TALES OF GHOSTS
About LOVE and DEATH
from the LAND of MISTS
a collection of short stories
in the “PLAYING ANOTHER REALITY” series
“TALES OF GHOSTS” is a collection of mystical and philosophical stories about various ghosts and the Otherworld, the sense of life and death, the tragic turns of fate and the search for mutual love, the importance of being oneself, listening to one's inner voice and putting nothing off until tomorrow. The book includes the cycles: “Love Me Now!”, “The Master of Fates”, “Restless Souls”, “Nostalgia for the body”, “The Land of Mists”. Edgar A. Poe, A. Hitchcock, E.T.A. Hoffmann, H.Chr. Andersen awards.
18+
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*******ÊÍÈÃÀ / The BOOK:
RU: «ÑÊÀÇÊÈ ÏÐÈÇÐÀÊλ, ISBN 978-5-0056-2207-5, Ì.: – Èçäàòåëüñêèå ðåøåíèÿ, 2023. – 442 ñ.
ENG: «TALES of GHOSTS», ISBN 978-5-0056-9222-1, M.: - Èçäàòåëüñêèå ðåøåíèÿ, 2023. – 432 pages.
RU+ENG: «ÑÊÀÇÊÈ ÏÐÈÇÐÀÊÎÂ / TALES of GHOSTS», ISBN 978-5-0059-2520-6, Ì.: – Èçäàòåëüñêèå ðåøåíèÿ, 2023. – 596 pages.
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***** AWARDS of the book and of some of its stories *****
• “SHADOW of a BIRD” 2021 after EDGAR A. POE
(Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia & “Literary Republic”)
• “CASE ¹…” 2021 in Alfred HITCHCOCK nomination
(Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia & “Literary Republic”)
• “TALES for ADULTS” 2022 after E. T. A. HOFFMANN & H. Chr. ANDERSEN
(Open Literary Club “Response”, 2022)
• “TALES of the XXI Century” 2022 in H. Chr. ANDERSEN nomination
(Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia & “Literary Republic”)
• “WRITER of the XXI Century” 2022 in N.V. GOGOL nomination
(Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia & “Literary Republic”)
• “The GOLDFISH” 2022
(Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, 2022)
• “LITERARY OLYMPUS” 2012
(League of Writers of Eurasia, 2012)
*****SEE THE SOURCES & REFERENCES:
1. The magazine “CHILDREN of RA” No. ¹1 (194), 2022, Magazine Hall “Gorky-Media”.
“Tales of Ghosts” by D. Nemelstein.
http://detira.ru/arhiv/publication.php?id=30279
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30279
http://detira.ru/arhiv/contents.php?id=2905
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=2905
https://magazines.gorky.media/ra/2022/1
2. The newspaper “LITERARY NEWS” (“Literaturnye Izvestia”) No. 11-12 (197-198), 2021, “The results of the literary awards 2021” by the press-secretary of Moscow State Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia.
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30044
http://litiz.ru/nomer.php?id=30044
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=2864
http://litiz.ru/archive/litiz_2021_11-12(197-198).pdf
http://www.litiz.ru/arch.html
3. The newspaper “LITERARY NEWS” (“Literaturnye Izvestia”) No. 2 (200), 2022
“Serving Another Reality” by S. Bersenev.
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30458
http://litiz.ru/nomer.php?id=30458
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=2940
http://litiz.ru/nomer.php?id=30458
http://litiz.ru/arch.html
4. The newspaper “LITERARY NEWS” (“Literaturnye Izvestia”) No. 11 (209), 2022
“The results of the literary awards 2022” by the press-secretary of Moscow State Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia.
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=32226
http://litiz.ru/nomer.php?id=32226
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=3184
http://litiz.ru/arch.html
5. The newspaper “LITERARY NEWS” (“Literaturnye Izvestia”) No.12 (210), 2022
“Kind & wise fairy-tales by Alexandra Kriuchkova” by M. Zamotina.
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=32390
http://litiz.ru/nomer.php?id=32390
http://litiz.ru/archive/litiz_2022_12(210).pdf
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=3209
6. The newspaper “POETOGRAD” No. 12 (113), 2014
“Do you believe in ghosts?” by A. Karpenko.
https://www.reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=9499
https://poetograd.ru/nomer.php?id=9499
http://www.poetograd.ru/arch.html
7. The newspaper “POETOGRAD” No. 1 (397), 2022
“The results of the Open Literary Club 2021” by L. Koroleva.
