On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Ocean Vuong writes in a poetic prose that transforms memories into fragments that linger in your mind. His choice to write this book as fictionalized letters to his mother was deeply beautiful and heart-wrenching. This is a book that took me on a journey through the Vietnam War, my first queer experiences, and the journey of finding out what it means to become American.

Ocean’s book is vulnerable, intimate, and heartbreaking in the most life-affirming way.

The way he writes about love between a mother and son, and a son and another boy, feels so universal and delicate, like the scent of a rose that is here one moment but just as suddenly drifts away. As an immigrant myself, I felt the starkness in the way Ocean describes the hardship of living in a land not one’s own.

I finished the book feeling like I needed to go hug my mom and tell her I love her. Those bonds of family are so shattering… show more.

The best writers are those that make what is ineffable, effable.

Ocean Vuong has a way of stringing together words, ideas that help me find meaning, and every time, it feels like a revelation. This book is full of illuminations, new ways of thinking about the familiar and yes, entirely new emotional discoveries. To me, the book is perfect.

This is my all-time favorite book for the use of language.

A history of Viet Nam and the aftermath of war unravels along with a story of Little Dog navigating poverty and survival, and wrestling with sexuality and opioid addiction. The prose can break your heart—FAG is written in red letters on mother and son’s door at Christmas: “What’s it mean Little Dog?” “It says Merry Christmas from the neighbors ma.” The subject matter can sting and bruise but rewards the pain with the beauty of the words.

Some say this is both novel and memoir—and so it must be.… show more.

Ocean Vuong’s poetic quality of writing stunned me. His beautiful use of language captured the mutual attraction between two lonely teenage boys who become lovers, coupled with the pain and complexity of their lives. I felt the novel stepped away from the personal torment and anguish often seen in books about teenage same-sex love, though it didn’t refrain from acknowledging the impact of the Vietnam war, abuse, poverty, drugs, and dysfunctional family dynamics. I liked the book because the boys’ love and desire for one another had the power to temporarily circumnavigate their differences, personal torments, and sexual boundaries.… show more.

It is a story that shows a deep connection between a son and his mother. I could not stop thinking about my mother, to whom I also hold a special bond. It includes some history about the background of the author. In this case, he is born in Vietnam. I love when history is mixed within the context of a novel, regardless of the genre. A story can entertain you and gives you a message/lesson, but you also learn something new. Love that! This book made me go deeper into what the Vietnam war was. It is a very intimate… show more.

This book is dazzling. It is true I have a weakness for epistolary novels, which this is, but as bold and unique as it is, I would recommend this book to everyone. It’s an exquisite love letter from a young man in Connecticut, nicknamed Little Dog by his family, to his Vietnamese mother.

This book takes my breath away, because we feel the raw anguish as the narrator grows up, dealing with his sexuality and longing and all that he and his family have endured.

This book has some breathtaking imagery—and some of the most raw, unsettling scenes I’ve ever read through my fingers (“no, no...don’t please don’t...”). It’s the combination that, to me, elevates an equally compelling plot (no spoilers) and places the whole reading experience somewhere between poetry and prose. It reminded me of George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo, where you feel form has exploded, and all you have to hold onto is the writer and the words themselves. That strikes me as a very musical experience. 

This novel made me think for a different reason. The prose is absolutely the most beautiful I’ve seen in a novel in many years. I had to stop often and reread the sentences because they were an experience in and of themselves. The story is interesting and autobiographical, but it’s really the prose that carries the novel. If you love incredibly well-written novels, this one is for you.

An autobiographical novel structured as a sensitive and soul-searching letter from a son to his illiterate mother. Vuong cares deeply about the characters in his novel, Vietnamese refugees arriving and building a life for themselves in the U.S.A, and he holds them protectively within the folds of the gorgeous and vivid prose. The novel subverts and expands our notions of Vietnamese-US history, reminding the reader of the violence inherent in the creation of an American identity.