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Float True
A flow of story and emotion via reflections on an immigrant family history, metaphysical musings, and earthly perplexities—with occasional outbursts of ecstatic appreciation of nature. The unsegmented order of pieces is intended to create a loose narrative "swirl" that ushers the reader through layers of reflection and memory into a moving experience of language, discovery, and insight.
- GenresPoetry
124 pages, ebook
Published April 5, 2020
2 people are currently reading
1345 people want to read
About the author
Deborah Jang
2 books27 followersDeborah Jang is a poet and visual artist living and working in Denver, Colorado, and Oceanside, California. In Float True, she reflects on a long, quiet life full of curiosities, perplexities, and good fortune. A third-generation Asian American woman from the West coast, she honors her ancestors and descendants in their unique, yet universal stories of persistence. She embraces all peoples’ respective struggles for freedom and justice, now and for generations beyond. She offers her first book of poetry into an aching world as an act of courage, compassion, and celebration.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
March 19, 2021
Huh, this is my first-time reading poetry since high school. I used to think my braincells were not fit to understand it but Float True grabbed my attention instantly. It's a collection of poetry reflecting on Chinese immigration in the United States, racism, and life.
Some of the poems were clearly 'inspired' by the Trump era, yet they resonate with the latest attacks to the Asian American community in the last few months. I loved how she takes the "Ching Chong Chinaman Ching Chong Chinaman Ching Chong Chinaman" and chooses to respond with "Welcome the stranger at the end of the block with words that heal, not bleed."
The poems about her grandmother and grandfather reaching the United States and being held Rikers Island, interrogated and asked questions that were clearly intended to negate their entry were the most interesting to me. It reminds me how little fiction and non-fiction we have about those experiences.
Favorite poems: Apology (this one made me cry which was weird), Shelf Life of a Dream, Emergency, and All-American Gong Girl: A Brief History.
I think I will start reading poetry now, maybe?
Book provided for free by BookSirens for an honest review.
Some of the poems were clearly 'inspired' by the Trump era, yet they resonate with the latest attacks to the Asian American community in the last few months. I loved how she takes the "Ching Chong Chinaman Ching Chong Chinaman Ching Chong Chinaman" and chooses to respond with "Welcome the stranger at the end of the block with words that heal, not bleed."
The poems about her grandmother and grandfather reaching the United States and being held Rikers Island, interrogated and asked questions that were clearly intended to negate their entry were the most interesting to me. It reminds me how little fiction and non-fiction we have about those experiences.
Favorite poems: Apology (this one made me cry which was weird), Shelf Life of a Dream, Emergency, and All-American Gong Girl: A Brief History.
I think I will start reading poetry now, maybe?
Book provided for free by BookSirens for an honest review.
June 24, 2020
This was a wonderfully composed collection of poetry by Deborah Jang, a third-generation Asian American woman. This bundle consists of both shorter and lengthier pieces that were lyrical, free-flowing and personal while at the same time also universal. It constitutes both a homage to her ancestors and cultural roots as well as an account of the racism and bigotry endured by Chinese immigrants in the US.
My personal favourite was Skin.
Special thanks to BookSirens and the publisher for giving me this ARC for free in exchange for an honest review.
My personal favourite was Skin.
Special thanks to BookSirens and the publisher for giving me this ARC for free in exchange for an honest review.
October 17, 2020
I have said once and I will say it again, poetry is my FIRST LOVE and it will FOREVER be!!
This post is a little different from what I am use to. I actually love the poetry and the poet. This post knows how to get in the heart and brain of the reader. If you read this book, you will know what I am talking about. Float True is one book I can absolutely agree on with what the author is saying and feeling. She writes true and with feeling.
I received a free copy of the book and is voluntarily leaving a review.
This post is a little different from what I am use to. I actually love the poetry and the poet. This post knows how to get in the heart and brain of the reader. If you read this book, you will know what I am talking about. Float True is one book I can absolutely agree on with what the author is saying and feeling. She writes true and with feeling.
I received a free copy of the book and is voluntarily leaving a review.
Currently reading
April 6, 2020In the midst of turmoil, chaos and “bomb talk”, “Why not then a poem? Why not then most of all a poem? Why not now a poem?”, she asks. But, by the time that Deborah Jang has offered up this proposition she has already taken us far along her epic, poetic watercourse, Float(ing) True.