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30303
https://poetograd.ru/nomer.php?id=30303
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=2908
http://poetograd.ru/archive/poetograd_2022_01(397).pdf
http://www.poetograd.ru/arch.html
8. The newspaper “POETOGRAD” No. 11 (407), 2022
“‘The Old Lantern’s dreams’ by A. Kriuchkova are to be watched by everyone!” by D. Nemelstein
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=32429
https://poetograd.ru/nomer.php?id=32429
https://poetograd.ru/arch.html
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=3212
9. Magazine “FUTURUM ART” ¹1 (52), 2022
L.Ya. Reznik, “Poet & writer Alexandra Kryuchkova? Remember the name!”
https://futurum-art.ru/archiv/nomer.php?id_pub=31202
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=31202
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=3051
https://futurum-art.ru/contents.php?id=3051
10. Magazine “LITERARY MOSCOW” / “Moskva literaturnaya” No. 1, 2022,
“Names of the 21st century”, L. Reznik, “Poet and writer Alexandra Kryuchkova? Remember the name!” ISBN 978-5-7949-0936-4, Moscow, the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, NP “Literary Republic”, 2022. — 128 pages.
11. Encyclopedia “Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia. The beginning of the XXI century”, reference book about the members of the Union, ISBN 978-5-7949-0884-8, M.: — MGO SPR, 2021 — 198 p.
12. Newspaper “LITERARY NEWSPAPER” / “Literaturnaya Gazeta” No. 17 (6782) dated April 28, 2021, LG portfolio / marginal notes, V. Shiltzyn: “To have a look beyond the brink of Being”.
*******D.J. NEMELSTEIN, “About LOVE and DEATH from the LAND of MISTS”*******
The book of philosophical and mystical stories by Alexandra Kryuchkova “Tales of Ghosts” (about Love and Death from the Land of Mists) is like a jewel box: each page contains something unique, and, trying the stories on, the reader will surely find their own! Even those, who are not burdened with a passion for mystification and take with skepticism talk about the Other World, will be charmed by the meanings, skillfully woven by the author into the fabric of a fascinating narrative. These stories not only reflect a high degree of writing skills, they radiate the Light of hidden wisdom and are filled with Divine Love.
Oddly enough, I met the author of “Tales of Ghosts” during the poetry seminar of Eugeny Rein at the Booker Laureates School in Milan 2012, where, as a result, E.B. Rein announced Alexandra Kryuchkova the winner in the poetry class with the award of Sergey Yesenin ‘Golden Autumn’ order decoration and a certificate for free edition of her book from the Moscow city organization of the Union of Writers of Russia. In the same place, in Milan, Alexandra was also marked in the prose course by the writer Viktor Erofeev, who singled out for the seminarians her novel “The Book of Secret Knowledge”, which opens the author’s “Playing Another Reality” series.
“Tales of Ghosts” harmoniously complement the series. The idea of assembling these stories into a book is admirable: all the main characters are already ghosts. Having moved to the Other World together with the author, they find themselves in a long and slow queue to the Heaven Chancellery, located in the City of the Sun, where everyone will be informed about one’s further destiny. To pass the time and warm the soul, the ghosts light up the fire, throwing into it their earthly lifetime stories. By the will of Lord, the author, in fact a listener of the stories, eventually returns from the City of the Sun to Earth in order to write down “Tales of Ghosts” by heart and pass them on to people.
It is no coincidence that the book consists of several parts. Arranged according to the principle from Earth to Heaven, it slowly leads the reader further and further into the Subtle World, to the place where the planet Earth is seen as a barely distinguishable point in the Abyss of the Cosmic Mind.
Part I. “Love me now!” is a collection of philosophical love stories, united by the regret and remorse of the main characters that they could not live for real the opportunity of given to them Love. The reasons are different, but the result cannot be changed: unexpressed love ‘gnaws’ the souls, pulls them into the past, where they can never return. Is it possible to make dreams come true in a posthumous reality? The story “A Cats’ Name” from this collection deserves the highest praise: it is not just touching – the reader won’t doubt a bit that it is being told by… a dog devoted to its owner!
Part II. “The Master of Fates” contains shocking stories about those who imagine themselves to be God: perverted maniacs and quite on their minds – cold-blooded and prudent killers – commit crimes without a twinge of conscience. The author’s incredible ability to penetrate the mind of maniacs culminates in the chilling, purely Hitchcock-like story “Cranberries” and strikes the reader on the spot, causing him to fear not only the swamps, but also the cranberries!
