On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

When I finished reading this, I kissed it, the way I was taught, when I was little, to kiss a book of psalms. The Torah.

And to be honest, thats what this book is: it contains everything. Open it and turn it around and around, for in it is the whole world.

I havent read a book I immediately want to restart in decades. Now this.

I have to recover.

Vuong has somehow produced a book as mind blowing as Night Sky With Exit Wounds, his most recent work of poetry.

Okay. Let me write some semblance of a review of content.

If youre looking for plot, look elsewhere. Vuong has chosen, loosely, the epistolary form for his first novel. The book is one long letter to his mother. To be more accurate, it is a REWRITTEN letter to his mother, as Vuong tells us that previous drafts failed.

But in that letter is everything. It traces the speakers life (genre becomes useless here…the speaker is Ocean Vuong, but hes not claiming that this is an autobiography. But I think Vuong would agree that everything we write, say, do, and feel is an autobiography) from childhood, to first love and sexual awakening to adulthood and loss.

Thats really it.

But there are more beautiful, elegant, soul crushingly fresh lines in this book than in 20 of greater length.

This has moved immediately into my all time top ten.

I cant provide quotes because Id have to rewrite the whole book.

The hype is not hype. Its journalism.

The only reason why I’m giving it two stars is because Ocean Vuong has an ability to craft language in beautiful ways (he IS a poet) and I enjoyed it along with the epistolary format. However, there were plenty of moments when I wanted to toss the book, but the stellar reviews (I pre-ordered) and the promise of finding–to no avail–a “brilliant” and “remarkable” read with “powerful” emotions kept me going. An absolutely flat story, and an average account of the common hardships that minorities and immigrants face adapting to the U.S. It romanticizes an aggressor and abuser and is deceiving of what it means to be compassionate or forgiving. The novel tells an all-too-common process of discovery and acceptance, which the majority of us face (or will face) at some point in our lives, but falsely builds and sells itself as a different and unique concept. The book has a hidden agenda and is misleading in the “brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity.” This is not a book for people going through a healing process, survivors of violence, addicts, with low resilience, or those that are mentally or emotionally susceptible. I agree with another reviewer that it can be triggering to some, especially those with unresolved trauma or currently in a healing process. It is a piece that should be approached cautiously as it can be more detrimental than helpful for the most vulnerable in our society. If that is what was meant by the “power of poetry,” then it is powerful–except not in the right ways. Disappointed.

What is failed to be mentioned here is the physical abuse by his mother and the explicit homosexual relationship he has with the ill fated red neck boy. These issues may be a trigger to some attempting to read this book. Amazon should have been more forthright in the subject matter in their book description.

The book assumes you can keep up. It is harsh In the way The Kite Runner or Birds without Wings is harsh. Emotionally difficult reading but worth the journey.

A fragmented memory piece, written by a young poet. His writing is not nearly as beautiful as has been described in so many reviews lately (all raves). If he’s a great poet, as many claim, he’s not as great in prose. The writing seems simplistic and obvious to me, immature. Almost everything is mournful, reserved and distanced. As graphic as it is, I found it uninvolving. His language did nothing for me, he’s not Haruf or Robinson. I wouldn’t recommend this book.