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A review by mh_doma
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.0
An emotionally demanding read steeped in beautiful language that at times really affected me and other times frustrated me. I have mixed feelings about Vuong as a writer now having read his novel and both his poetry collections. I was moved by many sections of the novel and thought the first few chapters and crucial metaphors were especially strong. But after a certain point, I found it somewhat draining to keep reading, as each trauma became followed by another with little reprieve.
To me, this felt as though it was a central thesis of the novel:“Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence—but that violence, having passed through the fruit, failed to spoil it.” This is an undoubtedly excellent line that indicates wanting to focus on the beautiful and the good over the violence and the trauma.
And yet, I was unconvinced. Was what Vuong illustrated in many of the scenes beauty divorced from violence and trauma? Or was it a romanticization of the trauma that occurred in order to cope with it? How exactly are we defining beauty here? Every aspect of this novel is filled with beautiful language, to the point that for me, it at times detracted from the core message and made me feel as though everything was beautified including the trauma and the violence. We are shown how complicated many of the relationships in the novel are and the characters involved are undoubtedly humanized. However, the core issues in these relationships—abuse, intergenerational trauma, addiction—are never fully addressed. There is, again, something humanizing about people who mistreat you also having the capacity to be beautiful and simple and even kind. But in the portrayals of other characters and narrator’s relationships with them in this novel, because the core issues and wounds are never broached in these relationships, leaning into beauty in these instances evoked a romanticized feeling that was not unpacked. For the most part, it is beauty that is found /in/ the trauma and violence and its complexities and aftereffects rather than /despite/ it, which appears to contradict the intended message.
There were certain language and metaphors that were used that also sounded beautiful but seemed to lack underlying meaning, even as I reread them several times to understand what was trying to be said. Because of this, I feel as though “artistry” was valued over true vulnerability at times, which also affected my reading of this novel.
I really wanted to enjoy this novel more than I did, and I definitely had moments where I was affected or moved. I am certainly glad I read it because I had been wondering about it for some time now. Unfortunately, it just turned out to not really land for me in its entirety.
To me, this felt as though it was a central thesis of the novel:
And yet, I was unconvinced. Was what Vuong illustrated in many of the scenes beauty divorced from violence and trauma? Or was it a romanticization of the trauma that occurred in order to cope with it? How exactly are we defining beauty here? Every aspect of this novel is filled with beautiful language, to the point that for me, it at times detracted from the core message and made me feel as though everything was beautified including the trauma and the violence. We are shown how complicated many of the relationships in the novel are and the characters involved are undoubtedly humanized. However, the core issues in these relationships—abuse, intergenerational trauma, addiction—are never fully addressed. There is, again, something humanizing about people who mistreat you also having the capacity to be beautiful and simple and even kind. But in the portrayals of other characters and narrator’s relationships with them in this novel, because the core issues and wounds are never broached in these relationships, leaning into beauty in these instances evoked a romanticized feeling that was not unpacked. For the most part, it is beauty that is found /in/ the trauma and violence and its complexities and aftereffects rather than /despite/ it, which appears to contradict the intended message.
There were certain language and metaphors that were used that also sounded beautiful but seemed to lack underlying meaning, even as I reread them several times to understand what was trying to be said. Because of this, I feel as though “artistry” was valued over true vulnerability at times, which also affected my reading of this novel.
I really wanted to enjoy this novel more than I did, and I definitely had moments where I was affected or moved. I am certainly glad I read it because I had been wondering about it for some time now. Unfortunately, it just turned out to not really land for me in its entirety.