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ye_li's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-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
4.75
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a beautiful story with so many thoughts and just as much hurt. The characters are a mess—they are the splatters of paint on a canvas, the dirty and clean laundry strewn all over the floor, the spilled contents of a cup, the swarm of bees around a hive; they are a mess, a warped and swirling mess, but they are so beautiful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Abortion, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
rearic's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia and Sexual content
Minor: Domestic abuse and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
gw3nj4n's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, and Mental illness
morriganslibrary's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia
handful_of_frogs's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Blood, Excrement, Grief, and Death of parent
emi98's review against another edition
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
1.5
"A letter from son to a mother who cannot read…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…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."
First of all, the last sentence of the above synopsis is mostly a lie: the story relies on detailing his family's past than on telling the narrator's, Little Dog (who is supposed to be Ocean Vuong, we get it) own personal story.
I'm hesitant on novels from diaspora population, because many times I find them to be annoying, often perpetuating harmful stereotypes, or exploitative of whoever experienced most of the violence (usually NOT the MC, who is clearly the author or heavy projection of the author). As someone is who is also diasporic, I have to be careful in what I want to say and actually evaluate my intentions behind it. That isn't to say people can't write about these kinds of experiences, but do believe in having the moral expectations & responsibility in not using other people's trauma, especially for our own opportunities that sweeps this 'inspiration' under the rug.
Ocean Vuong, in interviews like the New Yorker, actually changes his life story a bunch of times (ie. when he started reading), so we don't know what is actually true. As well, he actually described himself as middle class, and that type of narrative is "exotic" (kill me please) so this is something that should be considered an "luxury reading experience". Actually, one of my first initial thoughts after reading this was wondering if I was reading Rupi Kaur if she was on a post-secondary institution salary and used a thesaurus more--- this is the attitude that is comparable, I believe. This is the kind of prose and storytelling that sells, really, only now it can be marketed as "uplifting marginalized voices."
Ocean Vuong, in interviews like the New Yorker, actually changes his life story a bunch of times (ie. when he started reading), so we don't know what is actually true. As well, he actually described himself as middle class, and that type of narrative is "exotic" (kill me please) so this is something that should be considered an "luxury reading experience". Actually, one of my first initial thoughts after reading this was wondering if I was reading Rupi Kaur if she was on a post-secondary institution salary and used a thesaurus more--- this is the attitude that is comparable, I believe. This is the kind of prose and storytelling that sells, really, only now it can be marketed as "uplifting marginalized voices."
Here are some snippets of five-star reviews from Goodreads (Yes, I realize I'm picking from a cesspool but many magazines/paper reviews also reiterate these ideas) where I think can help capture what annoys me:
- "This book fucking wrecked me (no i didn't cry because everything inside me was dead anyways) BUT when I say everything— e v e r y t h i n g— I felt reading this book: it all transcends and escalates into something that is literally close to basic divination. Basically this book gave me superpowers I didn't know I had."
- "This is one of those books that reminds me why I read. Sure, I read for pleasure and to keep at bay anxieties and worries that otherwise occupy my mind (that’s what my romance/chick-lit stacks are for) but my true love for the written word came from discovering the beauty of depth and emotion that’s hidden within the lyrical prose of select writers. To say that the writing in this book is gorgeous would be an understatement. There is one measure I use to determine if I find a particular writer/book worth of high praise and that’s if it makes me jealous. And boy am I jealous of Vuong’s ability to write so rawly that it almost bruises you.
- "I’ve forgotten how much I love to stare at a phrase and reread it in my head until it involuntarily imprints itself in my memory. I tend to read a lot of “feel good, easy to digest” books with simple writing, for the obvious fact that I won’t dwell on them, I won’t torture myself with existential questions and most importantly I can file them away as soon as I’m done. There will be no extra burden on my mind, I won’t obsess for days questioning life, meaning, history, etc. But sometimes I want to invite that kind of reaction, I want to feel, I wanna be awed and lured in by gorgeous words that cut deep and then I wanna be healed of their bruising force, by extending my own understanding and contemplation to their meaning and purpose."
