So Much Heart
By Drew Buxton
Published by With an X, 2023
160 pages, paperback
In a debut collection that is absurd yet grimy, brutal but tender, Drew Buxton announces himself as an audacious, if a bit unstable, new voice in fiction. So Much Heart is full of schemes, addiction, dead bodies, and intrusive thoughts, but somehow through it all runs a thread of deep compassion, with a wicked sense of humor, Buxton steers right into mental illness, masculinity, and American mythology. Long after you turn the final page, this book will leave you buzzing with life-affirming energy or hiding in your bedroom, alone, mumbling to yourself. Either way, you won't forget this collection.
Praise for So Much Heart
"These stories feel like cinema... funny, unnerving, and gothic, these stories feel like blood relations to Donald Ray Pollock, Amelia Gray, or Stephen King." -Oliver Zarandi, author of Soft Fruit in the Sun
"In So Much Heart, Drew Buxton pulls us close to losers and rejects, and we recognize ourselves. We scratch each other's backs." -Ashleigh Bryant Phillips, author of Sleepovers
"Drew Buxton somehow manages to take bizarre feelings buried deep inside of us and make them into buoyant tales that we can all relate to on a deeply personal level. He makes the awkward, okay. The odd, feel casual. And erratic human emotions something to be celebrated, not shunned. In short, So Much Heart is the ultimate vibe check for everyone who reads it. Whether you pass is up to you." -Mallory Smart, author of The Only Living Girl in Chicago
