Kindle Edition Amazon A Troll's Phantasmagoria Book Depository Powell's Category:  Fantasy Publisher: Open Sea Press ISBN-10:  0982819706 Type: Fiction Pages: 176 Copyright: March 22, 2015 ISBN-13: 9780982819708 Price: $5.99 (eBook) In both print and ebook: Garn, a troll of the Scandinavian sort, and Lucy a PhD-holding prostitute and expert in ancient languages, cavort and plot with friends in the New York City of the 1970s. AVAILABLE IN BOTH PRINT AND EBOOK,this posthumously published novel may also be classified as fabulist fiction, magical realism, occult, paranormal, slipstream,and some may feel it verges on fantasy and/or historical fiction. The writing ranges from racy to humorous to poetically profound and includes allusions to death, Fortean phenomena, Gnosticism, Buddhism, Christianity, Jewish folklore, and Paganism. It is published in March 2015,40 years after the death of the author, after the typewritten manuscript was found in the proverbial old trunk by family members when they were searching for something else. The published book includes a graphic which is screened in from the typewritten manuscript; the graphic is a square-formatted poem attributed in the novel to one of the novel's characters (to achieve this at the time the novel was typed,the author had to repeatedly turn the paper four ways while typing the poem). In addition to Garn and Lucy, characters include: Gloria, Garn's girlfriend, who gives sex education demonstrations at parties; Breitbard, an aspiring novelist who writes his novels on the walls and ceilings in his Manhattan brownstone and whose wife, Rosa, roams the world; Magwich, scholar living in Brooklyn, multiply-published under several names, with some sort of connection to a secret society of statisticians; Professor Phaestus, who teaches Gnostic ontology at Princeton and appears sexually naïve; Grunbacher, who has quit his government job and chooses to stay in bed for months; and many more including "pygmy Bosch," an artist; "Gus," a sort of sculptor, who has delved into the statistician's society's secrets; and a Voodoo juju "priest."

'A Troll's Phantasmagoria' Very Highly Recommended
SYNOPSIS: "A Troll's Phantasmagoria" is the story of Garn, a troll of the Scandinavian sort, and Lucy, a PhD-holding prostitute and expert in ancient languages,[who] cavort and plot with friends in the New York City of the 1970s. Many of the themes in "A Troll's Phantasmagoria" are still resonating today. "A Troll's Phantasmagoria" is being published on the 40th anniversary of the death of its author, Ronald J. Willis, founder of the International Fortean Organization. The typewritten manuscript was discovered in the proverbial trunk by the late author's family when they were unpacking after a move recently. The novel has weird and wacky characters, wild and funny events, and allusions to death, Fortean phenomena, mysticism and various religions and spiritual paths including Gnosticism, Buddhism, Christianity, Jewish folklore, and Paganism. Willis was raised Roman Catholic but by the time he was an adult he had left that Church. Though interested in various spiritualities, he never again affiliated with a church of any denomination. A novel of magical realism, the language and writing style for "A Troll's Phantasmagoria" ranges from racy and humorous to poetically profound.

CRITIQUE: An inherently fascinating and absorbing read from beginning to end, "A Troll's Phantasmagoria" is as entertaining as it is thoughtful and thought-provoking. This is one of those unique works of literary fiction that will linger in the mind and memory long after the book itself has been finished and set back upon the shelf. "A Troll's Phantasmagoria" is very highly recommended for personal reading lists, as well as community and academic library American Literary Fiction collections.
~MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW


A Romp With Serious Themes
"A romp but with serious themes. Speculative fiction/magical realism with humor and lots of references to people and things I thought were made up, but when I Googled them most of them are real! A friend suggested that I read this unusual novel and I was at first reluctant, but it really is good! Of other novelists I like, the style of this novel is most like some of Tom Robbins’, especially in Willis’ use of humor, obscure references to people, events and interest various religions, and characters that are both real and apparently imaginary.”
~LIBRARY THING (5-star review)