How to Prove a Theory

by Nicole Tong

2017 Jean Feldman Poetry Prize-Winning Collection

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

First published September 8, 2017

Reviews

[Brandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very creative; I definitely would recommend this book to fellow poetry lovers. The author shows an originality uncommon in many modern poets. I would rate this selection as one of the top five I have read this year, and I read a lot of volumes of poetry! My copy was won from the Goodreads website and I appreciate the opportunity to read and review this work.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems about loss, family, grief, and survival.

from Sister: "I knew what you knew: the difference / between not speaking and letting something go // unspoken. Between what actually happened / and the mythologies we tell our husbands decades / later."

from Inaccurate Theory: "Leaves resist falling. The hum around her, / the applause of blackbird wings. Light / finds an opening. // In this place, she is her own / collapse."

from Gentle Obsessions: "When I folded the memory / of your death in to an accordion shape // and tossed it to the sea, I was certain it would play / a hymn like the ones you loved. And you were right: // the soul knows how to sustain itself / despite submersion, to give up the land's edge // lost to the flood until everything is the horizon."

[Caroline Bock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of poetry, How to Prove a Theory, grabbed me from the second poem, "Sister" -- Forget about smoking weed/with soccer players in the woods/near the Methodist Church. Tong goes out with such specific grace in her award-winning book of poems that I couldn't put it down (full disclosure - she won the poetry prize at the press where my debut short story collection CARRY HER HOME won the fiction prize!). She has several poems about theory in this collection -- several on grief and death, though I preferred her "Intimacy Theory, which ends on You are everything/if not a brief moment before. O/transitivity. O verb waiting to be." Ah, so nice!

[Megan Stolz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a bit biased because I know the poet, but this is a beautiful collection. The poems are quiet but demand attention, the subject matter will linger with you until you've finished turning the pages.

[Aj · Rating 5 out of 5]

i’m not a poetry person.

i curled up with this one night before bed. ate it whole, because i hadn’t had dinner.

i read it again the next night. i think there were nightmares.

it gets harder to read, each time through.

i guess because i’m not a poetry person?

[Alissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARC received via telekinesis in April 2017. This is the greatest book of poetry ever written. Don't you dare miss out.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need more than 5 stars...

at LEAST another 5...preferably 10.

ABSOLUTELY, without a doubt, one of THE BEST debut poetry books I've ever read. Hands down. A must read.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully crafted poems that breathe in memory and loss and exhale resilience.

[Cristine (cristinethebookqueen) Paquette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection left me with a beautiful sadness deep in my core. A gorgeous insight into loss and life, I’ve already reread my favorites several times.