Sandy Krolick's Blog, page 16

Вероника

As some of you are already aware, my novel, Veronika: The Siberian’s Tale, was just translated into Russian and published here in Russia.  It is now available at bookstores in Altai Krai and Moscow, soon to be in St. Petersburg as well.

If you want to order the English Version Click Here

Here were some reviews of the original English:

“In his first work of fiction, Sandy Krolick weaves a powerful tale of ancient knowledge and modern challenge in the story of a young man navigating the seductive and treacherous world of modern Russia.  Writing from his adopted Siberia, Krolick creates a compelling figure in Sergei, the tale’s protagonist… The characters capture the taste, culture, and clash of forces at work in modern Russia and in the world at large. As the drive for development and modernization rises, the author deftly adds counterpoint in voices that connect to the land, the mountains, the ancient ways. Krolick creates scenes that are tense, sensual, idyllic, magical. He offers up reconciliation in ways that are unexpected and touching. The novel ends with a powerful acceptance of return and rediscovery, and a clear path for change. VERONIKA: The Siberian’s Tale is a rich and compelling story, well told.” (Michele Benoit)

“VERONIKA is a parable for our times. Through the lens of the protagonist, it takes us on an exhilarating ride up the ladder of financial success as we willfully ignore the impacts of that success on the living planet. Then it brings us back to Earth, literally and figuratively. Along the way, the story gently reminds us what really matters: love for nature, love for our children and grandchildren, love for each other. Wow… what a ride!” (Guy McPherson)

“Sandy has created a great balance of plot, political intrigue, romance, an existential connection to the land, and most important (to me) a personal battle with the self.”(DF)

And for my Russian readers:

«Роман Сэнди Кролика «Вероника» – написанное на современном материале и соответствующее сегодняшнему представлению о романе повествование, обладающее многими составляющими, способными обеспечить ему успех среди читателей: занимательный сюжет, герой, вызывающий симпатии, романтическая любовная история, разлука, встреча, смерть любимого человека, чувство вины, прозрение, обретение истинных ценностей. Несомненно, это роман с моралью, что подчеркивается и его подзаголовком («сибирская сказка»), но за ней – опыт собственной жизни, а потому определяющей для романа является идея пути, воплощенная в вымышленной истории. И хотя в произведении нет явного обращения к собственной биографии, читая «Веронику», понимаешь, что автор, в сущности, объясняет и свой выбор: почему он – человек, несомненно, состоявшийся у себя на родине, в Америке, так резко изменил свою судьбу и переселился на Алтай. Особый интерес найдет для себя в тексте романа читатель, хорошо знакомый с русской литературой. Любимая книга Сергея Никитина, главного героя романа «Вероника», – «Идиот», и это заставляет искать параллели между героем С. Кролика и Львом Мышкиным. Действительно, Сергей Никитин относится к редкому, к сожалению, в наше время типу честного, порядочного, добросовестного предпринимателя, человека во многом наивного и бескорыстного. Однако стремление строить свой бизнес приводит его к забвению истинных, переданных ему ближайшими предками ценностей. Ведь там, в глубинах родовой памяти созвучны друг друга привязанность русского человека к земле и одухотворение природы алтайцами. Идея общности универсальных ценностных основ и временный разрыв с ними определяют трагические коллизии произведения. Ценой проб и ошибок, трагических потерь и обретений герой приходит к восстановлению связи с родовой памятью. » (Ковалев Олег Александрович, заведующий кафедрой русской и зарубежной литературы Алтайского государственного университета, кандидат филологических наук, доцент, редактор официального сайта АлтГУ)

Unfortunately Kindle does not yet support Russian language texts, soft copies are available in Russia.

Filed under: cultural crisis

A Specter Is Haunting Moscow!

