Told in epistolary form, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from the narrator, known only as “Little Dog,” to his mother who is unable to read. Because he knows his mother will never be able to actually understand his words, Little Dog opens up to her about events in his life he might not otherwise have, including his own abuse as a child at her hands, coming to understand he was gay, his first sexual experiences, and experimentation with drugs.

I was not only drawn to the honesty with which the narrator recounts his childhood, likely crossing boundaries into auto fiction as key details overlap with the author’s own life (his mother’s name, his own experience as a Vietnamese immigrant, etc.), but also the narrative style he chooses to tell it in. We are taken through Little Dog’s childhood in mostly chronological order, but the narrative is spliced with anecdotes from his mother’s and grandmother’s lives in Vietnam, as well as interruptions of poetry that seem to be when the reader gets the most sense of understanding of the writer’s emotional landscape.

This novel is not only an excellent and deeply emotional account of the immigrant experience in the United States and unique queer representation. The author also gives us a close look at the every day lives torn apart by the opioid epidemic. Throughout all this, it’s also a lovely and beautiful coming of age story at its heart.

Content Warnings

valerie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

hayleydunn's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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a_alves00's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

natalie_davies's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This was a beautifully articulate bit of autofiction, one of my favourite niches in literature. It had some moving perspectives on issues and lives I'd not considered before, and read like the best prose poem. That being said, because of a few graphic sex scenes, I'm not sure it was for me.

As a piece of literature it hangs together really well, it's just not always to my taste. There were universal ideas peppered throughout that tied me to the narrative; I loved the about language and art for instance, as well as the intrinsic theme of family, but the explicit nature of some scenes left me a bit cold... I'm not 100% why that is though.

It could be because of my own relative disinterest in sex scenes in literature, or because seeing certain anatomical words rubbing up amongst the rest of Vuong's eloquent and graceful language felt wrong. Either way I found myself losing track of the things I cared about in the middle portion of the book, which is mainly concerned with sexual discovery with a fellow immigrant and Tabacco picker, Trevor. It picked up again after this section, once the letters had become splinters rather than whole paragraphs, but it never quite thrilled me as it did in the first 30 pages.

Quick-ish note... Feel free to stop reading, I just need to ramble.

One thing that has definitely been impactful on my reading has been the gendered critique surrounding the text. I've seen discourse online comparing Vuong's style to that of Rupi Kaur, and taking issue with the idea of style over substance (a debate that's raged for hundreds of years). My question is; why do we consider one to be frivilous and surface level while the other is subversive and holds great beauty?

Is it because Vuong is very much subverting expectations of masculinity, having the courage to express his vulnerability, while Kaur is a of feminine expectations to ONLY dwell in these realms?

I'm not suggesting that the argument is this surface level, but it's a thought I had.... Maybe ignore this bit 🤷

Content Warnings