing, steady lantern throughout.
Winslow
For a long time, I’ve had the sense that I experience the world a little differently than a lot of my peers. It’s a sentiment I’ve been trying to express since I was a teenager, but very rarely was it understood, so I stopped talking about it, and mostly tried to ignore it, until I wound up in Asia, mystified at most moments of the day, and only through trying to make sense of the bizarre life I found myself in, did it return to me and I began to understand that I was an artist. That’s what colors the lense I see the world with, and what has always made me feel off-kilter.
I think that’s the way with a lot of creatives and it can be a little isolating. I don’t know what would have become of me if I didn’t leave and find the people and places that brought it back out of me.
All of this is to say, that when I pulled this book out of my mailbox this week, it was like reading my way through all of that again. Rich Théroux, you found that thread of art and life that’s always made me feel a little bit mad and you pushed your finger into all its most tender spots. Thank you, really. I laughed and cried. What an honorable thing, to create something that makes people feel less lonely.
Sabrina Pinksen
I was sent a gift from a renowned multi talented artist in Canada Rich Théroux thank you for this awesome gift your published book of poems and art . You are tremendously gifted intelligent and kind considerate and compassionate I see the work you do for the other artists I am honored for your friendship and your gift
Greg Cruz
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4223833211
Not many writers can take an insomniac's midnight walk along the river and vividly describe demons and shadows that likely dog a lot of people in our troubled world. Combining a series of encounters with trolls, giant witches, minotaurs and monkeys with touching encounters with the real people in his life, Rich creates a picture of trying to fit in, not aways successfully, with others, both internally and externally. The subtitle of the book is "a story about love", and while this book has its dark moments, it also has warm passages of outpouring love and gratitude for his wife and children and their gifts. Musical themes permeate the book as well, and the power of music to heal and focus an unconventional thinker and communicator is clear. Comedy also has a place here, with laughable conversations with colleagues - and some not-unsubstantial theft of lamb kebabs from the staff room fridge - which lighten the tone and offer insights into acceptance and open-mindedness. His back-door approach to counselling troubled students so that they create the solutions to their problems is enlightening and worthy of contrast to top-down direction. A slim volume with lots to offer the imaginative seeking reader, The River Troll is definitely worth a look - and a long think about afterward.
Chriss Szabo
Reviewed in Canada on September 3, 2021
Rich Theroux writes how he speaks; with a genuine enthusiasm, appreciation, wonder, and love of people and the world around him. The River Troll is magical and poignant and more importantly, oh so real. This book showcases Rich's ability to see the world for what it really is and people for who they really are. It shows how he sees past the ugly and into the beauty, and that he loves all of the parts (good and bad) anyway. Finally, The River Troll is a testament to the work Rich does daily in his community and for those he loves. This book touched my heart and made it cry with sorrow and burst with joy.
Amazon customer
Saige · 9 days ago
Great read! Very inspiring!
I can across this amazing author on social media and I have the privilege of owning some of his paintings. I've always found Rich to be a dynamic artists with a freedom and realness, I can only hope to achieve. The river troll arrived on my porch tonight and had no I expectation for what I was about to recieve.
I read the book tonight, from cover to finish
His writing is as amazing as his paintings. This book will pull you into a reality you can relate too with a twist of fantasy thats enthralling. Worth every penny. Can't wait to share with my friends and family.
Theresa · 15 days ago
Great read
I loved the River Troll. It is an immersive mix of fairy tale villains, modern everyday life, and above all else love. I was carried away by the rich language mixed with gorgeous artwork that aptly conveys the complexities of modern life. It is a story to read and revisit multiple times to fully appreciate the book's many gifts.
Jenna · 21 days ago
Hobbit fans? You gotta read this.... It's the real modern hero's adventure....
I've now read it twice and I'm going back in again.
This unique novella is a winding river of poetry, folklore, with Rich's mind blowing artwork through out. If you listen carefully you can feel the subtle strains of the jazz trumpet in the background, even if you don't know from jazz.
This one will stop you in your tracks, and make you read that page, again, again, and again....
Elona Malterre
Powerful art changes our perceptions, and RICHARD THEROUX’S book THE RIVER TROLL does exactly that: it changes our perceptions of who artists are and therefore who we are.
Spinning to the beat of Duke Ellington’s rhythms or a Charlie Parker solo, descending from one of Calgary’s high rise apartments with its million dollar view, down into the glass canyons and along the concrete to the river, into the dark shadows of the underworld of Orpheus, the writer’s imagination fires a night of drama.
