On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by @ocean_vuong
Reviewed by Jess
📕📗📘
Since these weird Covid-pandemic-times
have been going on I’ve found it hard to watch or read about challenging subject matters, or anything too deep or brutal. All that changed when I picked up this book! So take this as a warning!
Ocean Vuong’s debut novel reads and seems like a memoir - I’m not 100% certain of this because I tried not to read much online about him or other reviews before I read it, but it feels so deeply personal I can’t imagine this being anything but at least a mostly lived experience.
I think it’s an important experience that deserves the loudest of voices, of the American immigrant experience following the horror and violence of the Vietnam war. Little Dog, in the letters to his mother, repeats often that he knows without the bombs, he wouldn’t exist. He writes to Ma, knowing she can’t read English, about his experience of racism, America, work, school, and his sexuality and acceptance of being a queer Asian man. This is a coming of age story, but not one you’d expect.
Throughout this, I was reminded of A Little Life, in how it’s so straightforward in its shock and honesty, but Vuong’s writing is much much more poetic (of course I’ve since learned he IS a poet!).
The language can be hard to read sometimes, and I think some of it seemed a bit too abstract for me to fully grasp. As frightening and shocking as Little Dog’s story may seem, it’s real, and not to be ignored. Read this if you’re looking for a really alternative voice in literature today.
