On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Ratings423
Average rating4
The novel “On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous” by the author uses deep emotions and pain that bring tears to the eyes of readers. The author tells the story of Little Dog, a protagonist in the Vietnam War and his struggles as an immigrant in America, including his struggles with his sexuality. The unique aspect of the book is that everything is presented in the form of a letter written by Little Dog to his mother.
Few dialouge from the novel
As a rule, be more.
As a rule, I miss you.
As a rule, “little” is always smaller than “small.” Don't ask me why
I'm sorry I don't call enough.
Green Apple.
I'm sorry I keep saying How are you? when I really mean Are you
happy?
The first dialogue “As a rule, be more” can be interpreted as a general principle or guideline for living life to the fullest. It suggests that we should strive to do more, be more adventurous, take more risks, and live life to the fullest.
The second dialogue “As a rule, I miss you” expresses a sense of longing and affection for someone who is not present. It implies that the speaker thinks about the person frequently and feels a strong emotional connection with them.
The third dialogue “As a rule, ‘little' is always smaller than ‘small.' Don't ask me why” is a playful and somewhat humorous statement that highlights the subtle nuances of language and word meanings. It suggests that sometimes things may not always make logical sense, but they can still be true.
The fourth dialogue “I'm sorry I don't call enough” is a statement of remorse or regret for not keeping in touch with someone as much as the speaker would like to. It implies a desire to maintain a stronger connection with the person.
The fifth dialogue “Green Apple” is a non sequitur or an abrupt change of subject that can be interpreted as a playful or random statement, or perhaps a reference to something specific that the speaker and listener both understand.
The sixth and final dialogue “I'm sorry I keep saying How are you? when I really mean Are you happy?” is a statement of vulnerability and honesty. It suggests that the speaker may have been avoiding a deeper conversation or expressing their true feelings, and is now opening up and being more authentic with the listener.
I wanted so badly to love this book. I've seen rave reviews, I LOVE the title and cover, the synopsis sounded good. But I didn't love it. Honestly, it tried so hard to be beautiful and poignant and literary that it kind of became the opposite. It ended up being torturously slow and descriptive. In the end, I felt like I ~should~ be devastated or overwhelmed with emotion but I was just left lacking any feeling at all. It's like the author tried so hard to sound poetic and beautiful that they forgot there was supposed to be a plot. And it's disappointing because it's not like it's not beautiful writing. It is. It has the potential to be amazing, but unfortunately it was not. And I'm really sad about that. 2.5/5 stars.
i laughed i cried, a number of times, i sweat i danced i got shot i ate and i had many epiphanies
While this book is beautifully written, there was no clear sense of direction. The author kept switching focuses to frequently for me and that's why I did not enjoy it as much. However, it's still a solid read.
Probablemente la peor decepción de este año. Venía muy recomendado, las críticas son excelentes, pero no encontré absolutamente nada que me interpele o me den ganas de seguir leyendo. Lo abandono cerca del 60%, no me funciona nada de la narrativa ni la historia.
and thus my 4 star streak continues!
what can i saw that won't embarrass me and my writing in comparison to ocean vuong's beautiful lyrical prose. Absolutely (forever and not briefly) Gorgeous™️
i'm sure some things flew over my head, as my “blue-curtaining” capacities are not the best. But here's two of my favorite quotes from this book:
“l got what I wanted–a boy swimming toward me. Except I was no shore, Ma. I was driftwood trying to remember what l had broken from to get here.” - page 108
“A page, turning, is a wing lifted with no twin, and therefore no flight. And yet we are moved.” - page 190
Breathtaking. Even the acknowledgments were a joy to read!
I mean yeah maybe sometimes it was too abstract for my taste but that is ON ME and I really enjoyed my time nonetheless. Did not expect to learn so much about Tiger Woods.
I did not enjoy the beginning of this book. It felt unnecessarily slow and was tough to get through. Plus the flow felt choppy and there wasn't really a structure to the story for much of the beginning. This book is supposed to be a letter to his mother so of course in the beginning it's going to feel like more of a stream of consciousness that rambles rather a book, but I still felt like a lot of the long rambling felt barely connected to the main subject of the book and therefore was mostly uninteresting. I wasn't interested in these parts of the story and I felt like I had to force myself through them to get to the parts that were actually relevant to what I was reading.
Once I got closer to halfway through though the book picked up a lot better, there was more of a flow to the story, and it seemed to have an actual direction it was headed in. I then felt drawn in and became more invested in the story.
Overall a good book, very lyrical and I like the word choice and overall message of the story.
My partner read this book and raves about it, and I can see why after reading it. I was a bit lost in the beginning when talking about war and also during the middle where Ocean flaunted his artistic skills, but in all, the book was captivating and a good read. While I may not be the best person to appreciate in fullness the way Ocean writes, I understand why this book has won many awards and why people enjoy his prose so fully.
It's the end of the year, and still, I cant get Mr Vuong's words out of my mind.
