Reviews
Editor-in-Chief of The New Review Magazine, Marina Adamovich, on Vladimir Grjonko's prose
Vladimir Grjonko's prose is style. He can afford to imitate the style of Mr. Belkin - ironically seeing in his uncomplicated stories the fate of a small man of the great Soviet era ("Skvorlin's Tales") or illustrating Dostoevsky's bombers' conspiracy theory (“Disenchanted Wanderer”) in the night skylines of Heidelberg. Time in his work swings like a giant Foucauldian pendulum, and thus the heroes can simultaneously exist in the prehistory of Israel, in revolutionary Baku, and in the space of New York pierced by skyscrapers (“Groundhog Time”). The style of a spiral going to infinity - each turn of which is well known and at the same time frighteningly unpredictable.
Poet Olga Rodionova's Comment on Vladimir Grjonko's Novel "The Groundhog Time"
There is a writer, Vladimir Grjonko. Why does his writing work? Let's begin with the fact that Vladimir is a very intelligent person, but that's not the only reason. He has an innate, genuine sense of humor. I can clearly see all his vulnerability, tragic nature and inherent defenselessness that make him swing at the bully. But at the same time, it seems that a very wise old man is hiding behind his writing, the one who can - with an unexpected word or an unusual angle - crank down the pathos and see some melancholic humor in the most seemingly counter-humorous situation.
Journalist Auren Khabichev's Review of Vladimir Grjonko's Novel "The Groundhog Time"
The story is totally non-linear and full of allusions. It's hard to tell what astonished me most – the unusual account of Biblical Abraham's life history or author's honesty, with which he subverts millenia-old truths. The synopsys says the novel is based on the same principle as Master and Margarita, but that's not what drew my attention, although, of course, credit should be given to Grjonko's mastery. The author wrote his own Bible – he writes Litia's life history in the clear and immaculate Biblical language. He uses the same Biblical language although somewhat abridged, modern, for the other chapters, "Before" and "After".
Writer Mikhail Veller's Сomment on Vladimir Grjonko's Novel "The Groundhog Time"
The novel is very good. The language is precise and clear, and the pastiche is beautiful, and the parable is deep, and it connects to the detached today's reality though a family history as such a tremolo bringing forth amazing polysemy. What an interesting adaptation of the famous plot from the Book against a backdrop of a real-life story that is so much more terrifying and a lot richer with all its everyday mundanity... There is definitely a reason to congratulate the author.
Vigliano Associates, New York
…I found the premise unique, and the writing (for the most part) rich and engaging. I also noted in your voice and characters a distinct existentialist quality – whether intentional or not, a bit reminiscent of 20th-century Russian literature in general, and Dostoyevsky's novels in particular.
Jason Sholl
Vigliano Associates, New York
Knizhnaya Vitrina (Book Review), Russia
…Having read the 300-page novel in one sitting, I fell into a stupor, as if I'd just finished watching something along the lines of Kubrick's The Shining. After awhile, associations began to suggest themselves: Kafka's The Castle and the steel-carcass labyrinth of Robbe-Grillet's novels, but without their existential overload, abbreviated to a slick thriller in the tradition of Roman Polanski and David Fincher. …Undoubtfully "The Building" is a genre literature, a superb horror novel. Yet if you abstract for a moment from the gripping plot, you reach another dimension and - strange as it may be - you no longer realize the genre limits and return into the reality of Kafka and Robbe-Grillet. Or rather into a very similar reality, but still different one - as if it existed on the same floor in one building. Downstairs Gustav Meirink, Leo Peruc and Edgar Poe live. And William Berrows occupies the basement.
Knizhnaya Vitrina (Book Review), Russia
Novoye Russkoye Slovo & Russian TV Guide, New York
…I swallowed The Building in a single day, unable to put it down. And it wasn't just a matter of a tightly-woven plot… In an intriguing and dynamic style, The official site for author Vladimir Grjonko (Grzhonko) has latest news, novels, short stories, a number of essays, etc.'s novel touches upon philosophical issues that many would otherwise find dull and irrelevant-the issues of Time, God, the Labyrinth, and the frailty of human existence.