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On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
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April 2025 - Fiction Group Read - On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (spoiler free thread)
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I look forward to reading this book. Alannah, I like how you have now included a little description of the book in the first post.
I too noticed that, thanks Alannah. Much appreciated.
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Started this book, i like the language and style but it is not an easy read, requires emotional investment.
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Nidhi wrote: “Started this book, i like the language and style but it is not an easy read, requires emotional investment.”I’ll say. I really love the writing, and at the same time, I can’t remember a more emotionally challenging book.
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Strange book, with interesting points, but not of an easy reading.
What do you think?
I am about 50 % done. The string of imagery reminds me of Toni Morrison. I am enjoying the writing very much.
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I like the way that Vuong portrays the mother too; despite the (view spoiler). He understands and accepts her for who she is, without romanticizing her at all. The characterization and especially the lyrical prose are exquisite!
It's fascinating his definition of "monster": a "hybrid signal," a signal that points in mutliple directions. He says monsters are both a "shelter" and a "warning," both nurturing and dangerous I guess. He compares his mother to a creature of mythology, to a Centaur . . . something human that yet also has something of the feral power of a beast. As a "freak" or "fairy," he says that he also identifies with that double-nature that his mother inhabits. He takes that insult of being considered a monster, and he turns it into something else. It's interesting that he wears his mother's dress. Both of them exist in multiple worlds, without feeling fully settled in any of those worlds. They are larger than their circumstances.
I love his way of seeing her and his way of seeing himself.
But Laura, I understand what you mean. I imagine that this would be a very difficult book to translate and also a quite difficult book to read in a second language. It definitely reads like poetry.
So much of what he says is expressed in metaphorical terms, like using the migration of the Monarchs to refer to the mother's migration (and to generations of immigrants in general). And he often mixes timelines and jumps from incident to incident without clear transitions. Even with English as my first language, I do find myself taking extra time with the text to savor it in the way I do with poetry.
I have a whole quarter page of notes written down, and I'm only 15 pages into the book!
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He understands and accepts her for who she is, without romanticizing her at all. The characterization and especially the lyrical prose are exquisite!
[...]
It's fascinating his definition of "monster": a "hybrid signal," a signal that points in mutliple directions. He says monsters are both a "shelter" and a "warning," both nurturing and dangerous I guess.
In this I TOTALLY agree: it's what I've noted down as remarkable!!!
And yes: the difficulty is from the language point of view; still I like challenges!!!
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It is, in my opinion a really complex book. Complex for its writing, its language; complex for its style. Complex for the hardness of the themes: immigration, addiction, addiction by medicinal drugs; war, PTSD from war and domestic violence, relationship with parents; gay relations.
It is also a book on guilt, guilt for having survived, survived the lover who got lost in drugs, survived his mother, grandmother because of his culture, his studies, survived the shame of being Vietnamese in USA...
What I've appreciated mostly is the poetry of the writing: sometimes is gorgeously beautiful!!!
Some examples:
Our hands empty except for our hands
I came to know, in those afternoons, that madness can sometimes lead to discovery, that the mind, fractured and short-wired, is not entirely wrong. The room filled and refilled with our voices as the snow fell from her head, the hardwood around my knees whitening as the past unfolded around us.
The boy ran away from home one night. He ran with no plans. In his backpack were a bag of Cheerios taken out the box, a pair of socks, and two Goosebumps paperbacks. Although he could not read chapter books yet, he knew how far a story could take him, and holding these books meant there were at least two more worlds he could eventually step into
In Vietnamese, the word for missing someone and remembering them is the same: nhớ. Sometimes, when you ask me over the phone, Con nhớ mẹ không? I flinch, thinking you meant, Do you remember me?
I miss you more than I remember you.
Raw, intimate, and beautifully written, this novel is a must-read for anyone who appreciates powerful storytelling and lyrical language.