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

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On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

65 reviews

lenni_sc's review against another edition

challenging dark informative tense 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

3.0

Vielleicht geht in der Übersetzung zu viel verloren von dem was Ocean Vuong ausmacht. Anders kann ich mir die Begeisterung des Großteils der Lesenden nicht erklären. Das Thema ist so wichtig und interessant, aber die Hälfte der Worte hätten für mich gereicht. In seinen Gedichten mag die Schreibweise großartig sein, hier wirkte es (erstaunlicherweise) eher pretentious.

Das Grundkonzept des Romans ist meiner Meinung nach großartig: ein Brief, der von der Empfängerin nie gelesen werden wird, erzeugt eine emotionale Tiefe, die anders vielleicht nicht möglich wäre. Aber Umsetzung na ja.

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yolie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

This book needs you to take your time. Although the novel appears slim it is quite dense in terms of the content and Vuong’s prose. Some chapters read more like short stories and long form poetry than a linear account. The book has moments of absolute hopelessness, you’re shattered by Little Dog’s accounts of growing up an Asian immigrant in America, gay and poor. His one-sided and ill-fated relationship with Trevor makes me cautious (and sad) to say he is Little Dog's 'first love'. So much of their relationship is marred by Trevor's homophobia and recklessness.

I wish less time was spent on that relationship and more weight was given to the other significant relationships in his life and the milestones he achieves in his adulthood.

But there’s beauty in it too - a nod to the book’s title. Vuong/ Little Dog is able to hold so much compassion for people, he chooses to see them in their gorgeousness - irrespective of the brevity of that moment. Long after the novel is over you’ll keep coming back to certain phrases, marvelling at how stunning and lyrical Vuong’s writing is.

One of my favourite passages from the book reads:
“Because the sunset, like survival, exists only on the verge of its own disappearing. To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.”

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blueberry0531's review against another edition

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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

5.0

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claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.5

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rebekka_evie's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

I liked the way the story is told. The letters to a mother that will never read them. Ocean Vuong's writing style is really enjoyable.
I liked uncovering the history of the family through the eyes of the youngest member.
I did feel like certain points in the story were told quite confusing. I had to go back to previous paragraphs a couple of times, to make sure I got the context right.

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radfordmanor's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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higherwvrlvck's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Language, which is beautiful and should be celebrated, can be something shameful for immigrants in America. Besides maybe their appearance, their mother tongue is what singles them out from all the rest. Little Dog's mother says "You're already Vietnamese" as a warning to her son. He must try as much as he can to stay invisible in order to stay alive.

This novel was heartbreaking. Although the primary story was about the main character, Little Dog, his mother, Rose, and his grandmother, Lan, it was also about his friend and lover, Trevor, his grandfather, Paul, and the character of the town Hartford, Connecticut and all those people it contained.

I read this book in about three to four days. Once I began, I could not stop. Vuong's language is captivating for both its beauty and relentlessness. Ocean Vuong puts on display the pain and the joy of having an immigrant mother who suffered through the Vietnamese War and domestic abuse. Vuong examines different standards of sexuality and masculinity in Little Dog and Trevor. He expresses resistance, his anger in words but continually recognizes language's failure to fully capture everything we want to say.

Stories by people of color tend to have this expectation of the characters of color be heroes, pick themselves up by the bootstraps, fight back, and achieve success, but Vuong simply tells it the way it is. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous depicts Asian American life from an Asian American voice. This should be enough. Bodies of color are not just faces for a movement, but lives worthy of being documented in Literature. Ocean Vuong does just this.

There are many, many topics of discussion in this novel. Depending on the emotional maturity of students, I think this would be a wonderful book to use in a high school world literature class and of course could be used in college curricula. I have heard many teachers argue that we don't read as many works by people of color because of time and lack of literary achievement, but Ocean Vuong has done both in this debut novel. I will forever cherish this story, and I can't wait to come back to it again.

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