Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

846 reviews

clarmentine's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

stunning. i give it five stars not because i find it's unblemished and out of this world, but because it encouraged me to think critically and still enjoy his (not-so-brief) gorgeous writing despite its flaws. i've found that many of the negative reviews criticized his prose and flowery "pretension," but i would have to disagree. as an asian myself, it was almost an instinct for me to completely empathize with the way he depicted the asian-american experience and not once did i perceive his choice of language as a tool utilized to romanticize or boast about his struggles. an incredible poet is what he is and he showed that through the many forms of symbolism throughout the story.

one of the things i found bothersome within the story was–what i felt–the lack of dimension we see in little dog. it might just be me, but i did feel like i wasn't able to thoroughly connect with him as a person completely. there was more monologue from either rose or lan than dialogue between ld and everyone and i just wish he would've spoken more, even if we were technically in his head the entire time.

although i previously mentioned i wasn't with those who found his writing too flowery, i do think there were some words strung together just for the sake of being said. however, i wouldn't say it was a pattern throughout the book and only a couple parts sprinkled all over. at one part of the book, i had to pause and write in the margin, ~~"i don't exactly know what the purpose of these two pages are."~~ that being said, i found his prose delightful and eye-opening as someone who's never read a novel written by a poet before. a lot of the book really touched me, and by the end i'd found myself numb. he has a way of grasping people with his words and i admire that about him.

my favorite thing about this is that every character–apart from trev's dad–was either likable but flawed, or unlikable but with redeeming qualities.

rose and little dog's relationship pained me because of all that abuse, but vuong did an amazing job of reasoning that behavior with rose's ptsd, while at the same time not justifying it. my attachment to trevor had only struck me when he died, and i didn't realize how much i'd found myself to like him despite his awful behavior towards ld; because although that's not a partner anyone should be happy having, there were still times when he was tender, sweet, and openly cared about little dog. they were both so young and still discovering themselves, and trevor hated himself so much that each time he said the wrong thing, i was overtaken by disappointment and pity.

i have so so so so so many favorite quotes from this book it's actually insane. i tabbed like, almost every page and now i'm almost out of tabs. you will pay for this, ocean vuong. my absolute favorite line that i think i'll remember for the rest of my life is:

When does a war end? When can I say your name and have it mean only your name and not what you left behind?

Content Warnings

nothingforpomegranted's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

3.5

A young man's letter to his illiterate mother: How does it feel to be a writer? But also: What is a second generation immigrant and how does he process inherited trauma? How does one define and distinguish among love and lust and desire and grief? Where does the self end and the community begin?

Ocean Vuong is undeniably a poet, and I underlined more passages in this book than I have in a long time, appreciating his lyrical language and the way he carried metaphors across chapters. Perhaps my favorite quotation of the entire novel is this paragraph from the last page, pulling together all of the animal metaphors Vuong used throughout the novel in one concise sequence:

I think of the buffaloes somewhere, maybe in North Dakota or Montana,
their shoulders rippling in slow motion as they race for the cliff, their
brown bodies bottlenecked at the narrow precipice. Their eyes oil-black,
the velvet bones of their horns covered with dust, they run, headfirst,
together--until they become moose, huge and antlered, wet nostrils
braying, then dogs, with paws clawing toward the edge, their tongues
lapping in the light until, finally, they become macaques, a whole troop
of them. The crowns of their heads cut open, their brains hollowed out,
they float, the hair on their limbs fine and soft as feathers. And just as
the first one steps off the cliff, onto ait, the forever nothing below, they
ignite into the ochre-red sparks of monarchs. Thousands of monarchs
pour over the edge, fan into the white air, like a bloodjet hitting water.

However, too often, the language veered too far away from the plot, beautiful for beauty's sake without any meaningful contribution to the story.

As for the story, Vuong addresses a lot. Though not quite chronological, the story begins with his mother's immigration to the United States from Vietnam with her mother and the baby, fleeing at the end of the war, connected to what they left behind but also to Little Dog's white soldier grandfather and to Tiger Woods. The boy grows up in a nail salon, then rides his bike to the tobacco fields, where he finds a job and self-discovery, exploring consciousness (through drugs) and identity (through sex). This, too, was where Vuong started to lose me; though the whole premise is that the mother cannot read the letter, and certainly not in English, I was mortified to read such graphic scenes in this context, and it seemed like Vuong started writing an entirely separate book, trapped in the middle of the family story.

Content Warnings

tea_tamai's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark 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

4.75

Content Warnings

anb2300's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

dandiego_01's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective fast-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

beautiful writing and touching storytelling. Every word, every sentence is thoughtful. I could read this a thousand times and still find something new.

Content Warnings

ashleycmms's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

minibean24's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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

Ocean’s use of prose and his command of the English language is unlike any other. Everything about this book shattered me and then built me up again. The only reason it is not 5 stars is at times it felt more pretentious than genuine, which pulled me out of the book.

Content Warnings