“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
★★★☆☆
