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On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

By
Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong
By
Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong
2019 • 190 pages

Ratings66

Average rating4

15
Book InfoReviews11Editions8Lists69Feed12

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.

Tags

Genres

  • LGBTQ
  • War

Moods

  • emotional
  • reflective
  • sad
  • tense
  • challenging

Reviews

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

nithou
NithouSupporter

A beautiful piece of poetry. The long letter of a son to his mother who can't read, the depth of human feeling and one's history. The family history and the impact of immigration and living in an unknown country, the rural America and its pains and trials. Truly a thing of beauty, deeply moving.

December 13, 2020
katemester
Kate Mester

Think the experience was improved by his reading, as I most likely would have quit the written book after the monkey brains scene (though I guess a testament to his quality writing that it made me so nauseated?) I can see why it's winning awards, but I wanted more of a story to hold this shimmering gossamer web of sadness together.

October 13, 2019
allison
Allison Braden

the language can be so beautifully opaque that the emotion gets lost

July 15, 2019
sylviax
Sylvia Chi

Literally and figuratively close to home.

December 2, 2019

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