On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous – Ocean Vuong

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

‣ so poetic wow

‣ queer lit, immigrant parents, drug use, trauma, war

​

"When does a war end? When can I say your name and have it mean only your name and not what you left behind?"

​

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a short, powerful novel, written as a letter to the narrator’s mother. The letter, which will probably remain unread by the mother, contains multitudes in its pages. Author and poet Ocean Vuong writes about Little Dog (our narrator) the way one lives life – with no warnings, sometimes growing, sometimes fumbling, with fear, sadness, the rush of victory, and more than anything, the somber wisdom that comes with living . He hits on important themes with honesty, boldly exposing the power and weight of truth. 

In starting this novel, I tried to relate Little Dog’s relationship with his mom to other generally “complex” relationships characters have with their mothers. Ocean goes beyond that. He dives headfirst into trauma, both the kind our parents carry into our lives and the kind we experience as a result. Intergenerational traumas, immigration, war, the opioid epidemic, our burgeoning sexualities – Ocean is an author that knows how to hit home.

He captures so much emotion in his words. His narrator, Little Dog, claims that words host their own abilities, mentioning his own desire to be a word, in order to communicate, freely and fearlessly, with his mother. He discusses his nameless relationship with another man, and captures the balancing act of loving someone else and learning to love yourself.

This novel took me a while to read; the poetry driven narrative and often heavy subject matter made it a slow one for me. It impacted me the way slow, beautiful reads often do: deeply and permanently. I’d love the opportunity to hear Ocean speaking on his work and will be searching him on YouTube all night.