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davidbythebay 's review for:
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
by Ocean Vuong
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
In Sum: Beautiful writing, some significant style issues I can’t get over, and a slew of trigger warnings at the bottom of this review.
The writing is absolutely beautiful and poetic. Striking language is used and really deep themes are explored. Among the themes explored are: race, being gay, drug use and abuse, mental health, death, love. The perspective is equally interesting and nuanced.
However, I had significant issues with the overall writing style. The “pop culture” references were a lot of the time out of nowhere and fell flat for me. I call them “pop culture” in quotations because they are really more references to people and things we all know of in some way, like Tiger Woods. But there are also references and commonly known research into the despicable practices of pharmaceutical companies in marketing and pushing opioids. These factual tidbits fell flat. They seemed out of place even though they were concerned with the story being told.
The book is written as a letter from son to mother. I just don’t see telling my mother stories she told me and events she and I lived through in an extended letter. Nor do I really see ever telling my mother about my first boyfriend or the first time I had sex with a guy or since then. But the author does do that, though he admits his mother will likely never read this.
Parts one and two were good and kept my interest - though the more experimental and poetic stanza-type sections in part two felt gimmicky and didn’t fit or work for me. Part three is where I lost interest and grew impatient with the style and the story. It felt as though the story stalled.
My biggest issue, which is incorporated in the above issues, is that the story being told had no real plot, no real character study with how disjointed and erratic the pacing and topics could be, and felt empty. For example, his mother and grandmother both have (it seems completely untreated) PTSD that pops up several times in parts one and two, then disappears (more or less) as if they never had those issues and visions.
I’m glad I read it for its beautiful language at parts and it’s perspective, but I didn’t like the style and flow. It just wasn’t for me, despite a lot of the contents being interesting.
TW: Death, Drug Abuse, Drug Use, Underage Sex, Abuse, Racism, Graphic Animal Death/Abuse
The writing is absolutely beautiful and poetic. Striking language is used and really deep themes are explored. Among the themes explored are: race, being gay, drug use and abuse, mental health, death, love. The perspective is equally interesting and nuanced.
However, I had significant issues with the overall writing style. The “pop culture” references were a lot of the time out of nowhere and fell flat for me. I call them “pop culture” in quotations because they are really more references to people and things we all know of in some way, like Tiger Woods. But there are also references and commonly known research into the despicable practices of pharmaceutical companies in marketing and pushing opioids. These factual tidbits fell flat. They seemed out of place even though they were concerned with the story being told.
The book is written as a letter from son to mother. I just don’t see telling my mother stories she told me and events she and I lived through in an extended letter. Nor do I really see ever telling my mother about my first boyfriend or the first time I had sex with a guy or since then. But the author does do that, though he admits his mother will likely never read this.
Parts one and two were good and kept my interest - though the more experimental and poetic stanza-type sections in part two felt gimmicky and didn’t fit or work for me. Part three is where I lost interest and grew impatient with the style and the story. It felt as though the story stalled.
My biggest issue, which is incorporated in the above issues, is that the story being told had no real plot, no real character study with how disjointed and erratic the pacing and topics could be, and felt empty. For example, his mother and grandmother both have (it seems completely untreated) PTSD that pops up several times in parts one and two, then disappears (more or less) as if they never had those issues and visions.
I’m glad I read it for its beautiful language at parts and it’s perspective, but I didn’t like the style and flow. It just wasn’t for me, despite a lot of the contents being interesting.
TW: Death, Drug Abuse, Drug Use, Underage Sex, Abuse, Racism, Graphic Animal Death/Abuse
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis