On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
"If you have read Vuong before, you know what you're getting yourself into—something that is deeply gorgeous, unsettling, and breathtaking. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous takes the shape of a letter from the main character, Little Dog, to his illiterate mother. Grappling with themes of sexuality, violence, generational trauma, and pain, this piece of autobiographical fiction transforms the reader from 'reader' to 'witness'. Reading Vuong is like going to an art museum, standing in front of a painting you just can't stand to leave, and then thinking about it all night. I read this book three months ago and I still think about it." - Recommended by Jess
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.