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Notes -
I finished up Incurable Graphomania. After reading harassment architecture, I'm in a minor self-published author vortex. I saw this title....somewhere? Recommended? and bought it on only the basis of that, the title, and the cover art.
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 texture in many of the posts here from those who have hail from Russia or the baltic states.
This unfortunately means that despite the variety in 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.
For this post, I scanned another much more fawning interview/review to reference if you're on the fence. I have not finished it (longer than some of the short stories) but I respect her and enjoyed my time reading it.
4/5?
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