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How Much the Heart Can Hold: Seven Stories on Love is no gift book for lovers but an exploration of the many kinds of love and what they can do. There’s debate about how many concepts of love the Greeks had, and there’s a French one thrown in, but they cover unrequited, enduring, obsessive and erotic love; love of one’s self, love for family and love for humanity. Writing to fit a theme here succeeds as it can in a literary magazine, showcasing some startling pieces. Donal Ryan’s story of schooldays love past and present is chilling and ultimately devastating, whereas DW Wilson’s road not taken is a gentle and entirely believable take on love between hard people with hard lives. Rowan Hisayo Buchanan’s portrayal of a husband caring for his dying wife brims with rage and lust and silliness, emotions so jarring in the context that it really does demand of the reader what love is, what it achieves, how it wins.
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