Остров Харона. The Island of Charon. Премия им. А. де Сент-Экзюпери / A. de Saint-Exupery Award (Билингва: Rus / Eng). Александра Крючкова
обладает свободой выбора: «Но… обрати внимание: Творец не действует против твоей воли и никогда и никого не лишает права выбора…»
А ещё – важность прощения, ведь главная героиня смиряется с замыслом Творца на собственную смерть и в итоге прощает своего убийцу: «Я не желаю тебе зла… Ты прав – так зачем-то было нужно… Прощай…»
В книге нет ничего «лишнего» – все события и диалоги персонажей тщательно выверены и продуманы. Нет и искусственно встроенной «зауми» – «Остров Харона» читается легко, но при этом является серьёзным произведением, заслуживающим внимания не менее, чем аналогичные философские работы в области так называемой «Иной реальности», от «Маленького принца» Антуана де Сент-Экзюпери до «Розы мира» Даниила Андреева.
Решением жюри Творческого Центра «Облака вдохновения» Александра Крючкова объявлена победителем конкурса «Иная реальность» имени Леонида и Даниила Андреевых за 2021 год. Желаем Александре неиссякаемого творческого вдохновения и очередных побед на Литературном Олимпе!
Сергей БЕРСЕНЕВ,
Заслуженный писатель Московской городской организации
Союза писателей России, поэт,
руководитель Творческого Центра «Облака вдохновения»
Газета «Литературные известия» №3 (201), 2022.
http://litiz.ru/arch.html
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30735
S. Bersenev, «Another Reality»
(«Alexandra Kryuchkova revealed the secret of Charon»)
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“!», quoted in the epigraph Alexandra’s words. Later, in January 2017, at the same House took place a presentation of the grandiose film «Holy Russia» by A. Kulyamin (based on the book «Holy Russia. Voices of Russian poets»), which features the heartfelt poems of A. Kryuchkova 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 «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 price does each of us have to pay for our deeds?
Unresolved tasks and unfinished works, mistakes made during life and affection for 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 of dear to the heart people are haunting 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, asks 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 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 murder in the spirit of Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers and ends with 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.»
…as well as the importance of forgiveness, because the main character accepts 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