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thili's review against another edition
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
iqidwai's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
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
5.0
What a wonderful book! I can see why it's so highly praised. There were many instances while reading where I had to put down the book and just take a deep breath in, it was so moving!
My favourite lines from the book (just so I can remember them):
"Everything good is somewhere else, baby. I'm telling you. Everything." (p. 55)
"sometimes being offered tenderness feels like the very proof that you've been ruined" (p. 119)
"I wait alone under an awning for the bus that will take me across the river, to the town that holds everything Trevor except Trevor himself" (p. 166)
"I'm broken in two, the message said. In two, it was the only thought I could keep, sitting in my seat, how losing a person could make more of us, the living, make us two.........Into-yes, that's more like it. As in, Now I'm broken into." (p.167)
"The truth is none of us are enough enough. But you know this already." (p.176)
"But the thing about forever is you can't take it back" (p. 183)
"In Vietnamese, the word for missing someone and remembering them is the same: nho. Sometimes, when you ask me over the phone, 'Con nho me khong?' I flinch, thinking you meant 'Do you remember me?'
I miss you more than I remember you." (p. 186)
"Too much joy, I swear, is lost in our desperation to keep it." (p.187)
"I'm not with you because I'm at war with everything but you." (p.190)
"As a rule, be more. As a rule, I miss you. As a rule, 'little' is always smaller than 'small'. Don't ask me why." (p.192)
"'I used to be a girl, Little Dog. You know?'
.....'I used to put a flower in my hair and walk in the sun. After big rain, I walk in the sun. The flower I put on my ear. So wet, so cool.' Her eyes drifted from me.
'It's a stupid thing.' She shook her head. 'Stupid thing. To be a girl.'" (p.198)
"Because nothing could be taken from me, I thought, if I had already given it away." (p.200-201)
"Yes, there was a war. Yes, we came from its epicenter. In that war, a woman gifted herself a new name-Lan-in that naming claimed herself beautiful, then made that beauty into something worth keeping. From that, a daughter was born, and from that daughter, a son.
All this time I told myself we were born from war-but I was wrong, Ma. We were born from beauty. Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence-but that violence, having passed through the fruit, failed to spoil it." (p. 231)
"I am thinking about beauty again, how some things are hunted because we have deemed them beautiful. If, relative to the history of our planet, an individual life is so short, a blink of an eye, as they say, then to be gorgeous, even from the day you're born to the day you die, is to be gorgeous only briefly......To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted." (p.238)
My favourite lines from the book (just so I can remember them):
"Everything good is somewhere else, baby. I'm telling you. Everything." (p. 55)
"sometimes being offered tenderness feels like the very proof that you've been ruined" (p. 119)
"I'm broken in two, the message said. In two, it was the only thought I could keep, sitting in my seat, how losing a person could make more of us, the living, make us two.........Into-yes, that's more like it. As in, Now I'm broken into." (p.167)
"The truth is none of us are enough enough. But you know this already." (p.176)
"But the thing about forever is you can't take it back" (p. 183)
"In Vietnamese, the word for missing someone and remembering them is the same: nho. Sometimes, when you ask me over the phone, 'Con nho me khong?' I flinch, thinking you meant 'Do you remember me?'
I miss you more than I remember you." (p. 186)
"Too much joy, I swear, is lost in our desperation to keep it." (p.187)
"I'm not with you because I'm at war with everything but you." (p.190)
"As a rule, be more. As a rule, I miss you. As a rule, 'little' is always smaller than 'small'. Don't ask me why." (p.192)
"'I used to be a girl, Little Dog. You know?'
.....'I used to put a flower in my hair and walk in the sun. After big rain, I walk in the sun. The flower I put on my ear. So wet, so cool.' Her eyes drifted from me.
'It's a stupid thing.' She shook her head. 'Stupid thing. To be a girl.'" (p.198)
"Because nothing could be taken from me, I thought, if I had already given it away." (p.200-201)
"Yes, there was a war. Yes, we came from its epicenter. In that war, a woman gifted herself a new name-Lan-in that naming claimed herself beautiful, then made that beauty into something worth keeping. From that, a daughter was born, and from that daughter, a son.
