Читать книгу The Island of Charon. Playing Another Reality. Antoine de Saint-Exupery Award - Alexandra Kryuchkova - Страница 8

I am familiar with the work of the famous Moscow writer Alexandra Kryuchkova not by hearsay. Back in 2012, I was lucky enough to be present at her personal literary evening at the House of the Near Abroad by A. Solzhenitsyn at Taganka, where she looked great in two capacities at once: as a poet and as a songwriter. Her performance inspired me so much that I wrote one of my most significant poems «I say you „hello“!», citated in the epigraph Alexandra’s words. Later, in January 2017, at the same place took place a presentation of the grandiose film «Holy Russia» by A. Kulyamin (based on the book «Holy Russia. Voices of Russian poets»), which the heartfelt poems of A. Kryuchkova sound as well.

And now, a few years later, when, being the chairman of the jury and head of the Creative Center «Clouds of Inspiration», I got acquainted with her mystical thriller story «The Island of Charon», submitted to the literary competition «Another Reality» organized in honor of mystical writers Leonid and Daniil Andreev, Alexandra Kryuchkova revealed herself to me in yet another capacity – as a deep and thoughtful prose writer.

The very title of the book makes it clear that we are not going to have a trivial turning over of mundane platitudes, but a journey into painstaking philosophical reflections. From the first pages, we are immersed in that very «Another Reality», where the earthly life and death of the main character are closely interconnected with invisible otherworldly Forces of Darkness and Light, and the plot unfolds on a mysterious island, where «everything is wrong», since it is located in the Astral World. But does an afterlife exist in principle? And if so, how is that World organized? What is it «the judgment» of a soul? What answer does each of us have to hold for our deeds?

Unresolved tasks and unfinished works, mistakes made during life and attachment to earthly things, and even unfulfilled dreams lead the soul to the island, whose lighthouse is the Wish Tree, but «The Wish Tree is a trap…» And it is no coincidence that the owner of the island lives in a house in the Cemetery of Memories – the reminiscences concerning dear to the heart people constantly haunt the main character.

Can the described by Alexandra Kryuchkova in «The Island…» be exactly like this in reality? We don’t know, but surely, each of us, approaching the last line, will ask the same questions, to which the main character is looking for and finds answers. The author openly expresses her opinion on the possibility of cognition the Truth in a dialogue with Charon.

«…everything that surrounds you is an illusion. Only those who can refuse it will discover the Truth.»

«But the only way to understand completely what’s going on here is to go beyond of what’s going on. So, theoretically, everyone who is here now needs to leave the Astral World?»

«Correct. The character of the movie will not see the whole movie until he moves himself in the auditorium.»

Unlike most incoherent and far-fetched fantasy, «The Island», emerged at the intersection of genres (love story, detective, mysticism and philosophy), keeps the reader in suspense from the first to the last page: the search for mutual love leads to the investigation of one’s own murder in in the spirit of Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers and ends with the unraveling of Charon’s secret to realize the transition of the soul to the next step of the endless staircase to the Sky.

In my opinion, one of the main goals of the book is to convey to the reader the importance of taking responsibility for his own deeds, since each person almost always has the freedom of choice.

«But… pay attention to the fact that the Creator doesn’t act against your will and never deprives anyone of the right to choose.»

And there is also the importance of forgiveness, because the main character comes to terms with the Creator’s plan for her own death and eventually forgives her murderer.

«I don’t wish you any harm… You are right. It was necessary for some reason. Goodbye…»

There is nothing superfluous in the book. All the events and dialogues of the characters are carefully verified and thought out. There is no artificially built-in abstruse, «The Island of Charon» is easy to read, but at the same time it is a serious work that deserves attention no less than similar philosophical works in the field of so-called «Another Reality», from «The Little Prince» by Antoine de Saint-Exupery to «The Rose of the World» by Daniil Andreev.

By the decision of the jury of the Creative Center «Clouds of Inspiration», Alexandra Kryuchkova was announced the winner of the «Another Reality» 2021 competition after Leonid and Daniil Andreev. We wish Alexandra inexhaustible creative inspiration and new victories on the Literary Olympus!

Sergei Bersenev,

Honored Writer of Moscow City Organization

of the Union of Writers of Russia,

Head of the Creative Center «Clouds of Inspiration»,

laureate of literary awards

The newspaper «Literary News» («Literaturnye Izvestia») No. 3 (201), 2022.

http://litiz.ru/arch.html

https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30735