On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Author(s): Ocean Vuong

Fiction

Poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling 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. 

An instant New York Times Bestseller! 

Named one of the most anticipated books of 2019 by Vulture, Entertainment Weekly, Buzzfeed, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Oprah.com, Huffington Post, The A.V. Club, Nylon, The Week, The Rumpus, The Millions, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and more. 

"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 

Review by Fantine;


'Little dog, a man in his twenties, writes a letter to his mother Rose which she will never read. Over three parts this work of autofiction takes us through Little dog’s turbulent childhood, the lasting effect of the war on his Vietnamese mother and grandmother, and another war raging across rural America - youth vs amphetamines. This was an absolutely stunning work of autofiction that melded prose and poetry as Vuong explores intergenerational trauma, queer identity and the importance of words, to communicate, express and explore.'


- Fantine, Bookseller at Collins Moonee Ponds


Product Information

   

   

   

General Fields

  • : 9781529110685
  • : Random House UK
  • : VINTAGE ARROW - MASS MARKET
  • : 0.181
  • : June 2020
  • : ---length:- '19.8'width:- '12.9'units:- Centimeters
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Ocean Vuong
  • : Paperback
  • : English
  • : 256
  • : FA