All this time I told myself we were born from war-but I was wrong, Ma. We were born from beauty. Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence-but that violence, having passed through the fruit, failed to spoil it." (p. 231)
"I am thinking about beauty again, how some things are hunted because we have deemed them beautiful. If, relative to the history of our planet, an individual life is so short, a blink of an eye, as they say, then to be gorgeous, even from the day you're born to the day you die, is to be gorgeous only briefly......To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted." (p.238)
elsa_patito's review against another edition
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
jonscott9's review against another edition
4.0
This wasn't a typical vacation read, but as I sat on Cape Cod and grappled early with the tragic and beautiful weight of it, I remembered that I once read Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven while backpacking through Europe by train. Reading most of this stunning book upon returning from vaca, it definitely required a certain frame of mind to focus and alternately deal with and relish in its consequence and beauty.
Little Dog and his mother Rose are immigrants who find a range of social, economic and cultural difficulties in Hartford, Connecticut, of all places. The liquid-chemical residue from her nail-technician job mix with the sweat appearing on her "I <3 NY" shirt as Rose tries to help her son with something in their home, one of many enduring images from this book of autofiction.
Pangs of past youthful shame and desire rose up inside me as they do for Little Dog in some sections of his account of tryst after yearning tryst with fellow teen Trevor, grandson of a farm owner whose tobacco Little Dog takes a job to help pick.
To crib a line from the singer-songwriter Feist, "So much past inside my present." That's true of Little Dog, of his mother Rose and grandmother Lan, and of Vuong himself. It's true of all of us, which is why his remarkably specific experiences turn universal for many, whether non-white immigrant or not. That's not to downplay his life story; he is helping a lot of people pull back the veil of what befell or welled up in or comforted or saved them.
Too many triumphant turns of phrase and entire lines and passages in this one to pick out one or a few of them. This is poetry as prose, and I'm turning to Time Is a Mother, Vuong's latest batch of poems, directly after writing this. We're "briefly gorgeous" in this mortal coil, though thankfully, works like this are everlasting.
Little Dog and his mother Rose are immigrants who find a range of social, economic and cultural difficulties in Hartford, Connecticut, of all places. The liquid-chemical residue from her nail-technician job mix with the sweat appearing on her "I <3 NY" shirt as Rose tries to help her son with something in their home, one of many enduring images from this book of autofiction.
Pangs of past youthful shame and desire rose up inside me as they do for Little Dog in some sections of his account of tryst after yearning tryst with fellow teen Trevor, grandson of a farm owner whose tobacco Little Dog takes a job to help pick.
To crib a line from the singer-songwriter Feist, "So much past inside my present." That's true of Little Dog, of his mother Rose and grandmother Lan, and of Vuong himself. It's true of all of us, which is why his remarkably specific experiences turn universal for many, whether non-white immigrant or not. That's not to downplay his life story; he is helping a lot of people pull back the veil of what befell or welled up in or comforted or saved them.
Too many triumphant turns of phrase and entire lines and passages in this one to pick out one or a few of them. This is poetry as prose, and I'm turning to Time Is a Mother, Vuong's latest batch of poems, directly after writing this. We're "briefly gorgeous" in this mortal coil, though thankfully, works like this are everlasting.
cooper_michael's review against another edition
5.0
Words have such a unique power. They can shape stories and invoke deeply felt emotions in their organization. Ocean Vuong has mastered their power. This book was so beautifully crafted. The experience of reading this book deeply moved me and I had visceral reactions. I’m simply blown away by this. Little Dog will live in me for a while.
ashlyn_rae's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
dada26's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
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? It's complicated
4.0
lia123's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked the writing of this book. It was emotional and raw, contrasting with the beautiful descriptions. Most of the time, it worked perfectly, creating vivid images of the narrators life. However the reason I didn’t give it five stars is that sometimes it felt too different, making me lose the rhythm a bit because of confusion. Nevertheless, a beautiful book that is a must read.