Part III. “Restless Souls” are mystical stories in the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe about ghost apparitions, each one strikingly unpredictable in its plot. The geography of phenomena is vast: London, Paris, Rome, Prague, Moscow, New York… Wherever the ghosts appear – in modern offices or in condemned houses, whether they are walking in the park near the Louvre or unwinding in a seaside resort in Italy – they are looking for an opportunity to complete some unfinished situation during their earthly lives, which haunts them after death, or they come to the aid of still alive relatives and beloved ones. The stories are so touching that they will not leave the reader without empathy: he involuntarily seeks a way of salvation for the main characters, finding it together with them and for himself. And here is another masterpiece – a heart-warming story “The House by the Station” about an abandoned wooden house, in which more than one generation of ghosts gather to drink tea, play chess and relive happy moments of the past. It is the third (central) part of the book that is the doorway to Another Reality.
Part IV. “Nostalgia for the Body” and Part V. “The Land of Mists” contain stories of the inhabitants of the Subtle World: souls not yet incarnated, but preparing for incarnation; disembodied, but longing for physical, as well as stories of other creatures, for example, like the Black Raven, who serves as a Guardian in the Land of Mists, and characters of fairy tales and other thought-forms. Here the influence of H. Chr. Andersen and E. T. A. Hoffmann, O. Wilde and A. S.-Exupery is captured, and the pearl of this collection, in my opinion, is the fairy tale “Water Lily”, by the way, reprinted three times and beloved by readers. The story “A Guest” explodes one’s mind with a trivial tea-party… with Death.
The book “Tales of Ghosts” includes both new stories and previously published ones (from the books “Do You Believe in Ghosts?” and “Water Lily”), which received positive reviews from literary critics even after their first publication. The famous poet and writer Alexander Karpenko rightly compared Kryuchkova’s short stories to the mystical thrillers of Edgar Allan Poe (Poetograd, No. 12 (113), 2014).
The stories from the book “Tales of Ghosts” got the following literary awards: “Shadow of a Bird” after Edgar Allan Poe and “Case No…” 2021 in A. Hitchcock nomination (the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, NP “Literary Republic”, 2021), H. Chr. Andersen and E. T. A. Hoffman “Tales for adults” (Open Literary Club “Response”, 2022), “Literary Olympus” (League of Eurasian Writers, 2012).
A striking feature of Kryuchkova’s prose is the complete absence of a line between earthly and the Other Realities: while reading, we sometimes don’t even notice that the hero or heroine has already passed into the Other World! And all the characters – decisive and not so much ones, romantic and prudent, loving and hating, smart and naive, happy and unhappy, rich and poor – have one thing in common: they are mortal and, basically, suddenly.
The mystical spirit is masterfully matched by the author with the daily routine and real events of the era. Thus, behind the plot of the “The City of Rains” there is an ominous panorama of the crash of the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001. The story “Stuck Pluto” is about an epidemic of coronavirus. In the story “Disembodied” we hear an echo of the Great Patriotic War. The ghost of a woman, a member of an intelligence network settled in Italy during the war years, with motherly persistence, for half a century, has been looking for her son, evacuated to Siberia with an orphanage.
The short novel “Good Night” recreates a picture of the frantic rhythm of life and rotation in the business circles of Moscow in the sinister 1990’s, when there was a demand for such unscrupulous people as Sackman, who robbed the owner of a furniture company, and the lovesick Oksana, ready to do anything for money, who easily sold her friend to the customer of the murder.
The image of Mr. Piggins (in the story “A Photo film”) is also quite remarkable, convex and brightly drawn by the author with obvious sarcasm. We see a state official, who has successfully moved from the Soviet era into the era of radical changes: as he received his “tips” in the form of interest, bribes and kickbacks, so he continues to receive them. And he will never die, because the Piggins are immortal…
It is surprising that many of the works gathered in this book were created by Alexandra when she was a teenager, they are so well “faceted”. Written in pastel colors, lyrical and tender, they contain a slight sadness and a non-childlike understanding of the world beauty, in which Divine Love prevails over everything. A considerable portion of it is produced by the author herself, as if she remained to live on Earth at the age of a teenage girl. However, the character of her “Farewell to Childhood” is right,
“Time doesn’t exist. It is conditional and relative. You will learn to manage Time when you realize that it doesn’t matter how old you are on Earth, the main thing is who you feel you are …”
Yes! To look at the world through children’s eyes, being an adult, is a gift from the Creator.
