The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan // BOOK REVIEW

 Even when I detach, I care. You can be separate from a thing and still care about it. If I wanted to detach completely, I would move my body away. I would stop the conversation midsentence. I would leave the bed. Instead, I hover it for a second. I glance off in another direction. But I always glance back at you.

Book: The Lover’s Dictionary

Author: David Levithan

Genre: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Poetry

Synopsis:

basis, n.

There has to be a moment at the beginning when you wonder whether you're in love with the person or in love with the feeling of love itself.

If the moment doesn't pass, that's it―you're done. And if the moment does pass, it never goes that far. It stands in the distance, ready for whenever you want it back. Sometimes it's even there when you thought you were searching for something else, like an escape route, or your lover's face.

How does one talk about love? Do we even have the right words to describe something that can be both utterly mundane and completely transcendent, pulling us out of our everyday lives and making us feel a part of something greater than ourselves? Taking a unique approach to this problem, the nameless narrator of David Levithan's The Lover's Dictionary has constructed the story of his relationship as a dictionary. Through these short entries, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being within a couple, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.

What I think about it…

I don’t really have much to say about it so here goes nothing…

I love how it was creatively written and it’s easy to read too, however I’d like to understand more about the story. Though I think the story written that way made it so much more interesting that it kept me wanting for more, still I feel like it was so vague and there’s something lacking. It’s not boring but the way it was written made it more confusing like I was thinking if the characters are still in love with each other? Are they still together? What really happened to them? I’d like to think that they’re still together but I’m not sure because there was no conclusion at all.

My Verdict

This was my first David Levithan book and I like the way he writes. This book gave me feels but I rated it only two stars because again, I think it was so vague. I’d like to pick up more of Levithan’s books though. It looks like he makes great contemporaries.

MY RATING

★★☆☆☆

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong // BOOK REVIEW

“Because the sunset, like survival, exists only on the verge of its own disappearing. To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.”

Book: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

Author: Ocean Vuong

Genre: Fiction, Poetry, Contemporary, LGBT

Synopsis: 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.

What I thought about it...

The Writing

This is a fiction. Yes. I thought, at first, this is a true story of Ocean Vuong and finishing it made it more difficult for me to believe that this is actually a fiction because it felt so real.

This book is beautifully written that I really think I’m not prepared to read books that discussed what’s happening in our world today. I found the answer to my question why I didn’t enjoy All the Bad Apples and books like that – because I’m not prepared to be confronted by the harsh reality. You see, I’m reading books to escape reality but this book made me realize that I should face it and become involve in what’s happening around me.

There are so many, many dialogues here that I’ve highlighted. Reading this book has awakened a lot of emotions I didn’t know I have. As I’ve said it discusses a lot of issues the world is facing today but to name a few that struck me to the core are issues about sexuality, race, language, how other people still think that female is the weaker sex and of course that the life we’re living is not really ours, that we or someone we love will be gone in just a snap. What saddens me more is that people still look at other people’s skin color. And it is so shallow. People are people no matter what the color.

Also if you’ve read my previous book reviews that LGBT genre is not my cup of tea, this one is different. I actually like it. The sex scenes felt so real and tender that I don’t mind reading it at all. I’ve learned so many, many lessons from this book that I felt insane. I have so many feels for this one.

The Characters

This book is divided into three parts with Part I mainly focused on his mother, Rose; Part II on Trevor, his friend from tobacco farm/lover and; Part III that narrates more about his grandmother, Lan. The boy’s name here is Little Dog and the book is actually a letter of him to his illiterate mother. Why Little Dog, I don’t know why or if it has some metaphor meaning I didn’t know.

Personally, I think that the characters are all so miserable and that what they’ve been through is so, so painful. I’m sad for them. I’m hurting for them.

MY VERDICT

This is so great, so heart-warming, so empowering and is an eye-opener for me. I am recommending it to everyone. EVERYONE. It made me realize that in this world there's suffering and so much pain but there's also joy. You know what they say, there's always rainbow after the rain.

And because I feel like I have to reiterate what Ocean wrote in the end, again, we are not born from war. We were born from beauty.

MY RATING

★★★☆☆