On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

By Ocean Vuong

Book Overview

A New York Times bestseller - Nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction - Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling

New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

"A lyrical work of self-discovery that's shockingly intimate and insistently universal...Not so much briefly gorgeous as permanently stunning." --Ron Charles, The Washington Post

"This is one of the best novels I've ever read...Ocean Vuong is a master. This book a masterpiece."--Tommy Orange, author of There There and Wandering Stars

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.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.

Named a Best Book of the Year by:
GQ, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Library Journal, TIME, Esquire, The Washington Post, Apple, Good Housekeeping, The New Yorker, The New York Public Library, Elle.com, The Guardian, The A.V. Club, NPR, Lithub, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, Mother Jones, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, and more

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525562044
• ISBN13: 9780525562047
• Release Date: June 2021
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Wow.

I have never been so moved by a book before. Even reading this months ago I still think about it. Due to the nature of the topics, I think this would best suit older grades levels.

Survival

Layers of past and present are interleaved to create glimpses of backstory fanned out like a hand of cards. Cruelty, oppression, discovery, grandmother, mother, boy, and friend are poetically and candidly revealed.

Stunning meditation on love, pain and the duality of people.

This book is my favorite book and has inspired me as a person and a writer. Ocean Vuong's style of writing is enthralling and intellectual and makes you question the simplicity of the metaphor and the meaning of life all at once. It's simply a must read. How deep and delicate you feel when reading is incomparable. The story itself covers a broad range of ideas and topics but doesn't feel convoluted or overdone, but more true to what the chaos of life is. A wonderful story on the struggle of being an american immigrant, and queer man, and remembering the relationship between mother and son. I cannot recommend this book more.