Float On: A Memoir

by Molly Krause

"...Krause guides readers the way good memoirists must, by rendering with nuance and complexity a story full of the kinds of love and truth that matter for us all."   Rachel DeWoskin, best-selling author of Bling, Big Girl Small, Repeat After Me, and Foreign Babes in Beijing.  "(Molly) endured loss after loss without ever losing herself, and the qualities that carried her through - equanimity, intelligence, honesty, and a sly sense of humor - are the same ones that distingush her prose in this deeply moving memoir."  Eric McHenry, 2015-2017 Kansas Poet Laureate "At 13, Molly Krause spent a summer at the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the only white girl in her class. One teacher called her the 'blue-eyed girl from Kansas.' But nobody is a cliche, especially a person who has spent years coming to an understanding of family matters and how family matters. The divorce, a gay HIV-positive father who dies of AIDS, a sister's suicide attemps, a family struggling with drugs and alcohol. What the honest, direct, sympathetic account the reader finds in Float On, of lives spent yearning to be whole."  T homas Fox Averill, Professor Emeritus, Washburn University, author of rode, A Carol Dickens Christmas, and Found Documents from the LIfe of Nell Johnson Doerr. Growing up in Topeka, Kansas in the 1970s, Molly Krause and her family experienced challenges different from the traditional stereotypes of America's Heartland. In this captivating memoir, Krause shares her complex early life with two sisters - the oldest biological and the other an adopted African-American baby. A mother left to raise three young girls when the father revealed he was gay and moved across the country. Struggles in the family with mental illness and substance abuse. A dance talent that was nurtured. A family separated by divorce and distance but brought together by a deadly disease. And through it all, humor, dedication to each other, and a deep love free from judgment.

242 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 5, 2017

About the author

Molly Krause is the author of the memoir Float On (December 1, 2017), the novel Joy Again, and the cookbook The Cook’s Book of Intense Flavors. Her writing has appeared in Brain, Child, Ragazine, Front Page Review and elsewhere. She lives in Lawrence, Kansas where she teaches, tries to keep up with her teenage daughters, attends adult ballet classes and floats on her stand up paddle board.

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

24 hours. That’s the amount of time it took me to devour this compelling memoir. I found it raw, honest, and ultimately full of grace. I truly didn’t want it to end; I’d become so caught up in the author’s story and the characters that populated her life, especially Molly herself. Well written and poignantly told, this memoir reminds us that life can be brutal and heartbreaking, but it can also be pretty damn beautiful.

[Polly Sloan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could not put this book down! I eagerly looked forward to stealing away to my reading room to spend time, “growing up”, with Molly.
So well written, so relatable, so very reader friendly. An honest reflection addressing so many social issues beautifully!
Can’t wait to read Molly’s next novel!

[Jean Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the last two-thirds of the memoir and turned the pages quickly. I often become impatient with accounts of childhood which is likely why the beginning didn't enthrall me. I respected the resilience of the narrator and her courage in giving us all the details, even those which must have been difficult to reveal.