- "Sometimes, a book just hits you. I read 200+ books a year. This month, I’ve read almost a book a day. When I’m reading that much, it can just be because the stars aligned and gave me an insane amount of free time and I chose to spend it all on Bettering Myself Through Literature, but more often, it’s because I’m trying to escape from my snoozefest daily life and my annoying brain. Currently, it’s the latter. When I read that much, it can put the stories at a distance. Or really I want to immerse myself so much that I remove myself from the equation altogether and it’s all story, no impact on me. But sometimes you get a good book at the perfect time and it cuts all that away, whether you want it to or not. This book is so, well, gorgeous. The writing and the story, the characters, the setting - none of it gives you a moment’s mercy. It’s unrelenting in its pain and its reality and its loveliness. I kept thinking this was a memoir, because fiction that feels like this is so rare, an incredible feat. For the last 25% of this book, I kept thinking it had to be over at the next page, or the next - every sentence felt like another paper cut, every paragraph break a scrape, chapter endings f*cking road rash. It was unbearable. I had tears in my eyes through a third of it and I pride myself on being the coolest and least emotional person alive." (this one is annoying because the quantity =/ quality, and most of her reviews are for YA LOL)
As one can see, words like "visceral", "raw", "poignant", etc., are used to describe…what again exactly? (Oftentimes, it sounds more like the reviewer is complimenting their own intellectual superiority through the pain of others, which is…interesting!)
This isn't a memoir, so we are supposed to witness some kind of concrete story unfolding, as there is an art to memoirs (see: Wild by Cheryl Strayed; see: The Liars Club by Mary Karr; see: Just Kids by Patti Smith) that actually matter in how and why they're written. This isn't truly a coming-of-age story, although it does try to build on the skeleton of that with topics of sexuality (queerness was so mechanical in a way that I was annoyed about) or race (being Vietnamese-American with an intense fixation on his racial heritage), but doesn't work. It's not an personal essay, and it's not a poetry anthology. "Stream-of-consciousness" autofiction (the latter is not even an official category) is what could apply, and I find that these don't go very well (exceptions exist, see: Toni Morrison (Beloved, Song of Solomon; The Bluest Eye); Virginia Woolf (To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway)).
Vuong is a poet first, and a contemporary one at that---something that is painfully obvious while reading. Here are some examples from the book that I think was just Bad and emphasizes this fact:
Vuong is a poet first, and a contemporary one at that---something that is painfully obvious while reading. Here are some examples from the book that I think was just Bad and emphasizes this fact:
- "It's not fair that the word laughter is trapped inside slaughter." (This could be a pixelated meme on top of Garfield eating lasagna and no one would be able to tell.)
- "You one told me that the human eye is god's loneliest creation. How so much of the world passes through the pupil and still it holds nothing. The eye, alone in its socket, doesn't even know there's another one, just like it, an inch away, just as hungry, empty." (He should've stopped halfway here)
- "His cock, touched at the tip with the dark inside me…" (this is shit. Like, literal poop he is referring to)
- "A page, turning, is a wing lifted with no twin, and therefore no flight. And yet we are moved." (Why? Why say this? A quote that resonates a lot more with me, and what I think is what the author intended for people to, er, feel re:pages/books/reading, is one by Natsume Soseki in Kokoro: "Words are not meant to stir the air only: they are capable of moving greater things.")
- "The thing about beauty is that it's only beautiful outside of itself." (Say this out loud. Please. Tell me how you feel after.)
- "They say nothing last forever but I'm writing you in the voice of an endangered species" (This is what charity commercials use to donate to WWF)
- "Our hands empty except for our hands." (Just shut up!)
- "She’s a ruin no one can point to. A ruin without location, like a language." (Why is it that when we run out of good comparisons a writer then compare the thing to a lost language?)
- "But the work somehow sutured a fracture inside me." (Someone call Dr. House please!)
- "What if art was not measured by quantity but by ricochets? What if art was not measured?" (This is ironic considering that he measures his work---of which he actually writes very few poems every year---in the accolades he has. Sure, good for him, but I hate artists who pretend they're above it when they're clearly not)
- "Only when I utter the word do I realize that rose is also the past tense of rise. That in calling your name I am also telling you to get up." (Someone please save me now.)
- "He had a thick face and pomaded hair, even at this hour, like Elvis on his last day on earth." (You ain't nothing but a hound dog!)
When you read them just like this, it could be a little jarring, sensationalist---maybe, you wonder, this is just a performance on what the author thinks is 'literary'. The audiobook is definitely what helped me, after an hour, notice the purple prose going on over here. In fact, Ocean Vuong himself narrates it, and he had total control over what EXACTLY how he wanted it to be portrayed vocal-wise (ie. pauses, stressed words, etc.,), and I ended up getting so nauseous from his constant university club poetry slam retelling that I nearly threw up.