I'm not really sure how to review this except to jokingly say that “poets should not write books” but I do think it gets a bit overly-invested in the HOW of every sentence rather than the overall WHAT it is trying to get across, and yes the individual sentences are quite good, but on the whole I didn't connect with the story and it made me feel kind of sad and anxious. A lot of the content is emotionally rough (animal cruelty, rape, cancer, death, parental abuse, homophobia, war). It's a deeply autobiographical novel so it feels Important and like I am supposed to be Learning Something from it about the immigrant experience and I don't know it just made me tired.
suffice to say i did not understand this book at all, and i think that's what makes it good. the fact that i did not understand it made it beautiful, more real. i felt like there were so many explorations of things, like race, loss, and to be queer. i loved the metaphors and the word play and the way that, to me, nothing made sense. i feel too dumb to comprehend this book and that makes it 10x better. i feel like the timeline was scattered, i never knew how old he was in the scene i was reading (if it was not specified) and everything was just there, splayed out onto the page, into a non-chronological mess of events. it was trevor this, then back to lan, and then to himself. it was all over the place and i think that sudden switch from scene to scene made things good. the book was harsh and sometimes said things literally, while other times not saying anything explicit at all. i wanna be able to write like this one day.
Una carta de un hijo a su mamá, un relato de todo lo no dicho, lo inconfesable, lo que tanto le gustaría compartir con ella. Una carta de amor incondicional que atraviesa el dolor, la violencia, las distancias. Un relato de la experiencia inmigrante, del descubrimiento de la sexualidad, un retrato sobre la búsqueda de identidad y pertenencia.
There were brief moments where I got lost in the prose, and found it like a beautiful dream. Moments. But mostly I found myself rolling my eyes. It's like if you gave a 16 year old a really good vocabulary and tasked him with writing literary fiction. I wanted to like it, but I just couldn't.
Definitely for keeping. This book is the kind that you need to sit with. There were times when I just had to pause and think on the words and write my own thoughts. There were times when he is able to articulate life in a way I haven't thought of that it just took me by surprise. I definitely took my time reading this book because I needed the words to sit with me. For me to turn a description in many ways and see what he sees. Reminds me of a pollock painting, you look at it as a whole and it's a complicated web and you look at each fragment of text closely and it's just as complicated and together, it makes for a beautiful read.
In its totality, this book is about vulnerability. By the very nature of how it was written, a son writing a letter to his mother who might never be able to read it, detailing his life, stories he could never communicate in the hopes of being able to share it to her someday. How he slowly accepts vulnerability as a part of his beauty and how the same fragility and its acceptance applies to our lives and how to see the beauty in it.
This is not a very plot driven book and if you read it expecting it will lay out answers for you, you will be disappointed. This is a book, that when read, will make you ask more questions to yourself.
Do not read this book expecting a linear plotline, that chapter one will make chapter 4 make sense somehow and all the dots will get connected and it will give you a grand conclusion. It's not that kind of book. Read this book like how you live in the present, not thinking about what came before and not anticipating what comes after and you will enjoy it for what it is.
Lyhyt maallinen loistomme on nuoren miehen kirje äidilleen. Tähän kirjeeseen lukutaidottomalle äidille nuori mies vuodattaa elämäänsä: lapsuutta, Vietnamista Yhdysvaltoihin muuttaneen suvun historiaa, isän poissaoloa, uuden elämän rakentamista ja sitä, miten perheen selviytymistaistelu on näyttäytynyt lapsen näkökulmasta.
Poika kertoo ensirakkaudestaan nuoreen amerikkalaismieheen, Trevoriin, seksistä ja päihteidenkäytöstä, niistä ahtaista puitteista, mitä elämä Hartfordissa vietnamilaistaustaiselle nuorelle tarjoaa. Köyhyys, syrjäytyneisyys, väkivalta ja rasismi värittävät elämää eri tavoin. Kirja kertoo, miten poika kasvaa mieheksi ja löytää itselleen paikan maailmassa kirjallisuuden kautta.
Kirja heijastelee Ocean Vuongin omaa elämää, siinä on omaelämäkerrallisia piirteitä, vaikka fiktiota onkin. Myös Vuong tuli Yhdysvaltoihin pakolaisena Vietnamista ja 11-vuotiaana lukemaan oppinut Vuong on perheensä ensimmäinen lukutaitoinen. Vuong on sittemmin saavuttanut menestystä runoilijana ja akateemisesti, ja on saanut muun muassa MacArthur Fellowshipin.
Kirjan kielestä näkyy kyllä, että sen on kirjoittanut runoilija. Tero Valkonen on tehnyt kelpo työtä suomentajana. Toisaalta teksti tuntuu paikka paikoin jopa vähän väkinäiseltä koreudessaan. Parhaimmillaan se on kuitenkin erinomaisen koskettava ja iskevä. Ei hullumpaa työtä, eikä mikään ihme, että suosiota on kertynyt.