BUSINESS






© RIA Novosti. Yevgeny Biyatov
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This fun, fragile world
by  Nathan Gray  at 10/01/2013 18:57

Sandy Krolick came into the world in a fragile state. Born with congenital heart disease, he has had to undergo a series of surgeries during his life, two when he was very young and the most recent just three years ago…

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Filed under: American Dream, Anarchy, Body-politic, business, capitalism, censorship, civilization, collapse, commodification, Corporate State, cultural crisis, democracy, earth, Financial Crisis, freedom, geopolitics, global collapse, human nature, Moscow, nature, primal humanity, progress, rationality, Russia, Siberia, soul, State, trust Tagged: Altai Krai, capitalism, Christianity, Corporate State, Earth, Empire, geopolitics, human nature, Moscow, Reality, Russia, Siberia, Soul, The Moscow News, Time, Veronika

Avalanche! Natural Capital and The Real End Game

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Get ready folks.  Here it comes.  The world’s hegemonies — led of course by the mistress of plenty, the almighty banksters and oligarchs of the USA — are preparing their finishing touches on privatizing “nature.”  That’s right; you heard me correctly.  You know, Mother Nature has value; and good capitalists should work to monetize that value all they can.  After all, that is what civilized peoples do!

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Filed under: Africa, Agriculture, American Dream, Austerity, business, capitalism, civilization, collapse, commodification, Corporate State, cultural crisis, earth, entrepreneurship, fascism, feral, Financial Crisis, freedom, genocide, geopolitics, global collapse, GMO foods, Islam, MBA, monetization, Monsanto, nature, peak oil, privatization, progress, rationality, State Tagged: capitalism, conspiracy, Corporate State, Earth, Empire, Financial Crisis, freedom, geopolitics, IMF, monetize nature, primitive, privatize, religion, thought police

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Thrown Under the Bus!

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Wow, do I feel lucky today.  January 1st 2013 and my Congress and President kept me from falling off that dreaded fiscal cliff.  Whew, was that a close call: down to the wire, a frightening ordeal… especially the way those boys and girls in the newsrooms made our collective demise seem more than inevitable.  I thought for sure they would throw us all under the bus.

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Filed under: 9/11, American Dream, Anarchy, Austerity, Body-politic, body-subject, business, capitalism, Christianity, civilization, collapse, commodification, cultural crisis, earth, earthly-sensuous, feminine, feral, Financial Crisis, freedom, geopolitics, global collapse, homeland security, human nature, Hurricane Sandy, Islam, madness, nature, Obama, Presidential politics, primal humanity, progress, rationality, religion, sexuality, social contract, soul, State, terrorism, trust Tagged: Africa, capitalism, Christianity, collateral damage, Corporate State, Earth, Empire, Financial Crisis, fiscal cliff, free will, freedom, geopolitics, human nature, infantilism, MENA, natural disasters, primitive, Reality, religion, Soul

The Tao of Christmas: A Phenomenological Interlude

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With great effort, uncle Joe cautiously lifted his 305 pound frame from the old tweed-tufted armchair at the head of the oak  table in the  chandeliered dining room, emitting a short gravelly bark; “Well, I guess I had more than my fair share of that Christmas goose. I’m stuffed,” this last ejaculation sounding more like a question.  Other sighs were heard round what remained of grandma Millie’s table setting. All present seemed in general agreement that they had consumed themselves full to bursting.

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Filed under: Agriculture, American Dream, Anarchy, Aristotle, Austerity, Body-politic, capitalism, Christianity, civilization, commodification, Corporate State, cultural crisis, democracy, earth, earthly-sensuous, evangelical, fascism, feminine, feral, freedom, geopolitics, global collapse, homeland security, human nature, language, Owen Barfield, peak oil, polysemy, Presidential politics, primal humanity, progress, rationality, religion, Russia, sexuality, Siberia, social contract, soul, Spectacle, State, syllogism, Tao, time Tagged: Africa, capitalism, Christianity, Colonialism, Corporate State, Earth, Egypt, Empire, Financial Crisis, freedom, fundamentalism, geopolitics, human nature, MENA, natural disasters, phenomenology, primitive, Reality, religion, syllogism, thought police

Songs Of Innocence & The End Of The World

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The senseless death of innocence! No, this is not a recently discovered poem by William Blake, or one of James Joyce’s lost novels. But how does the self-described avant-garde master of Western civilization, i.e., the most hierarchically-driven, dominion-focused, militarized nation on earth react to the incomprehensible violence of a schoolyard murder-suicide, where a lone young-adult shooter leaves two score of dead children and countless broken hearts or destroyed families in their wake?  Of course, they…