It ends up giving the reader such a detached view on the book; the narrator is detached as well, which is strange considering we are supposed to be reading an intimate epistolary-like story here. Hollow and unsatisfying, it feels as though we are checking off some criteria on what people nowadays think is "profound"---which is to say that "profound" means not analyzing the material you read at all. I would say, paraphrased from one fellow reviewer, that it has an "amateur grasp on melodrama…rhetorical questions don't lead to pondering but dead ends", which, again, as a writer, I assume you would want to make the reader think or feel, not just be stuck on the dramatization of "ohhh the pain!!!!!" In the end, the writing cannot be described as 'raw'; instead, I would say it’s the opposite: polished, overwrought, artificial---the random word associations to make these nonsensical phrases deep ends up making this much worse.
It ends up giving the reader such a detached view on the book; the narrator is detached as well, which is strange considering we are supposed to be reading an intimate epistolary-like story here. Hollow and unsatisfying, it feels as though we are checking off some criteria on what people nowadays think is "profound"---which is to say that "profound" means not analyzing the material you read at all. I would say, paraphrased from one fellow reviewer, that it has an "amateur grasp on melodrama…rhetorical questions don't lead to pondering but dead ends", which, again, as a writer, I assume you would want to make the reader think or feel, not just be stuck on the dramatization of "ohhh the pain!!!!!" In the end, the writing cannot be described as 'raw'; instead, I would say it’s the opposite: polished, overwrought, artificial---the random word associations to make these nonsensical phrases deep ends up making this much worse.
Stylistically, while there are some atmospheric stories that may not follow typical narration that could be good (see: The Grip of It by Jac Jemac), the poetic style used here doesn't actively engage the reader to continue. It's, again, substance that compels the reader to keep reading, not pretty words that people who stopped reading after high school go nuts over. There absolutely can be genre-bending (see: We Have Always Lived In the Castle by Shirley Jackson) or literary rules being changed (see: Moby Dick by Herman Melville) or even be the lyrical/verse prose novel that people can go crazy over (see: Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson) that helps make the story solid and great. And I like autobiographies (see: Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin; see: Seeing Red by Lina Meruane; these are all just basic easy-to-recall examples I'm giving) where some are relatable---but, they don't rely on relatability of trauma or pieces of identity---they rely on telling a story on what happens, and how the MC processes it. Just because we don't have the same story doesn't mean we can't care or become enlightened to new perspectives. If that makes sense.
There are some bits that I liked, or else I would've never been able to get through it, but the content is hard to sit by with me. Like, "Oh poor me, here I am writing to a mom who cannot read/has trouble reading from a learning disability and my families' mental illness and they got fucked up BTW I'm gay and have to deal with their problems," like okay, was this necessary for you do to? I've had fellow intellectuals also note the slight undertones of misogyny the MC (maybe Vuong himself as well?) here has in his exploitation of pain and trauma with the women in his family. I'm not saying there's the outright I HATE WOMEN'S MISERY kind of thing going on, but there is a general lack of respect for their stories that is being used and sold here to elevate someone's career and ego, which I cannot abide by.
I also hated how he depicted working poor people, and people with addiction as well using the Opioid crisis here; which is to say, he used them as sprinkling some type of social commentary without doing much of anything with it (it's not revolutionary just for mentioning these problems, unfortunately). Seeing the writer in interviews talking about writing a novels and rejecting "Western colonial storytelling" (which is exactly what he does not do, amongst other non-self-aware commentary), so I absolutely feel crazy watching people die on this hill for him. DO NOT RECOMMEND.
I also hated how he depicted working poor people, and people with addiction as well using the Opioid crisis here; which is to say, he used them as sprinkling some type of social commentary without doing much of anything with it (it's not revolutionary just for mentioning these problems, unfortunately). Seeing the writer in interviews talking about writing a novels and rejecting "Western colonial storytelling" (which is exactly what he does not do, amongst other non-self-aware commentary), so I absolutely feel crazy watching people die on this hill for him. DO NOT RECOMMEND.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War
marprokup's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
Ocean Vuong's writing is fantastic. You can tell he has a background in poetry by the language he uses and beautiful way he ties in metaphors across the book. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a raw and reflective look into a queer, Vietnamese-American boy as he and his loved ones grapple with PTSD, physical abuse, drug abuse, and identity. My jaw dropped within the first chapter. I don't think I can do this book justice in just one measly review, so I highly recommend seeking out and giving this book a read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, and War
Minor: Homophobia
leahcull45's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and War
granasys's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
fast-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
5.0
One of the easiest five stars I gave recently. So many emotions bottled up in this book, reads almost like poetry. Ocean Voung's power over words is simply incredible. I had the urge to highlight sentences while reading it, which I only ever did with nonfiction before.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Abortion
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, and Homophobia
grandadnaima's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, and Death of parent