After reading the book, one gets the feeling that the author is constantly and intently watching her characters – and even the reader! – not from the side, but as if from Above, from different heights, now approaching them, then moving away, but never leaving them … like their guardian angel.
However, answering the question “Do you believe in ghosts?”, I will quote the wise “A Letter from the Astral Tablets”, included by the author in “Tales of Ghosts”,
“Certainly, my dear friend… in my life, there have been also other inexplicable cases related to those who passed into the Other World, but I should confess to you that most of all I have always been concerned about the relationship of living people, because it is what turns some of us into ghosts…”
Dmitry J. NEMELSTEIN,
poet, writer, historian,
member of the Union of Writers of Russia,
laureate of literary awards
The magazine “CHILDREN of RA” No. ¹1 (194), 2022,
Magazine Hall “Gorky-Media”.
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30279
http://detira.ru/arhiv/publication.php?id=30279
***********A.N. KARPENKO, “DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?”***********
The lyrical novellas of Alexandra Kryuchkova can’t leave anyone indifferent. They tell about the most vulnerable and fragile thing in human destiny – the formation and collapse of relationship between a man and a woman, about different faces of this and Other World life. Kryuchkova’s stories are quite short, no more than two pages, but how many experiences fall to the lot of their characters!
The writer uses the effect of a ‘detective’ ending: everything, as a rule, doesn’t end the way the reader expects. The aerobatics of the dramaturgy of these stories is when one emotion interrupts another and reverses the outcome. Such an inverted outcome sometimes evokes in the reader directly opposite, overwhelming emotions.
The second and third parts of the book are written in the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe’s mystical thrillers. Nowadays ghosts, of course, don’t appear in old Gothic castles, but, for example, in the fashionable offices of well-known firms (the story “A Letter”). You see, they, the ghosts, absolutely don’t care where to appear. The surroundings don’t interest them at all. As in the works of past centuries, they are spiritually bound to the premises in which they died. Although, to tell the truth, I prefer stories outside the Otherworld – “A Piano”, “A Cat’s Name”, “See you Tomorrow”.
Without exception, all the short stories of Alexandra Kryuchkova are written at a high artistic level of narration and dramaturgy.
Kryuchkova’s creative biography is full of surprises. She began writing poetry and prose at the age of 11. And not just began, because some short stories were included in the book, which is the subject in my note. This is evidenced by the dates under the works. These stories not only entered the book, they took their rightful place in it. The old works of the child prodigy Kryuchkova, included in her collection, were written by the hand of master. And they say that there will be no more Lermontovs because of the supposedly “slow” maturation of modern youth. However, it is not so! When you read Alexandra Kryuchkova’s stories, you don’t even think that they were written by a teenage girl.
I think that such an early maturation of Kryuchkova, as in the case of Lermontov, is caused by the premature death of both her parents. The tragic orphanhood could not but affect the child’s psyche. For Alexandra Kryuchkova, this resulted in a genuine interest in the Other World. The drama of life entered her soul early. As in the case of Lermontov, everyone learned about the prodigy Kryuchkova in retrospect, when she had already grown up and became a famous poet.
Although the stories, presented in the book, were written by Alexandra at a young age, they have not lost their original value even today. And yet, it’s a pity that our country didn’t care about its brilliant children in the nineties of the last century. And that Alexandra Kryuchkova’s early stories were published only two decades after they were written.
Alexander KARPENKO*,
poet and writer
The newspaper “POETOGRAD” No. 12 (113), 2014
https://www.reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=9499
http://www.poetograd.ru/arch.html
*****M.A. ZAMOTINA, “KIND & WISE FAIRY TALES by Alexandra Kryuchkova”
(about “Tales from the Land of Mists”, “The Old Lantern’s Dreams” edition)
“Everyone has their home here,
but you have to find it
by going through the Land of Mists.”
Alexandra Kryuchkova
There is an opinion that everyone loves fairy tales, both children and adults. Probably because this genre is special and magical. In fairy tales, the most incredible transformations and transfigurations are possible, the characters are able to move into any of the existing and non-existent worlds, fiction is inseparable from reality.