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Filed under: 9/11, Africa, Agriculture, American Dream, Anarchy, Austerity, Body-politic, business, capitalism, censorship, Christianity, CIA, civilization, collapse, Colonialism, commodification, Corporate State, cultural crisis, democracy, earth, earthly-sensuous, evangelical, fascism, feminine, feral, freedom, genocide, geopolitics, global collapse, homeland security, human nature, inverted totalitarianism, madness, MBA, nature, Navy Seals, Nietzsche, Obama, peak oil, phenomenology, Presidential politics, primal humanity, progress, religion, Riots, Siberia, social contract, Somalia, soul, State, terrorism Tagged: Africa, cancer, capitalism, Christianity, Colonialism, conspiracy, Corporate State, Earth, Egypt, Empire, Financial Crisis, freedom, fundamentalism, geopolitics, human nature, Libya, MENA, natural disasters, Occupy Wall Street, primitive, Protest, Reality

The Risk of Letting Go

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You know it is cold outside when you blink a few times and the ice on your lashes locks your eyelids shut.  It is approximately -37 C (-33 F) here in Barnaul Siberia now, and I am thinking seriously about the risk of just “letting go.”  The cold has a way of sticking it to you… right in your face, and anywhere else it can find an opening.  It creeps under your clothes and into your bones; and it screams out coldly, silently, for a reply.  But you go on hunting and foraging, and trudging around trying to find a warmer clime to inhabit.  If you are lucky you find it. If not, you wind up here, in Siberia.

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Filed under: Body-politic, body-subject, civilization, collapse, commodification, Corporate State, cultural crisis, democracy, earth, earthly-sensuous, feminine, feral, freedom, geopolitics, global collapse, haiku, Heidegger, human nature, Lakota, language, madness, mana, Merleau-Ponty, nature, Navy Seals, Non-duality, Owen Barfield, phenomenology, polysemy, primal humanity, rationality, religion, Russia, Siberia, soul, syllogism, Tao, Upanishads, wakanda Tagged: embodied-knowledge, freedom, human nature, Lakota Indians, Mana, MENA, natural disasters, Non-duality, Osama, phenomenology, primitive, Reality, religion, Shamanism, Soul, Tao

Fascism In Fashion

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Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State…(Mussolini, 1925)

Chris Hedges has written and spoken often, and eloquently, about the “inverted totalitarianism” that our current corporate-media-political system represents.  In fact, there is an insidious fascism stealthily creeping its way through our stately republic these days that is no less dangerous, and no less deleterious to human rights or human behavior, than was the National Socialist regime of Hitler’s Germany or Mussolini’s Italian Fascisti.

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Filed under: 9/11, Africa, Agriculture, American Dream, Anarchy, Austerity, Body-politic, body-subject, capitalism, censorship, Christianity, CIA, civilization, collapse, Colonialism, commodification, Corporate State, cultural crisis, democracy, earth, earthly-sensuous, evangelical, fascism, feminine, feral, Financial Crisis, freedom, genocide, geopolitics, global collapse, Hedges, homeland security, human nature, inverted totalitarianism, Islam, nature, Nietzsche, Owen Barfield, primal humanity, progress, Protest, rationality, religion, Riots, soul, Spectacle, State, terrorism, time Tagged: Africa, capitalism, Christianity, Colonialism, conspiracy, Corporate State, Earth, Egypt, Empire, fascism, Financial Crisis, freedom, fundamentalism, geopolitics, Hitler, human nature, MENA, Mussolini, Occupy Wall Street, primitive, Protest, Reality, religion, Soul, thought police

Perfection

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. John 1:1-5

The perfect word. The perfect creation. The perfect artist. The perfect life. Perfection!

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Filed under: Africa, American Dream, Body-politic, body-subject, business, Christianity, CIA, civilization, collapse, commodification, Corporate State, cultural crisis, democracy, earth, entrepreneurship, evangelical, feral, Financial Crisis, freedom, genocide, geopolitics, global collapse, human nature, Islam, madness, MBA, nature, Obama, primal humanity, progress, Protest, rationality, religion, social contract, soul, State, terrorism, thought police, time, trust Tagged: Africa, capitalism, Christianity, Corporate State, Earth, Egypt, Empire, Financial Crisis, free will, geopolitics, human nature, MENA, primitive, Protest, Rapture, Reality, religion, Soul