ON EARTH WE’RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS by Ocean Vuong
★★★★★
Penguin Press, June 4, 2019
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, the bold and bracing debut novel by acclaimed poet Ocean Vuong, centers on Little Dog, the son of a Vietnamese immigrant mother and an absent father. Raised in present-day Hartford in a predominantly white community, Little Dog struggles from an early age to both assimilate with his peers and to honor his Vietnamese heritage, but here Vuong deviates from the standard immigration story blueprint in favor of something more darkly sensual and internal. As the story unfolds, the reader comes to understand that the novel is an elaborate letter written from Little Dog to his mother, though she will never read it, as she is illiterate: the story he tells her is consequently private and unsparing. “The impossibility of you reading this makes my telling it possible,” Little Dog confesses.
Read the rest of my review HERE on BookBrowse, and if you’d like a little more context on this book, you can read my piece on Vietnamese Amerasians HERE.
You can pick up a copy of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous here on Book Depository.
I REALLY need to read some of Vuong’s work!
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YOU DO! Night Sky With Exit Wounds really is a gorgeous collection.
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I think I’ll start there 👌🏼
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I’ve been hearing such good things about Vuong’s work lately! So eager to read some of it myself now!
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He’s absolutely brilliant – would highly recommend either this or Night Sky… as a starting place!
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I’ve heard such great things about this, so I’m glad to see you loved it too!
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The hype doesn’t lie!!!!!
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I know I’m late here, but I have to say this is an excellent review! I must pick up this book, it sounds so beautifully sad.
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You definitely should! It’s an absolutely gorgeous read, the hype does not lie on this one.
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Hi, there are only 40 pages remaining in my book journey with his debut book. I love Ocean Vuong, and it reads like a long poem for me. I love the tenderness and rawness of the book, how it confronts language, sexuality, and the diaspora.
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So glad you loved the book, Rachel! I just finished it and I’m so excited to see where Vuong is taking this. I swear, I’ve never been so excited about a poet before.
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Thank you Shreya! I agree – I suppose I do like poetry, but I’m rarely moved by it. But I find Vuong’s voice to be so exciting.
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