There are many fairy tales nowadays. Both in bookstores and digital libraries. Of course, in the new century, new features appeared in the Russian fairy tale tradition. “What are they?” the reader will ask. What can be changed in a fairy tale? After all, the fairy tale is an ancient genre, that everyone understands. However, at the same time, today we see new stylistic techniques, new subjects, and a particularly acute relevance.
Tales by Alexandra Kryuchkova, first of all, are distinguished by a confidential intonation. The author doesn’t seem to invent anything, she doesn’t fantasize, doesn’t lie. Is there no Land of Dreams? Or no Land of Mists? Of course, they exist. We know this for sure. Why? Because the author speaks to us, the readers, as if we were her own close friends. We trust her, and this puts us in touch with her characters.
Every literary work, like a musical one, has its own tonality. And Alexandra Kryuchkova’s fairy tales have it, too. But tonality, as well as music, has to be listened to. I have no doubt that every reader will understand it at once, from the very first lines.
“A fluffy willow branch was dozing in a Venetian vase on the windowsill, when a delicate Butterfly appeared on it.” '
(“The Old Lantern’s Dream”)
While the “Sky Ladder” begins and sounds quite different:
“Olesya was waiting for her favorite holiday, the New Year, with bated breath, and really as a new one, so that it would radically change her life. The girl had been ill for a long time, but the doctors assured she was about to recover. And as a gift for the holiday, as always, she wanted to receive a book about the stars.”
For me, a fairy tale is, first of all, a mood. Alexandra’s book is beautifully illustrated by the author herself. And if the word and the vision of the word coincide, then it is a special mood! Alexandra Kryuchkova, both as a writer and as an artist, is not meticulous in details, her world is bright, elegant, kind and very simple in perception. This is amazing! Her pictures are bright and elegant. Cheerful and kind. And so understandable! At the same time, Alexandra’s fairy tales cannot be called static colorful canvases. Everything about them is in motion. In the movement of thoughts and dreams.
It is very important that the new fairy tale worlds by Alexandra Kryuchkova, and there are a few of them in this book, are accessible to us, the readers. As well as to her characters. And we do not even ponder why the seemingly incompatible in time and space are easily and naturally perceived, since Alexandra masters the laws of the genre perfectly, in her fairy tales the atmosphere of an ordinary miracle does not oppose the genuine geography.
“Birthday is a sad holiday. It’s good that it doesn’t happen very often. The guests, repeating the same wishes from year to year, had already gone. However, that time Peter felt an elusive Something leaving his life together with the guests, but forever, and he could neither stop nor return that Something. It left the boy alone with the enormous adult world, so unlike a fairy tale, while the teddy bear was boring in the armchair and waiting for Peter to pay attention to him, to caress him and say something kind and affectionate.”
(“Farewell to Childhood”)
Alexandra Kryuchkova’s characters live miraculously in nature. As in the fairy tale “Water Lily” there is the flower itself and two Frogs, the Younger and the Elder. There are many more characters in this tale, the tale only begins with a simple question, “Why are you sad, Water Lily?” It’s even more of a parable with elements of a fairy tale.
To an adult reader, indeed, some fairy tales may seem like parables. See the dictionary, “A parable is a short story in allegorical form, comprising a moral teaching (morality)”. Vladimir Dal interpreted the word ‘parable’ as ‘teaching by example’. Epos genre: a small narrative work of edifying nature, containing a religious or moral lesson in allegorical form.”
Perhaps, not only the “Water Lily” but also the “Enchanted Lake” and the “Enchanted Prince” by Alexandra Kryuchkova can be considered parables.
But the world of a child is a special world. A child’s gaze is fixed on the little things. A child often has an inescapable urge to create a fairy tale out of his own impression. “What for?” an adult will ask. And how to answer?
Everything about childhood is fabulous. What for us, adults and educated ones, is a transfer of meaning, a metaphor, an allegory, a lesson, for a child it is just a fairy tale.
The fairy tale world created by Alexandra Kryuchkova, and no matter who travels in it, an adult reader or a child, captures hearts with wisdom and kindness. The nature of the fairy tale contains the conventionality that we expect, as we accept the obligatory miracles, a necessary attribute of the genre. Gnomes, trolls, elves, magic wands that exist in the folk tales of the world are familiar and unshakable. The author’s plot is a different matter. There are plenty of possibilities here. And Alexandra uses them skillfully.
Alexandra Kryuchkova’s stories are very sympathetic due to their reverence and benevolence. Sometimes episodes of her fairy tales turn out to be so realistic, so similar to what is happening today in reality, that they are perceived as stories with some addition of fantasy plots.
For example, the characters in the story “The Girl and the Cat” are the humanized properties of our natures:
“They never came back… Perhaps one day you will meet them, two eternal wanderers, the Girl and the Black Cat. However, probably they have already reached the Stairway to Heaven and joined the myriad of stars illuminating your path…”
Alexandra Kryuchkova is a kind person, no doubt. And how she loves her characters! And we understand why! Yes, I note that goodness and belief in happiness and justice are among the author’s chosen virtues. And she doesn’t impose her opinion, but shows her characters easily and freely in the circumstances created for them.
The author is not a boring pedant, but a creative person who unobtrusively arranges the space of plot collisions, twists and turns, the relationships of the characters, objects, phenomena, the space of feelings, the direct perception of the fairy-tale world.
“Somewhere far away in the Sky, the seagulls noticed the outlines of an unknown City. They wondered, what kind of City it was, being situated not on Earth, but in the Sky. They had never seen such cities before!”
(“The Girl and the Sea”)
The immutability of the author’s understanding of good and evil is easily read in the fairy tales by Alexandra Kryuchkova. The author educates both adults and young readers the ability to recognize the world, to feel beauty, she teaches us faith in a good, wise and honest life.
“And the Girl disappeared. The Rocks no longer saw her there, on the seashore, at sunset. Only the book left by the Girl on the coastal stone reminded them of her existence…”
(“The Girl and the Sea”)
A fairy tale gives us hope. If something doesn’t work out for us exactly as in a fairy tale, we still try to make our wish come true, to make our dreams become reality. Sometimes, the hustle and bustle of the current worries and everyday troubles can make us feel sad and lonely, and then a fairy tale comes to the rescue as a life vest.
A good fairy tale is also a real Goldfish, and in the autumn of 2022, on behalf of the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, I awarded Alexandra Kryuchkova with the GoldFish literary prize, the medal “for creating fantasy and fairy-tale works for children and adults”, for “The Old Lantern’s Dreams” book.
Alexandra’s tales are clever and uncompromising. The precious qualities of kindness, harmony, fidelity and honor in her tales, as well as the condemnation of evil and treachery, will find their way to the hearts of children and adults not only in our country, but all over the world.
Marina Anatolievna ZAMOTINA,
Honored Worker of Culture of Russia,
Member of the Executive Board of the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia,
Executive Secretary of the creative associations of critics, writers of plays, children and youth literature.
Newspaper “Literary News” / “Literaturnye Izvestia” ¹12 (210), 2022
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=32390
http://litiz.ru/archive/litiz_2022_12(210).pdf
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=3209
*******D.J. NEMELSTEIN, “«THE OLD LANTERN’s DREAMS» by Alexandra Kryuchkova to be watched by everybody!"*******
(about “Tales from the Land of Mists”, “The Old Lantern’s Dreams” edition)
For the first time in Russian and English in a full-color edition, the book by the wonderful writer Alexandra Kryuchkova “The Old Lantern’s Dreams” includes wise fairy tales, equally interesting for both children and adults. It is noteworthy that the author made not only the translation, but also the artistic design of the edition. Charming pastel drawings are both childishly naive and pure, maturely serious and kind.
Getting a little ahead, I will say that the fabulous miniatures by Alexandra Kryuchkova, reflecting a high degree of writing skills, truly radiate the Light of hidden wisdom and are filled with Divine Love.
A striking feature of Kryuchkova’s prose is the complete absence of a line between earthly and the Other Realities, the reader moves in space and time, like the heroine of the “Sky Ladder”, Olesya, sometimes diving into the Galaxy, where
“ships used to float everywhere. A lot of them and different ones: peaceful – with travelers, pirate – with sails, cannons and parrots, and just lonely boats – with nobody and nothing…”,
and then returning back by means of the numerous magical ladders,
“…rope and cable, wooden and metal, even marble – ladders of various colors and sizes, as well as home ones.”
Thanks to the amazing talent of the author, it seems that everyone is able to do this, both a child and an adult, but only if one “believes in one’s own star”; because “wings are given to those who believed in them”. However, behind the abundance of heavenly ladders and boats, the reader at some point discovers that this is a tale of selfless friendship and hope for the triumph of goodness and justice. Olesya will never give out the sad secret of her friend Vadik to anyone, and her desire to share happiness and help her friend become a real prince is so deep and sincere that it evokes tenderness and strikes the reader to the very heart.
The mysterious miniature “The Enchanted Prince” about the night spent by a wanderer on the shore of a lake in the Land of Mists unobtrusively tells us about the laws of Heaven, the violation of which even in dreams threatens with serious consequences, but the author leaves hope for everyone to become real in order to work miracles:
“Only a true princess from the Human World, capable to love with the Divine Love, will be able to disenchant the prince!”
...despite the fact that it requires
“to make such a dangerous journey from Earth to this lake and… feel a living human soul in a tree…”
“The Old Lantern’s Dream” is truly magical: before our eyes, a caterpillar on a willow branch turns into a butterfly, sharing another mystery. Only by overcoming one’s own fears, the reader will allow dreams to come true. But how to do it? How to overcome fear? The butterfly knows the answer to this question too; talking with the girl, she brings hope for the Light to each of us.
Despite the different reasons for striving towards Heaven and the endings of the stories, the miniature “The Girl and the Cat” and the fairy tale “Water Lily” are still imbued with the same hope of finding happiness.
However, after reading the delightful stories by Alexandra Kryuchkova, gathered in “The Old Lantern’s Dreams”, it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that the connecting thread of this fabulous collection is Faith, Hope and Love in their eternal divine intertwining.
The pearl of this collection, in my opinion, is the fairy tale “Water Lily”, in which the Angel gives the main character (a flower) the opportunity to correct a mistake in order to fulfill the destiny on Earth and find true happiness in Heaven. The tale makes the reader take a closer look at his own life, including from a different – heavenly – point of view.
While reading the book until the last paragraph, one gets the feeling that the author is constantly and intently watching her characters – and even the reader! – not from the side, but as if from Above, from different heights, now approaching them, then moving away, but never leaving them … like their guardian angel.
Two parables – how the sea became salty, “The Girl and the Sea”, and how reality turned into a fairy tale, “The Enchanted Lake”, – are laconic and wise, once again confirming the axiom about the sister of talent, named brevity.
It is surprising that many of the works gathered in this book were created by Alexandra when she was a teenager, they are so well “faceted”. Partially published earlier in the books “Tales of Ghosts” (Part V. Tales from the Land of Mists), “Do You Believe in Ghosts?”, “Water Lily”, they received positive reviews from literary critics even at their first publication. The well-known poet and writer Alexander Karpenko rightly compared early miniatures of Kryuchkova to the genius of the young Lermontov (Poetograd, No. 12 (113), 2014).
In the texts of Kryuchkova, the influence of H. Chr. Andersen, Oscar Wilde and A. de Saint-Exupery is captured. Written in pastel colors, the fairy tales are lyrical and tender, with a slight sadness and a non-childlike understanding of the beauty of the world, where Divine Love prevails over everything. A fair share of it is produced by the author herself, as if she remained to live on Earth at the age of a teenage girl. The character of her “Farewell to Childhood” is right,
“Time doesn’t exist. It is conditional and relative. You will learn to manage Time when you realize that it doesn’t matter how old you are on Earth, the main thing is who you feel you are …”
Yes! To look at the world through children’s eyes, being an adult, is a gift from the Creator.
It is no coincidence that the fabulous cycle by Alexandra Kryuchkova was awarded with literary prizes for works for both children and adults: “The GoldFish” (Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, 2022), “Tales of the XXI century”, H. Chr. Andersen nomination (NP “Literary Republic” together with the MGO SP of Russia, 2022), “Tales for adults” in honor of H. Chr. Andersen and E. T. A. Hoffmann (Open Literary Club “Response”, 2022).
Plunge into the multi-colored “Dreams of the Old Lantern”, feel Earth and Heaven merged in them, and the rays of Divine Love will surely illuminate you and warm your heart and soul.
Dmitry J. NEMELSTEIN,
poet, writer, historian,
member of the Union of Writers of Russia,
laureate of literary awards
Newspaper “Poetograd” ¹11 (407), 2022
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=32429
https://poetograd.ru/nomer.php?id=32429
https://poetograd.ru/arch.html
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=3212
*****THANKS!*****
The author expresses her great gratitude
to all the characters and prototypes of these stories,
including:
numerous ghosts
and everybody else!
*****DEDICATION*****
I dedicate my book
to every reader!
As well as to:
my parents,
grandmothers, grandfather and great-grandfather,
my son Andrey and our cat Josephine,
and all KIND creatures and entities!