Incurable Graphomania

by Anna Krivolapova

A woman's post-breakup bender collides with a defense-tech summer camp. An animal control officer stumbles upon a puppy mill racketeering ring run by ex-CIS mutts. A film student descends into mycotoxic mania while reading Dostoevsky. A pharmacist in Tom's River takes liberties with patient information. A claw clip connects three women's eventful week. A spaced-out Ukrainian refugee finds her fangs. A bridesmaid goes missing. A couple fight on Embassy Row. An incarcerated woman meditates on pitcher plants. A suicide on campus sends two students down a rabbit hole. Two dystopias set in 2044 and 2066. 14 stories of voyeurism, paranoia, defense contractors, Russian stewardesses, venomous WASPs, and more.
Incurable Graphomania includes two of Krivolapova's previously published pieces, "The Taco Bell in the Center of the Pentagon" ( Apocalypse Confidential) and "Jersey Devil's Breath" ( Hobart ).

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

174 pages, Paperback

First published September 21, 2023

Reviews

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Im biased because I know the writer. But i have to say that this collection of stories manages to encapsulate a certain type of ennui, a very slavic-american derangement. The pull of being drawn between east and west. The prose is crafted with precision, and Anna’s observations of the cultural rot which has taken hold in our age of post-history are prescient. She balances wry humor with insight. The whole book is brimming with the erotic, a lust for life, the kind that leads both to destruction and to salvation. The joyce carol oates of the post-post-modern age.

[moonandmouth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can paranoiacore be femme? Krivolapova pistol-whips the answer into “yes.” Her cache of esoteric knowledge and exacting eye for detail have me convinced these stories are only the opening salvo of a long and illustrious writing career.

[Jonathan Katabira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some pretty dark shit in here. Definitely a writer to look out for in the future.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adored these bleak tales of aberrant appetites, moral indifference, and emotional despondence. This is a smartly written and cohesive collection with a decidedly noir feel. Some standout stories include Heart of a Dog, Swimming Lessons in a Dead Nepenthe, Some Like it Orange, and Jersey Devil’s Breath. Looking forward to reading more from Anna Krivolapova.

[Emma Bentley · Rating 4 out of 5]

very weird, super fucked up stories. the author is particularly good at writing horrifically complex evil men. not a light read by any means but very interesting

[sexynietzsche · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best work of short fiction I’ve read in the last 10 years. I have a new favorite contemporary writer. Perfect synthesis of Ottessa Moshfegh’s girly grotesque, “the Slavic literary spirit”, and the kind of wit normally limited to 140 characters. Salivating while I wait to read more from Anna Krivolapova.

[Telo · Rating 5 out of 5]

thrilling. a lot of good “hangout film” potential in a lot of these stories

[Evan McConahay · Rating 5 out of 5]

a wonderful collection of short stories. i don’t feel drawn to a lot of contemporary fiction but this book made for a few enjoyable, memorable baths.

[ClubKamui · Rating 4 out of 5]

9/10

Anna Krivolapova is one to keep an eye on. Very interesting and unique stories centered around the DMV area looking at the darkness in these characters…

[Bigmac McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

my GOAT

[werqwerq asdfsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

they need to do something about new york and its current day cultural exports because it shouldn't be that easy to read the first story in a set of short stories and accurately predict what the author's red scare podcast adjacent twitter page will look like.

i don't like to be rude, and i wish everyone the best.

[Leo · Rating 1 out of 5]

so unbelievably derivative

[Matt Owens]

Great

[Ryan Bry · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is the hypnagogic americana you need to tell you that romantic bursts of activity will always be cool no matter who lost the cold war. It's like a dancing slate of paranoiac revelry—a Pynchon collection but for people with standards. The trance includes the bold dreaming of childhood mixed with the comical disgust we've selected about our human methods. I think that when women are actually funny they are 1,000x funnier than men because their humor contains some lovely concoction of etheric gravitas, which Anna K. knows how to wield. Despite the succulently dark subject matter, there was this piscean wholesomeness that never fails to welcome play into the story like a whale in seaworld playing with a knot before it kills everyone in the stadium with its mind. my favorite story was the first one but somehow it just kept getting better. it has a raunchy speckledness that reminds me of my favorite movie, inherent vice. familiar objects carousel through these stories with extra necrotic spirits, and extra stars for making me google what a claw clip was and that it was mostly unrelated to the jaws of death that take you out of a car crash. these stories are tied together by burnouts who are trying to get the flame back and disastrously succeed. I hope you never find a cure as well, Anna.

[Ryan Mcelroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb on the back is accurate. It intrigued even my wife. The writing is exactly what you'd expect based on the author's name. I see the same cadences, themes, and textures in other writing from those who hail from Russia or the Baltic states.

Unfortunately, this means that despite the variety of subject matter, the short story collection felt very similar throughout. Anna did not utilize the technique I see from other collections like this where symbols are shared, or an overriding universe. It fixates on the geographic area near Washington D.C.. I've never considered it worth it to have a deep cultural knowledge of this region, so that effectively meant nothing.

The stories are consistently good. Light horror, dry comedy, irony, sadness. One of them was admittedly so awful that after a paragraph I scanned the rest, saw that it was just a jumble of meaningless words, and moved on.

[Jesse Hilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Off-kilter wicked suspense fiction with a big syrupy East Coast dose of worldly humor. Imagine if Patricia Highsmith had a pharmacology textbook from 2023 and a $300 gift card to Sephora. The sources of evil motivations in COVID-era America were never mapped out with such icy detail as they are in Krivolapova’s short fiction debut. The young Slavic immigrant women populating many of the stories belong in witness protection, but won’t go into safe isolation because if they did there would be no audience for their wry wisecracks. Better to stay with the danger. You absolutely will not be bored reading this book.

[David Pitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

TC Boyle for girls. Every story had at least one element I really appreciated. I would love to read a full-length novel by Krivolapova that fleshes any of these concepts out a little more. The collection felt a little heavy on the female murderer wish fulfillment when taken all together. I know that this is a collection that Krivolapova wrote over several years and published in magazines or whatever. After a few in a row, though, a story would get to a certain point and it'd be like. Ah. Let me guess. The tension gets resolved when... the female character does a murder?

[Alyssa Canova · Rating 5 out of 5]

In an interview, Krivolapova described her ability to write distinctive and interesting characters who are as real as the flesh-bearing humans she often models them after. "Fiction writing is vampiric in nature," she said. Later, "And I'm downplaying it but, there's blood in the ink." Every story is gripping, horrifying, scrumptious. You can feel the warm breath, the sticky sweat, the ink still wet with blood.

[Betsie Dries · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great writer. So sharp incisive and efficient, not a single word is wasted. She is able to perfectly capture the depravity and sickness of our culture but in a way that is witty/funny yet still disconcerting because of how well it is executed. I have never been so excited to see what a writer will put out next.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mid-Atlantic Gothic- equal parts Flannery O'Connor, Harmony Korine, DFW , and Bolaño.

[H K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice structure and content