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arainey's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
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? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Racism, Racial slurs, Grief, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Death, Cancer, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Addiction, Physical abuse, Abortion, War, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, and Violence
Minor: Car accident and Dementia
kimac2's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
A little slow to get into, but quite beautiful. Heartbreaking but hopeful at the same time. The audiobook was very good I enjoyed hearing it in the author’s voice.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Abortion
Moderate: Homophobia and War
lauralfp's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I know a lot of people absolutely adore this book. And it’s not that I disliked it — 3.5/5 is a 70% rating, after all — it just didn’t quite live up to the hype for me.
Written as a letter from the son of a Vietnamese immigrant to a mother who cannot read, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous covers a lot of emotional themes in its 240 short pages, from family and generational trauma, to war, to personal identity and the human experience.
Vuong is first and foremost a poet. This definitely comes across in his prose, and despite my final rating there were many beautiful individual quotes that I picked out and saved. However, this writing style (I saw a TikTok reviewer describe it as “1000 slam poetry entries disguised as a novel” 🤣) meant that the narrative often jumped around and I struggled to connect with the characters and their stories as a result.
Undoubtedly an important and poignant read and I'm glad I added it to my repertoire, it just didn’t quite live up to the very high expectations I had set for it (which is probably more of a me problem!)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death, Homophobia, and Domestic abuse
jayg's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Death, Homophobia, Alcohol, Drug use, Excrement, Grief, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Drug abuse, Racism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
gaypoetree's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
wa wa wa wa waaaaaa. I love poets! I LOVE POETS!!!!! I AM CRYING OVER HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let me start by saying: when some people criticize the book as “too lyrical,” I understand and in some sense even agree. There are definitely lines in there that feel like they were inserted just because they sound poetic (though Vuong perhaps mocks this himself at one point, saying “that meant nothing but you have it now”), but that is very few lines in an almost frustratingly tightly-woven work. In some sense, those lines were a relief to me. I could brush something aside.
I don’t seek to rate books by perfection; that’s silly. Five stars, to me, is a work that made me consider the world in new ways, feel big feelings, and that I would– WILL– eagerly return to again and again. Check, check, check. Five-star book. The only book I own that is more dog-eared or underlined than this is the book that I used while writing my undergrad capstone.
To avoid this being too long, let me rest on what truly impressed me about the novel, and what edges it into prose poem territory in my mind: the very basic structure of the story reflects its overwhelmingly myriad and complex themes. I don’t just mean the way the switch between tenses relates to the conflict of switching between languages with different relationships to time, or how the invocation of parataxis as a poetic form also renders the characters as different images somehow modifying one another. I mean the little things, too. Theme: writing as a form of liberation that, yet, was given to the narrator by the oppressive culture. Expression: a repeated callback to beginning sentences with “and” or “because” (a thing he was taught never to do) in moments of resistance or of joy. Theme: navigating multiple languages of care, some of which are at odds with each other, often all at once. Expression: The abandonment of the epistolary form into something more obviously poetic when the narrator begins to speak of a personal trauma which is not familial, which his mother does not necessarily share.
I need to stop before I get too excited again. Yeah dude. Good book!
Let me start by saying: when some people criticize the book as “too lyrical,” I understand and in some sense even agree. There are definitely lines in there that feel like they were inserted just because they sound poetic (though Vuong perhaps mocks this himself at one point, saying “that meant nothing but you have it now”), but that is very few lines in an almost frustratingly tightly-woven work. In some sense, those lines were a relief to me. I could brush something aside.
I don’t seek to rate books by perfection; that’s silly. Five stars, to me, is a work that made me consider the world in new ways, feel big feelings, and that I would– WILL– eagerly return to again and again. Check, check, check. Five-star book. The only book I own that is more dog-eared or underlined than this is the book that I used while writing my undergrad capstone.
To avoid this being too long, let me rest on what truly impressed me about the novel, and what edges it into prose poem territory in my mind: the very basic structure of the story reflects its overwhelmingly myriad and complex themes. I don’t just mean the way the switch between tenses relates to the conflict of switching between languages with different relationships to time, or how the invocation of parataxis as a poetic form also renders the characters as different images somehow modifying one another. I mean the little things, too. Theme: writing as a form of liberation that, yet, was given to the narrator by the oppressive culture. Expression: a repeated callback to beginning sentences with “and” or “because” (a thing he was taught never to do) in moments of resistance or of joy. Theme: navigating multiple languages of care, some of which are at odds with each other, often all at once. Expression: The abandonment of the epistolary form into something more obviously poetic when the narrator begins to speak of a personal trauma which is not familial, which his mother does not necessarily share.
I need to stop before I get too excited again. Yeah dude. Good book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Drug abuse, Addiction, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, and Violence
Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Mental illness, and Homophobia
Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child abuse, and Domestic abuse
druti's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, War, and Drug use
revolverreads's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
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? Yes
5.0
There is very rarely a book picked by our Russian Roulette wheel that gets its claws into us from the first page and has us tearing up by the second. Part prose, part poetry, part cry-your-eyes-out, "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" by Ocean Vuong is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read, and it totally shattered us.
You begin by wondering what it is that Little Dog wants to tell his mother in this letter. Is it to let her know that despite the abuse and tumultuous childhood, he understands her? That he understands his mother is human and has lived a life full of horrors he could never imagine? Is that understanding now more painful, knowing that he has and will continue to live in a world where different horrors await him? It's a letter filled with pain, a generational hurt that has passed its way down from grandmother to mother to son, but it's also brimming with love. Amidst the pages of hurt, there is healing. For every negative memory and experience endured, there is hope and love. Despite the deep-rooted trauma, Little Dog, his mother, and Lan do what they can to shield each other in whatever ways they know.
