Ancestry, Addiction, and the American Dream: A Review of "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" by Ocean Vuong

Sometimes you pick up a book that is so deep, beautiful, and layered in meaning, the words, without saying, ask you to put them down for a moment, just to be sure you're ready for them. Ocean Vuong's debut novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous demands us to feel. It isn't just Vuong's story, or the format of his novel in the shape of a letter to his mother who cannot read, that makes On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous impactful, though. Vuong's craft is so stunning, thought-provoking, and intentional that you cannot help but be suffocated by his words; in that mesmerizing asphyxiation is where we meet his narrator, Little Dog, and in his story, we are reminded of pieces of ourselves, or maybe a loved one, or perhaps the fragments of someone we might once have known. Ocean Vuong doesn't flinch and in doing so connects dots over decades to tell a story that is not just Little Dog's, but so much of North America's.

When I first picked up On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, I was completely enthralled. I brought it with me when I left the house and wrote quotations I loved on scraps of paper to put in my reading journal. There were so many, I kept interrupting the story with the need to relish in it and draw out every word, needing a moment to fully digest each phrase and their double, triple meanings. Vuong's story continues to accelerate until there is no time to languish in the words though, only their purpose. By then, I was deep in Little Dog's story of his childhood, his mother and grandmother's histories, and of their lives in both Saigon and America. Then, on page 94, it came: a breath.

The first hundred pages of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous were the hardest for me to get through simply because of how emotional, tense, and strikingly Vuong crafts it for us. In fact, I ended up putting this book down for a month just to get my bearings and process the first forty pages. When I came back to Little Dog's story, I was better prepared for the weight of it. From there, I dove into the next fifty-four pages, finding it harder and harder to breathe on Little Dog, Rose, and Lan's behalves. I was worried Little Dog's story was going to mirror that of the protagonist in A Little Life and braced myself for the worst outcomes. The second part of Little Dog's story, however, opens up, and we begin to breathe again as we witness him discover himself, his agency, and love.

Here, in Vuong's second part of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, we read about how Little Dog grapples with his first relationship, masculinity, and the exploration of his sexuality. Through these milestones, Vuong also tells us a story of generational trauma, poverty, addiction, the American Dream, and those who get trampled by it.

In Vuong's third and final part of his novel, he brings these two life-chapters of Little Dog's journey together, showing that one cannot exist without the other. The heartbreak and the beauty, the pain and the pleasure, the son, his mother, and her mother, addiction and relief, the struggle and the monarch butterfly, struggle and the American Dream.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a breath-taking bildungsroman that spans across decades and continents, reminding us just how connected we truly are, despite our individual backgrounds and struggles. Pain, beauty, love, and the brevity of our very existence unite us, and the desire for more when it comes to those we love.

My Score: 5/5

Little Dog's story is exceptional, and the way Vuong tells it is inspiring. Every component of this novel is thought out and carefully pieced together. Even the idea of Little Dog's story being told as a letter to a mother who cannot read it, adds an extra layer to the story's tension and meaning; in this letter, is Little Dog's story, addressed to a recipient who can see, touch, hold the paper it is written on, but who can never fully understand it. That alone carries a kind of tragic symbolism that maintains its weight throughout the novel and permeates Little Dog's story. Vuong's craft is like nothing I've ever read. I highly recommend this book!

Age Rating: 18+

Mature subject matter, drugs, addiction, sex.

Have you read On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous? Tell me what you thought in the comments below!