Decision Paralysis
By Jon Konrath
Decision Paralysis is a collection of twenty surreal and darkly comedic stories by Jon Konrath. A spiritual successor to The Failure Cascade, it moves beyond the compressed flash fiction of his earlier collections into longer, bleaker, and more introspective work.
Euthanasia drug MLMs, deep-fried lard with mystical healing properties, existential crises about dollar-menu tacos, and mind-reading dolphins collide in tales about consumer culture, decision fatigue, identity, and modern disconnection. Dystopian satire and grotesque absurdity run through stories involving John Denver Illuminati theories, Taco Bell stealth tanks, Cambodian pizza-chain time machines, and arguments about whether nineteenth-century Norwegian timber tariffs ruined Chicago deep dish forever.
The book was written in 2024 after a long break from writing. Its twenty stories total 101,834 words and 249 footnotes across 412 pages. The story titles are latitude and longitude coordinates, and the 16,000-word title story is longer than some of Konrath’s earlier collections.
The cover photo was taken by the author at Van Damme Beach, south of Mendocino, during the same 2017 trip that produced the cover image for The Failure Cascade.
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