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goldentortoisebeetle's review against another edition
I understand why he has so many awards and accolades. I really appreciated this work; I appreciate his style. He's a fantastic poet.
fran_something's review against another edition
4.0
Tra le poesie contenute in questa raccolta le mie preferite sono certamente "Seventh Circle of Earth", "Untitled (Blue, Green, and Brown): oil on canvas: Mark Rothko: 1952", "Torso of Air", "To My Father/To My Future Son" e "Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong". Avendo letto prima di tutto il suo romanzo di debutto "Brevemente risplendiamo sulla terra (On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous)", questo mi ha aiutato maggiormente a comprendere i suoi componimenti.
ranwans's review against another edition
3.0
Ode to masturbation and Prayer for the Newly Damned were my favorite. I can tell a lot of these poems are clearly personal regarding Vuong's life, but as a reader, especially in part 1, I found myself lost and dissecting the meanings of his poems. The context of a majority of his poems were vague, leaving me feeling like a lot of the lines could mean anything, which would be fine if it were a fiction-based poetry book, but even now finishing Night Sky with Exit wounds, I still feel like I truly don't understand what I read and not because I don't have a deep understanding of poetry literary devices, but because a lot of his writing felt overly poetic to the point where most lines don't tell a story, but rather tried to make itself look pretty for the sake of poetry. Overall, I'd give this a 3.5
mai_books27's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
This is a work that sticks to you like honey. Ocean's prose and the story told is as gutwrenching as it is goregeous. Read this fucking book.
chaostalking's review against another edition
3.5
Some of these poems are overly wordy, blunting their impact, but throughout this collection, Ocean Vuong displays an artistic ambition and lyrical precision that makes most of these pieces dazzle. It's kind of hard to wrap your head around the notion that this is a debut collection.
Highlights include "My Father Writes from Prison", "Self-Portrait as Exit Wounds", "Of Thee I Sing", "Because It's Summer", "Seventh Circle of Earth" and "Prayer for the Newly Damned".
Highlights include "My Father Writes from Prison", "Self-Portrait as Exit Wounds", "Of Thee I Sing", "Because It's Summer", "Seventh Circle of Earth" and "Prayer for the Newly Damned".
imissyou's review against another edition
5.0
“my
father went to kneel in the bathroom until we heard his muffled cries through
the walls. & so I learned—that a man in climax was the closest thing
to surrender.”
I'm not a poetry fanatic as one of my best friends Anika, most of the time I find poetry books stiff and soul-less even when they are full of life for other people... This was an exception and I will never shut up about it.
Ocean Vuong addresses topics as war, sex, family, and immigrants in such a way that I have never seen before, he creates visual sharp scenarios through brutal stories that are full of memories, he creates a collection full of his own life and the life many other Vietnamese people had to endure because of the tragedy the Vietnam war is.
The most touching part for me is the way he mentions how war and PTSD change people and the way they act, pretending that everything is fine when it's not. He has a poem from Jackie Kennedy's point of view that's a perfect representation of it and I would like to include a brief part of it to prove my point:
“
We made it, baby.
We’re riding in the back of the black
limousine. They have lined
the road to shout our names.
They have faith in your golden hair
& pressed grey suit.
They have a good citizen
in me. I love my country.
I pretend nothing is wrong.”
Poem: Of Thee I sing
I repeat, I'm not a poetry fan, but for sure this is one of the most touching and beautiful books I have ever read, he slammed Crush by Richard Siken (my old favorite poetry book) and replaced it with itself in a manner of 3 days.
father went to kneel in the bathroom until we heard his muffled cries through
the walls. & so I learned—that a man in climax was the closest thing
to surrender.”
I'm not a poetry fanatic as one of my best friends Anika, most of the time I find poetry books stiff and soul-less even when they are full of life for other people... This was an exception and I will never shut up about it.
Ocean Vuong addresses topics as war, sex, family, and immigrants in such a way that I have never seen before, he creates visual sharp scenarios through brutal stories that are full of memories, he creates a collection full of his own life and the life many other Vietnamese people had to endure because of the tragedy the Vietnam war is.
The most touching part for me is the way he mentions how war and PTSD change people and the way they act, pretending that everything is fine when it's not. He has a poem from Jackie Kennedy's point of view that's a perfect representation of it and I would like to include a brief part of it to prove my point:
“
We made it, baby.
We’re riding in the back of the black
limousine. They have lined
the road to shout our names.
They have faith in your golden hair
& pressed grey suit.
They have a good citizen
in me. I love my country.
I pretend nothing is wrong.”
Poem: Of Thee I sing
I repeat, I'm not a poetry fan, but for sure this is one of the most touching and beautiful books I have ever read, he slammed Crush by Richard Siken (my old favorite poetry book) and replaced it with itself in a manner of 3 days.