A unique work in Theroux's canon, Truisms distills a lifetime of observation and reading into thousands of rhyming quatrains, a Rubaiyat for our times. It is a compendium of universal truths, witty aphorisms, personal opinions, wise maxims, sardonic insults, cranky complaints, abrupt advice, and believe-it-or-not factoids that only he could assemble. Beginning with a well-informed history of apothegms and epigrams, Theroux states, "A truism provides a way of seeing by way of the compendious and concise, the summary and the succinct, a thought closed like a door with a bang." Truisms is "the way I see the world," he concludes, and it should appeal to both Theroux's fans and to anyone who appreciates pithy proverbs. - Steven Moore, author ( The An Alternative History, My Back Reviews and Essays, Alexander A Fan's Notes , etc.)
Alexander Theroux is a novelist, poet, and essayist. The most apt description of the novels of Theroux was given by Anthony Burgess in praise of Theroux's Darconville's Cat: Theroux is 'word drunk', filling his novels with a torrent of words archaic and neologic, always striving for originality, while drawing from the traditions of Rolfe, Rabelais, Sterne, and Nabokov.