Like many of the queer stories we have read on the Podcast so far, this narrative takes you on flashes through the timeline of their life so far. From childhood, to adolescence, to the present, Ocean Vuong manages to bring to life a full set of characters and their lifetimes, not a story that seems out of place or redundant. There is a fine line to toe when telling a traumatic story in a limited page count, but this book managed to pack a punch with each page. Complicated topics of abuse, trauma of war, self identity, and mental health are not mentioned flippantly, in fact just a line on a page manages to carry its underlying message across the memories being recounted.
One Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous will have your attention from the first page, all the way until the end. It’s a book we’re positive won’t be out of our minds anytime soon. We’d love for you to join us as we get into much more detail on our podcast. Check us out at Revolver Reads: A Bookclub Russian Roulette on your podcast platform of choice, or simply @revolverreads on Instagram and let us know what you think. If you’d like to email us any future book suggestions for our roulette wheel, feel free to send them to [email protected].
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Bullying, and Homophobia
Moderate: Child abuse
violetbentbackwards1036's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Addiction, Hate crime, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Gore, Abandonment, Abortion, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cancer, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual content, War, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Racism, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Drug use, Grief, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy
jiangslore's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
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? Yes
5.0
[5/5]
“Sobre a terra somos belos por um instante” é um daqueles livros que precisam de tempo para serem absorvidos. E é um daqueles que, mesmo quando são absorvidos, deixam muito pouco a dizer — como eu poderia ter a pretensão de acrescentar algo substancial quando o autor já expressou tão delicada e profundamente as temáticas da obra? Mas acredito que vale a pena apontar algumas das qualidades do livro, mesmo que eu não faça jus à beleza dele, só para tentar convencer alguém a realizar a leitura.
Este livro é tão visceral e real que eu tive que procurar informações sobre ele mais de uma vez para realmente me convencer de que era uma obra de ficção. Claro, o que é narrado no livro tem relação com fatos históricos, em especial, com a Guerra do Vietnã. Com certeza muitas mulheres passaram por coisas parecidas com o que Lan passou, e a dificuldade de Rose de entender sua própria identidade (e, posteriormente, a idade de seu filho) é muito realista, também. As próprias experiências do Cachorrinho (sim, é um humano, não, não entrarei em detalhes sobre por que ele tem esse nome — descubra lendo), filho de Rose e narrador, são realistas, também. Mas o que traz o nível extra de realismo de “Sobre a terra somos belos por um instante” é a complexidade na forma que sentimentos são narrados. Nada, nenhuma situação encontrada no livro, é simples. Então não tem como o que as pessoas nelas envolvidas sentem ser simples — e Ocean Vuong captura isso maravilhosamente.
O livro é um romance epistolar, ou seja, narrado por meio de cartas. As cartas são escritas por Cachorrinho e destinadas para a sua mãe — e isso já inicia de uma forma incrível a profundidade do livro, pois, em uma tentativa desesperada de se aproximar de sua mãe, o filho escreve para ela em um idioma que ela não entende. Não há uma separação definida nas cartas, ou seja, o livro não segue uma estrutura em que cada capítulo é uma carta com início, meio e fim. Além disso, os acontecimentos não são narrados de modo linear, pois a conexão entre eles é temática e não cronológica. Claro, isso pode tornar o livro confuso para algumas pessoas, e com certeza significa que deve haver certo nível de concentração na leitura, mas vale a pena (e a maioria das coisas que valem a pena dão trabalho, na minha opinião).
Outra coisa que torna “Sobre a terra somos belos por um instante” tão interessante é algo que, sinceramente, já está evidente só pelo título: este livro é sobre viver. É sobre como, apesar de todos os sofrimentos, o ser humano ainda busca o que é belo. E, claro, há certos sofrimentos e certas marcas que são especialmente relevantes em certos grupos, e, consequentemente, são relevantes para certas famílias. Mas esse sofrimento não define ninguém, e isso é demonstrado pelo fato de que os personagens, apesar de tudo, querem estar vivos. Sim, querem sobreviver. Mas não é só isso.
E, sinceramente, a forma que “Sobre a terra somos belos por um instante” aborda tais questões reflete o efeito que o livro tem. Eu me senti tão destruída depois de terminá-lo, mas tão cheia de esperança. E acho que é assim que Cachorrinho se sente, também. Nada vai apagar o sofrimento dele ou da família dele. Ele tem que viver com isso, mas, principalmente, ele tem que viver. Ser humano é isso, e é tão insignificante, tão patético, mas tão belo ser assim.
E, sinceramente, a forma que “Sobre a terra somos belos por um instante” aborda tais questões reflete o efeito que o livro tem. Eu me senti tão destruída depois de terminá-lo, mas tão cheia de esperança. E acho que é assim que Cachorrinho se sente, também. Nada vai apagar o sofrimento dele ou da família dele. Ele tem que viver com isso, mas, principalmente, ele tem que viver. Ser humano é isso, e é tão insignificante, tão patético, mas tão belo ser assim.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, and War
zeldazonks's review against another edition
challenging
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
4.0
I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author which was genuinely an incredible way to take in the book. However it did mean that it felt like a 7 hour poetry reading, so I had to pace myself and probably listen in more instalments than if I'd physically read it. Not that that detracted from the book in anyway, but it's worth bearing in mind. Overall incredibly beautiful writing and a devastating story, very meditative and hops back and forth through time so it feels almost dream like or like memory.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Child abuse, Medical content, Addiction, Pregnancy, War, Sexual violence, Excrement, Cancer, Abortion, Homophobia, Drug abuse, and Domestic abuse