On this voyage, “Water is the middle way, neither Earth, nor Heaven”, but it is the substance and solvent of birth, life and death- “then leave me to the mystery, gold dust dancing to the fishes.” The verses are laid out like sutras – terse, biting, centripetal – listening closely, peering deep beneath the surface, you’ll find “enlightenment in the river’s song.” Water is the correlative force which carries her passion along this journey through tides, storms, and harbors, moments of epiphanies and apocryphal revelations. More than metaphor, it is the transporter of inheritances and intense emotions, from beginning - “keeping time to the heart’s own beating”, to mid-course- “At Standing Rock, deep in winter, warmed by song and sacred fire armed with prayer, each for the other, water is the way”, to end -“Poised just at the ocean side for redemption’s twilight ride.”
Lao Tzu, the Old One, wise to the ways of water, and of the feminine, would recognize her – this daughter, mother, feminine, - cognizant of the power of the weak over the strong, the power of endurance, the power of good over evil, the power of love. The precision of her perception of the liminal; “Hope hijacks falling stars caught out the corner of your eye. Quick, look, there” // “Water circles widened, darting flecks skimmed your eye”, is a gift from GuanYin – “the One who sees the Sound”, the Goddess of compassion and kindness, to whom she dedicates half of the poem Guanyin to Lady Liberty, no less.
And prophetic she is too, “The birds all knew to fly away. The fish went way below. I hurt I hurt I lay down this mother’s heart out poured. The haunted cry of mourning dove returns me to the shredded nest, branch bearing. Shelter here in place.”
On this voyage, “Water is the middle way, neither Earth, nor Heaven”, but it is the substance and solvent of birth, life and death- “then leave me to the mystery, gold dust dancing to the fishes.” The verses are laid out like sutras – terse, biting, centripetal – listening closely, peering deep beneath the surface, you’ll find “enlightenment in the river’s song.” Water is the correlative force which carries her passion along this journey through tides, storms, and harbors, moments of epiphanies and apocryphal revelations. More than metaphor, it is the transporter of inheritances and intense emotions, from beginning - “keeping time to the heart’s own beating”, to mid-course- “At Standing Rock, deep in winter, warmed by song and sacred fire armed with prayer, each for the other, water is the way”, to end -“Poised just at the ocean side for redemption’s twilight ride.”
Lao Tzu, the Old One, wise to the ways of water, and of the feminine, would recognize her – this daughter, mother, feminine, - cognizant of the power of the weak over the strong, the power of endurance, the power of good over evil, the power of love. The precision of her perception of the liminal; “Hope hijacks falling stars caught out the corner of your eye. Quick, look, there” // “Water circles widened, darting flecks skimmed your eye”, is a gift from GuanYin – “the One who sees the Sound”, the Goddess of compassion and kindness, to whom she dedicates half of the poem Guanyin to Lady Liberty, no less.
And prophetic she is too, “The birds all knew to fly away. The fish went way below. I hurt I hurt I lay down this mother’s heart out poured. The haunted cry of mourning dove returns me to the shredded nest, branch bearing. Shelter here in place.”
November 12, 2020
Thanks to Booksirens, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Float True by Deborah Jang is a beautifully descriptive collection of poetry I enjoyed reading. Recently, I have found myself drifting to poetry collections rather than prose books/series. Float True is another milestone in that endeavour. Jang inserts distinct scenes into the reader's mind with just a few, short but powerful lines of poetry. It's truly magical. Though I am glad to have read this, what I always search for in poetry is that particular essence of relatability. In Float True, I only found traces of it. Still, it's a brilliant collection I would recommend to the right readers.
Float True by Deborah Jang is a beautifully descriptive collection of poetry I enjoyed reading. Recently, I have found myself drifting to poetry collections rather than prose books/series. Float True is another milestone in that endeavour. Jang inserts distinct scenes into the reader's mind with just a few, short but powerful lines of poetry. It's truly magical. Though I am glad to have read this, what I always search for in poetry is that particular essence of relatability. In Float True, I only found traces of it. Still, it's a brilliant collection I would recommend to the right readers.