THE RIVER TROLL is a major work for the Canadian canon: Seemingly simple, because of its 121-page length, half of them drawings, the work is a complex examination of ambiguity, each alternating page a poem or ongoing prose poem – beating to a variation of jazz beats – like a solo, a voice or instrumental, -- standing on it’s own yet linked in a tight narrative about the artist/teacher/lover/father’s experiences in a rural/city environment of shadows alternated by neon flashes on cement. “Streets downtown are bright./ You see half as many stars as you/would in the suburbs, and a hundredth of what you’d see in the country.”
In the morning, in the country school, where the narrator teaches, he gives a heart-wrenching insight into the students’ minds close to graduation. Those pages are worth the price of the book.
During the artist’s visual/literary/musical journey, encompassing several/days/nights, the reader is treated to an extra-ordinary talent with Theroux’s unique and profound turn of phrase such as “dragons. Not so long /ago they decided to bury themselves/ in armour, they dress like trains . . . back and forth across the country you can hear them.” Dragons constructed Canada. Chinese muscle and bone hammered out the railway which structured our early country. Their voices sound today in the transport whistles hauling Chinese goods across the land. A metaphor for history.
Eastern, classical western and First Nations’ myth inter-vocalize in this poetic ode to perspective from an artist for whom “make art or die is a self-proclaimed manifesto.”
In every artist a constant battle rages between the Apollonian impulse and the Dionysian. Both are needed for creativity, but it’s a zero sum gain. Too much passion – chaos, disaster; too much reason – passivity, emotional crippling.
The God Apollo demands structure, reason and above all order. He rules the head. Dionysius, the God of abandon thrives only in chaos and extreme. He rules the body. Humans are both reason and beast which is why there are so many half beast/half human creatures in mythology.
Art must embrace a delicate balance between the two. The minotaur, the half bull-half man makes an appearance as Theroux drives out to the rural school where he teaches. But this is not the minotaur of Greek myth, but a half-moose-o-taur, drawing on the real danger of civilized and wild encounters of human/moose collisions where “dead things lie on” early morning roads.
This muse or moose-o-taur doesn’t physically collide with the protagonist, the frantic artist/teacher/human trying to make sense of a sense-less world, but the fantastical creature does unnerve him. What happens to the artist the day the muse(ic) stops?
In Cree traditions, moose are symbols of endurance and survival. In classical western mythology, one of the symbols of endurance and survival is Sisyphus who makes up one of the original pen and ink drawings in the book. Sisyphus, like the artist, keeps “starting over” and when the artist, engaged in a dialogue with Sisyphus, asks, “What’s that look like,” Sisyphus replies, “morning.”
Morning, sometimes for the artist, is coffee with his love, listening to Louis Armstrong on their apartment balcony with its vista. For only in love and sublime music is there temporary respite for the artist driven by autism and a sense of urgency that one of the mythical spinners will cut the thread of life.
The triad or transformation of three to one crosses mythologies, generations and sexes. One incarnation of the three spinners (or three fates, or three muses of Greek mythology), is Baba Yaga, an ambiguously benign/evil, supernatural creature in Slavic and other eastern European folk tale, depicted as an old or deformed woman, whose house on chicken legs is the stuff of legend. Will she eat those whom she encounters, or will she bless them? The River Troll, from northern and Scandinavian mythology, plays a similarly ambiguous male role.
But before them all; before there were sexes there were one circle people, united into one, with one perception: the cyclops giantess, perceives the world with her one eye. There is only one point of view here. He is puny.
His are external sensual perceptions drawn on his story and musical background, given to him by artists of previous generations. They have filled the artist’s cup, courtesy of grace. She is missing one eye, perhaps, a misfortune of her one of her less-kind sisters.
A formidable mistress, she extorts each emotion. The artist realizes his young son witnessed a man falling from the 19th floor of his apartment building. “He is falling. And he’s happy.” In a world filled with pain, how does the artist safeguard his sanity and that of future generations? By embracing ambiguity, by doing art and helping others who are equally confused and lost to do art.
Rumble House is the gallery started by Theroux and his “most beautiful woman in the world” wife to foster the talents of other would-be artists. According to Baba Yaga, “if you are not a source, you are a sewer,” and once a week the gallery hosts a two-hour painting sweatshop which uses three short readings by Jess as a theme for the week. The purpose is to do art; sometimes Theroux takes a “piece of lamb” he was saving for a post-painting snack from his pack and puts it into a participant’s back pack. Not because Baba Yaga says so, but because “’the true artist has disciplined and freed himself for giving. He is a bottomless cup that keeps welling full and running over,’” reads Jess from Alexander Eliot as the evening’s inspiration. At the end of the evening a dozen different perceptions of what the readings meant.