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A review by tobbled
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
4.0
I really struggled to rate this book. I considered 3 stars but it just didn’t fit. I’m not exactly sure that any rating will fit this.
I want to preface but saying that I loved this book, but the review might not sound like it. I’m a complete sucker for Vuong’s lyrical (and slightly pretentious) writing. I loved this. Did the writing feel somewhat ‘fake-deep’ at times? Yeah, definitely. At times the writing was original and thought-provoking and beautiful, at other times I’d read ‘laughter is trapped inside slaughter’ and want to put the book down.
I love the free-thinking, just thoughts on page aspect of the book. It’s the sort of writing that makes you want to read it in one sitting. And once again, most of the time it was beautiful. Just once in a while I felt like I was listening to shitty spoken word, or a GCSE drama performance.
My final issue with this book is one that I don’t really see mentioned in the negative reviews of the book. Anyone who bashes this book talks about the pretentiousness (despite praising any other author for that exact same pretentiousness). But my complaint is the sexual scenes and themes. It felt a lot like ‘Lie with Me’ (Phillipe Besson), which is a book I really did not enjoy. But I reckon if you like that book, you’ll enjoy this one. My issue with Besson’s work were the sexual scenes, and it was the exact same with this one. And before you say anything, I understand, I really do. I understand their significance and all of that, I just simply didn’t like them. The rest of the book is amazing, just not when he’s talking about hand fucking.
I think Vuong has a lovely and innovative voice - even if he does sound like a 13 year old on Tumblr at times.
I want to preface but saying that I loved this book, but the review might not sound like it. I’m a complete sucker for Vuong’s lyrical (and slightly pretentious) writing. I loved this. Did the writing feel somewhat ‘fake-deep’ at times? Yeah, definitely. At times the writing was original and thought-provoking and beautiful, at other times I’d read ‘laughter is trapped inside slaughter’ and want to put the book down.
I love the free-thinking, just thoughts on page aspect of the book. It’s the sort of writing that makes you want to read it in one sitting. And once again, most of the time it was beautiful. Just once in a while I felt like I was listening to shitty spoken word, or a GCSE drama performance.
My final issue with this book is one that I don’t really see mentioned in the negative reviews of the book. Anyone who bashes this book talks about the pretentiousness (despite praising any other author for that exact same pretentiousness). But my complaint is the sexual scenes and themes. It felt a lot like ‘Lie with Me’ (Phillipe Besson), which is a book I really did not enjoy. But I reckon if you like that book, you’ll enjoy this one. My issue with Besson’s work were the sexual scenes, and it was the exact same with this one. And before you say anything, I understand, I really do. I understand their significance and all of that, I just simply didn’t like them. The rest of the book is amazing, just not when he’s talking about hand fucking.
I think Vuong has a lovely and innovative voice - even if he does sound like a 13 year old on Tumblr at times.