September 26, 2020
Deborah Jang's poetry is like a melody you can't get out of your head. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection, which features strong concrete images while maintaining a good rhythm. That said, her poetry is extremely accessible and her topics are especially necessary and poignant.
You'll find poems about immigration, racism, and bigotry. But also others that are softer, more heartfelt. There's a balance there.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves poetry. It's a work you'll want to read again and again!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you Book Sirens.
You'll find poems about immigration, racism, and bigotry. But also others that are softer, more heartfelt. There's a balance there.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves poetry. It's a work you'll want to read again and again!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you Book Sirens.
April 26, 2020
Not every first poetry collection quite says so much with clear lyrical voice and spans such a wide range of textured life in a whole range of human emotion. There is a strong sense of family. Meandering shorelines. Boatloads of humanity and lifeless jackets littering helpless shores. It has taste of sadness, of love, of centering a life of reminiscence. It is strong indication of Deborah Jang's prowess as a wordsmith.
October 23, 2020
Well, this collection of poems are beautifully written. I love the style in which it is written in. It is exquisitely knitted words bearing deep images and feelings. Besides, I love the way the cover is designed. I do recommend it to those interested in reading contemporary poetry. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
April 11, 2020
This is a silvery jewel of a book, one to treasure, unlock again and again, and never lose the key. Jang’s courageously intimate poems have both a delicate and overriding power to lay bare hypocrisy, bigotry, and pettiness using unflinching yet gentle candor.
May 16, 2020
I liked the poetry, especially those of the immigrants and their experiences. My favorite one though was the boy who had expressed "I want to be white" until he visits the fire dept. As he leaves with his parent, he says he wants "yellow suspenders" like Captain Mike.
As a teacher of children who were migrating to America, I want their dreams to be their own yet to own their own being. Don't want to be someone else, be who you are.
Longings of home, of our dreams, whether an immigrant or a multigenerational American, be who you are.
If I taught secondary students, I would try to integrate these poems into my literature class.
As a teacher of children who were migrating to America, I want their dreams to be their own yet to own their own being. Don't want to be someone else, be who you are.
Longings of home, of our dreams, whether an immigrant or a multigenerational American, be who you are.
If I taught secondary students, I would try to integrate these poems into my literature class.
April 5, 2020
There are poems here about human skin, racist epithets, fish spotting with her son, her Chinese ancestry, an extravagant mom, and the joy of counting grandson toes. All are heartfelt and tender. Deborah Jang’s poems touch my senses and speak to my soul.
April 15, 2020
My copy of Float True finally arrived, delayed by pandemic slow delivery. Poetry now during this crisis? Why not? I had plenty of time to sit down and read this well-designed, slender volume cover to cover in my sheltered-at-home easy chair. I am not a writer and rarely read poetry. However, these poems ring true, float true during this surreal time, resonating with joys and sorrows in my life, the quest for no-thought awareness and reminding me of the work still needed for justice. Deborah Jang is a talented wordsmith.
May 3, 2020
This isn't what I would call a typical poetry collection for me personally. That doesn't make it any less beautiful though. There is a lot of power in poetry if one strings the words together correctly, and that is certainly what happened here.
July 17, 2020
A special thank you to Book Sirens for giving me a PDF of the collection in exchange for my honest review.
Through the collection Float True, Deborah Jang creates intimate pictures of human life, especially that of immigrants.
I took notes during my read, and found myself highlighting small phrases that definitely stuck with me. Apology was one of my favorite poems from the collection…
“For iced silence where words could soothe…
For convenient ignorance…
For getting lost in the clutch of memory and need…”
There are so many beautiful examples in this short collection. Overall, though, what really stuck out to me was Jang’s ability to create a picture through little words. I felt I could see the life of her mother in An American Gong Girl, even though the sentences were to the point.
I think if I were to read another collection from Jang, I would love for the collection to have one solidified them. The poems did not seem to be thoroughly interwoven to one another with anything other than her style. This didn't make the poems lack at all, but may have strengthened them as a grouping.
A solid collection; a quick read with a good amount of notable sentences.
Through the collection Float True, Deborah Jang creates intimate pictures of human life, especially that of immigrants.
