Publisher’s-write-up:
‘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.’
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is an attempted novel from Ocean Vuong.
The lead character is Little Dog, who is writing a letter to his illiterate
mother – about his troubles growing up with his mother and grandmother, the
abusive experiences he has had, both in the family and in the society at large,
being a second generation immigrant of Vietnamese origins and yes, the lack of
acceptance of his queer identity by his family.
The premise is interesting which was the reason why I wanted to like
this book and I tried hard to do so. The book I understand is also
autobiographical or what is increasingly happening – a type of autofiction,
fictionalising one’s own story. The writer certainly had a style – and had a
poetic writing style. I appreciate poetry, but I prefer to appreciate it while
reading a poem, not read a prose that has forcibly inserted aspects of poetry.
What I find increasingly with many authors is that, they are trying to
tick off a few boxes – given this character has issues with his mother, there
is the angle of racism, struggles of someone with an immigrant background,
struggles with his understanding of masculinity, the fact that he is gay in a
family that does not accept it, etc. and he tried to insert all of this into
his book. While I am someone who is sympathetic to all of these causes – and
was precisely the reason why I tried to like this book, the narration fell
flat.
If I had read the acknowledgements section a little earlier, maybe I
would have avoided this altogether, given that the person whom he thanked in
particular was Ben Lerner – the author of 10:04; a book that I read last year
which I did not enjoy, at all – which was another case of a vague attempt at
autofiction. If that was the target audience, it would have been evident to me
from the very beginning that I was not the person for this book.
To conclude, I found nothing in this book, I read this book for my local
book club discussion and like in many of these kinds of books, the discussion
was more interesting than the book itself. Definitely the worst book that I
read in 2023. On that note, I would award this book a rating of two on ten.
Rating – 2/10
Have a nice day,
Andy
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