Review of "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" by Ocean Vuong

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was extremely different than any other book I've read before. First, the book is labeled as a novel, but it reads very much like a memoir. It felt autobiographical and too honest to be fictional. Ocean Vuong wrote this book in a stream of consciousness style while left very little for plot. The narrator is writing to his mother and talks about different fragments of memories, time, events, etc. The timeline is all over the place and hard to follow if you're trying to understand the family's timeline. The main character who is affectionately referred to as "Little Dog" is Vietnamese and moved to the US as a young child. He recalls stories that his mother and his grandmother have told him of their time back in Vietnam. Topics regarding the Vietnam War are discussed as well as becoming a writer, life of immigrants, mental illness, human sexuality, cancer and the Opioid Epidemic. As the protagonist/narrator is of the millennial generation, many things he discusses are relatable to people in that generation, but from the skewed viewpoint of an immigrant queer boy. The use of language and syntax in this novel is far different than what I'm used to reading and honestly, it was very hard for me to follow. It was beautiful to read and if I could probably dissect this book and try to understand every meaning Vuong put into his sentences. The novel read like poetry in its use of sentences, punctuation, paragraph structure and metaphors. I'm not a huge fan of poetry so that's probably why this book didn't connect with me as much as I had hoped. I am glad that I read it however, as ingesting different types of art in book form is always good. I like diversifying my choices of reading. I don't know many people personally who I would recommend this book to, but I feel that fans of certain poets could enjoy this book.

This review is also posted on Netgalley and my personal blog.

View all my reviews