Writer Alexander Snegirev, winner of the Debut and Russian Booker awards, writes short stories and novellas that combine autobiographical details with emotional humor. His modern plots and witty style will impress a variety of readers.
A bit of biography
Writer Alexander Snegirev is our contemporary. He was born in Moscow on January 6, 1980. In fact, his name is Alexei Vladimirovich Kondrashov. This pseudonym was born when the writer decided to take part in the "Debut" award. According to Snegirev, every writer should have a pseudonym. Since the writer's grandfather's name was Alexander and he liked the bullfinch bird, such a creative name was born.
The biography of the writer Alexander Snegirev is not very long yet. After leaving school, the writer entered the Moscow Institute of Architecture, but left it after the second year. I decided to change the direction of my activity and graduated from the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia with a degree in political science. He traveled extensively around the world, earning his living as workersprofessions.
As a writer Alexander Snegirev began to publish in the magazines "New World", "Znamya", "October" after receiving the "Debut" award. In 2007 he won the "Venets" award, in 2008 - the "Eureka" award
Now he is the deputy editor-in-chief of the literary magazine "Friendship of Peoples".
Some bibliography
As a short story writer Alexander Snegirev became famous after his collection of short stories "Elections" was awarded the "Debut" award.
Later, from 2007 to 2015, he wrote a dozen novels, among which his most famous works are Venus of Petroleum (2008) and Faith (2015).
The novel "Oil Venus" is not about oil at all, as one might think, but about an architect who is raising a son with Down syndrome. Snegirev himself noted in an interview that this topic is very important to him. Oil in the novel plays a symbolic role of the finiteness of our life, because oil is a product of the processing of organisms and, as the writer said, “one day we will all become oil.”
For the novel "Vera" the writer Alexander Snegirev received the "Russian Booker" award for the best work in Russian. Initially, the work was planned as a story. This is a novel about a woman who has no luck with life partners, but she struggles with her fate. The writer himself believes that in our country a lot rests on the shoulders of women, and this overcoming of difficulties inspired him to write a full-fledged novel. He himself believes thata prestigious award imposes great responsibility on him as a writer, because polar opinions are immediately formed: “the award was given undeservedly” or “it was not in vain that they gave it”, and something needs to be corrected and corresponded to something.
Some interview
Snegirev was asked if his prose was autobiographical. He said: “I write about myself: about my feelings and experiences, about what I love and hate, about life and death. People often tell me that I write superficial texts. I am very upset. I explore myself and those around me and carefully peer into the world. But perhaps my world is small, not an endless ocean, but a sad pond with muddy water, which seems to me like space.”
During one of the interviews, it turned out that social networks helped writer Alexander Snegirev learn to write books. The brevity of presentation, which is implied in the posts, disciplines the writer to create short works with the maximum density of information.
Some reviews
In general, Snegirev's prose is light, simple modern words are woven into complex phrases in it. Notes of humor make you smile even where the meaning seems to be gloomy.
But the reviews about the author's creations are very contradictory: from wild delight to outright disgust. It's amazing how the same piece of music can evoke such different responses. Of the minuses, they note a lot of intimate details, obscene language, the lack of meaning and the main idea, a lot of negativity and negative emotions, the inexpressiveness of the images of the characters. Withon the other hand, there is sparkling humor, ease of perception of the text, simple language of presentation, non-trivial plots.
In the works of the writer Alexander Snegirev, difficult topics are raised, which, accordingly, evoke conflicting feelings in the reader. But if the purpose of a literary work is to touch some deep strings, to outrage, amaze, even shock and evoke emotions somewhere, then the author’s works fully fall under these criteria. Just like an exotic fruit, until you try it, you won’t know what it tastes like, so Snegirev must be tasted to understand whether you personally like it or not.