I took notes during my read, and found myself highlighting small phrases that definitely stuck with me. Apology was one of my favorite poems from the collection…
“For iced silence where words could soothe…
For convenient ignorance…
For getting lost in the clutch of memory and need…”
There are so many beautiful examples in this short collection. Overall, though, what really stuck out to me was Jang’s ability to create a picture through little words. I felt I could see the life of her mother in An American Gong Girl, even though the sentences were to the point.
I think if I were to read another collection from Jang, I would love for the collection to have one solidified them. The poems did not seem to be thoroughly interwoven to one another with anything other than her style. This didn't make the poems lack at all, but may have strengthened them as a grouping.
A solid collection; a quick read with a good amount of notable sentences.
April 6, 2020
Deborah Jang is a true artivist and Float True is not just a brilliant collection of powerful philosophical poems but a living, breathing, call to action reminding us to honor immigrant ancestors, own our nation's sordid failures, and work tirelessly to champion for the "othered". Jang's love and mastery of contemplative language weave complex designs and welcome us to see the familiar in a new light. The poems in this collection encourage us to be present in our breath and in our bodies even as we observe the world and its suffering inhabitants. Float True refuses to look away from the pain, but lifts our spirits and girds us to continue on - for even on our knees, we can rise above the flames and fight.
June 13, 2020
What a beautiful read this was!
Poetry in its free form, expressing multitudes of emotions. I could connect well because I too follow a similar style of writing - free verse, without a rhyming scheme.
Each of the poem had a message to convey and it is conveyed in such an amazing and poetic way that Deborah has revived in me the hopes of how poetry can trigger a new form of energy inside you.
I am voluntarily writing this review. I got a free copy of this book from BookSirens. Thank you Deborah. 😇🙌
Poetry in its free form, expressing multitudes of emotions. I could connect well because I too follow a similar style of writing - free verse, without a rhyming scheme.
Each of the poem had a message to convey and it is conveyed in such an amazing and poetic way that Deborah has revived in me the hopes of how poetry can trigger a new form of energy inside you.
I am voluntarily writing this review. I got a free copy of this book from BookSirens. Thank you Deborah. 😇🙌
May 28, 2020
This collection of poems created a connection between people around the world, your ancestors, lives of loved ones that you only get glimpses of, the conflict that pervades our everyday life and the nature that we take for granted.
It was a truly lovely read and I feel like it was a perfect snapshot of what it feels like trying to live in the 2010's.
It was a truly lovely read and I feel like it was a perfect snapshot of what it feels like trying to live in the 2010's.
November 6, 2020
I received an advance review copy for free from booksirens.com , and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This was an interesting collection of poems about current events, cultural heritage and identity, as well as married life and parenthood.
This was an interesting collection of poems about current events, cultural heritage and identity, as well as married life and parenthood.
Want to read
July 26, 2020Have not received it :)
July 26, 2020
Excellent book!!
January 21, 2021
Reflections and lessons learned:
This took a few tricky steps up the curve to be able to get into, but once I found the rhythm and pace, there were some good standout pieces. These included:
Where do the good kindhearted go
Lullaby
Skin
Shelf life of a dream
Why not?
Memory fatigue
Emergency
Resistance
Marching orders
White man burden
The about author blurb describes it well in that this release is an act of courage, compassion and celebration - I’d definitely be interested to read more from this author, and enjoyed the progressive and questioning stance of some of the pieces, without them being patronising.
*I would like to thank the author for sending a review copy in exchange for an honest review*
This took a few tricky steps up the curve to be able to get into, but once I found the rhythm and pace, there were some good standout pieces. These included:
Where do the good kindhearted go
Lullaby
Skin
Shelf life of a dream
Why not?
Memory fatigue
Emergency
Resistance
Marching orders
White man burden
The about author blurb describes it well in that this release is an act of courage, compassion and celebration - I’d definitely be interested to read more from this author, and enjoyed the progressive and questioning stance of some of the pieces, without them being patronising.
*I would like to thank the author for sending a review copy in exchange for an honest review*
May 31, 2020
Wonderful introspective on life and current events that soothes. Just what I needed to feel centered in my day. Hard to believe this is Jang's first book!
I'm going to keep rereading these poems for many years to come.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I'm going to keep rereading these poems for many years to come.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews