laureate of literary awards
The newspaper “LITERARY NEWS” (“Literaturnye Izvestia”) No. 7 (193), 2021
http://www.litiz.ru/arch.html
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=29136
N. Abrashina, “Not Love Temptation, or a Trap by Lucifer”
In 2021, the museum-theatre Bulgakov House in Moscow hosted the literary party “Another Reality” with the presentation of the novel “A Trap for a Thought-Form” by Alexandra Kryuchkova, poet and mystic writer, the manager of the literary salon of the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, held exactly in the Bulgakov House during the literary season 2020—2021.
The “Trap” is non-standard reading! An amazing story of overcoming the fear of Love gives birth to the very Great Feeling, that prolongs life of both people and ghosts!
The place of action is the Bulgakov House in Moscow, and at the same time it is Another Reality, the Subtle World. The reader needs to follow the plot so carefully that the Blizzard of events, characters and their dialogues doesn’t overshadow the thread of the narrative, which is very delicate and requires serious reflection.
It’s no coincidence that Vladimir Georgievich Boyarinov, Chairman of the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, congratulating the author on the release of the book and addressing readers, said,
“Of course, I won’t tell you the plot of this story, because it is wrapped very, very tightly! Only someone who is not afraid of this ‘Trap’ and will open the cover after all, and will not let it slam shut, as it could happen, unravel it. The book is in the ‘Playing Another Reality’ series, isn’t it? ‘Won’t we play too much?’ the reader asks, opening this guidebook… into the realm of the mysterious, into the realm of the unknown, into the realm of the puzzling plot, where the protagonist differs from the heroes of Oscar Wilde, Paolo Coelho, Alexey Tolstoy, Bernard Shaw, who were conjuring and shamanizing there, too, but calmed down. It’s too early for us to think about sad things, so everyone who, in general, is interested in something new, the unknown, and who wants to make discoveries, for God’s sake, read and extract for yourself some kind of love for the word, love of discovery, love of what we don’t know and will never know, without opening the first page and not having read to the last!”
Forty lessons of magic on creating a Happy Reality by Alice, the main character, is a real guide for the self-improvement of every soul, compiled in the spirit of Christian commandments concerning love for one’s neighbor, repentance and forgiveness, mutual assistance and humility.
“It’s important to wish good to your enemies absolutely sincerely, as to yourself.”
“Help at least one person a month… As much as you can, in whatever way you can. Free of charge. Don’t make it public.”
“Learn to see God in all you meet, even in a stone.”
“…Write a letter to the Creator about everything… being aware that He knows better in Heaven what will benefit a particular soul, and what will be harmful…”
It is really important for Alice to…
“ask everyone to forgive you… and forgive each of them”,
“move your ‘Self’ in the second place during conversation, having recognized that the other person’s ‘Self’ is no less important to God than yours”,
“reveal in each being, sent to you on the Path, something it can be praised for.”
And how life-affirming are the words of the main character, completely disappointed in life and decided to step into Death,
“Imagine that your life will continue after your leaving the physical body, because, having fulfilled your current mission on Earth, you will definitely take on the solution of some new tasks of the Universe.”
Yes, Alice is looking for the Portal to the Other Reality, where her friend, the Ghost, resides, because she “no longer had the strength to stay in our Reality”. She constantly wraps herself in furs, as if hiding from the surrounding reality, she feels uncomfortable in this world. Alice is tired of loneliness, she didn’t manage to meet “a strong male shoulder”,
“…I wanted so much to create my own little world with him and me, and a fireplace, and coffee, and a blanket, and the Moon Cat, and in that world I would read us bedtime tales, and no Blizzard outside the window would be able to keep us apart…”
At the same time, tired to death, Alice finds the strength to help an even weaker person, Pasha, who, overcoming his fear of refusal in reciprocity, told her “the most important words”, adding, “Is it bad to say what you feel?” To help Pasha, Alice asks directly the Creator.
The very fact that the only obstacle on the way to the Portal to the Other World (in fact, to Death, that is, to the early departure from Life) is its gloomy Guardian, “once a story happened to the Guardian that changed his Consciousness,” “the Guardian who imagined himself to be God…” (a direct reference to Lucifer), is overwhelming. Describing the Guardian, the author doesn’t hide his impure nature: he constantly hits the table with his fist, throws objects at the wall, barks, his eyes sparkle, “there were devilish lights in his eyes”. Finally, when a representative of “the Winged World” appears, the Guardian exclaims,
“What has their secret messenger to do in our vicious monastery?”
And finally, he admits,
“My Mansion was created for Impure Souls, not for divine gifts!”
Entering into verbal fights with the Guardian, similar to the struggle of a troubled soul with Devil the Tempter, Alice realizes they have something in common, and it’s the fear of Love, because “it’s easier and safer to remain at the level of a dream than trying to realize the dream”. And then Alice asks the Guardian the key question, as if mirroring it on herself,
“Tell me, honestly, what do you fear more: Death or Love?”
By the way, all the characters of this book “reflect” each other, like mirrors!
The Guardian denies Love (which means God, because God is Love), trying to offer Alice his artificially created immortality in exchange for her refusal to believe in Love (i.e., in God),
“The only real thing in the world is Death, Alice! Death conquers all, always!”
“Death defeated Love… It’s a pity that Koschey has already arrived, another singer of your dead Love, who pretends to be the Immortal.”
Alice doesn’t give up,
“Your phrase is mirrored, everyone finds the own meaning.”
However, does Love always defeat Death?
A non-standard chain of events puts Alice in front of a global question, “Who am I?” It is logical to assume that she is just the ghost of the real Alice killed by the Guardian, but at this turning point, reminding of V. Bryusov’s poem “Escape” about the main character’s awakening from sleep, the broken pattern provokes chaos from which a “New and definitely Happy Universe” is created.
The attitude of the author to her colleagues-writers is curious:
“…in fact,