On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Beautiful
Emotional
Honest

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Ocean Vuong2019
** The Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller ** Brilliant, heartbreaking and highly original, Ocean Vuong’s debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, and a testament to the redemptive power of storytelling. ‘A marvel’ MARLON JAMES This 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. It tells of Vietnam, of the lasting impact of war, and of his family’s struggle to forge a new future. And it serves as a doorway into parts of Little Dog’s life his mother has never known – episodes of bewilderment, fear and passion – all the while moving closer to an unforgettable revelation. ‘A masterpiece’ MAX PORTER ‘Luminous, shattering, urgent, necessary’ CELESTE NG ‘Deeply moving... Little Dog’s story is the story of modern America’ Daily Telegraph ‘Vuong has originality running through his veins’ The Times SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2020 FINALIST FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD 2020
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Reviews

Photo of BC Hark
BC Hark@vaporvisions
4.5 stars
Mar 4, 2025

This book was a true delight the language was supple, the story giving just enough, and the emotional twists and turns hit deep. The pieces of Vietnamese culture and history sprinkled throughout also give the story its own shadow to give the story depth and deeper meaning that goes further than just the protagonist, his mother, grandmother, grandfather, and boyfriend. Ocean really builds a narrative that is engaging — if not a little meandering — but it makes up for itself in the emotional highlights and the skillful use of language. It's as if you have entered into someone else's stream of consciousness and get to see it through their eyes. Truly a gem that keeps on giving.

+1
Photo of Katelyn Caillouet
Katelyn Caillouet@hellokatelyn
4 stars
Feb 21, 2025

Beautiful prose. Sad, sad, story. At times, a little too poetic for a novel. In fact, I'd say this is a novel for poets.

+9
Photo of Eris
Eris@gallowdancer
4 stars
Feb 5, 2025

Achingly beautiful, even in its most fleeting moments. One of the only books that has a last page that truly left me satiated. Although the writing felt like it was being stretched to its limits at times, Vuong’s beautiful prose can’t be denied.

+3
Photo of vera ౨ৎ
vera ౨ৎ@loveached
4.5 stars
Jan 4, 2025

so beautiful but so heart shattering...

Photo of Anna
Anna@annazc
4 stars
Dec 22, 2024

This book contains a beautiful story outlining generational trauma, finding oneself, and racism. The hardships of Little Dog were poetic and artistically written resulting in an eye opening experience for the reader. I found that I wasnt the biggest fan of the more poetic sections as they were slightly confusing at times as to the where, what, and when, but overall this novel was short and sweet.

+6
Photo of 🍁
🍁@nausseam
5 stars
Nov 14, 2024

"Because the sunset, like survival, exists only on the verge of its own disappearing. To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted."

Most beautiful book I've ever read. I miss this book more than I remember it.

Photo of Shufei
Shufei@shufs
4 stars
Sep 18, 2024

my pyrrhic victory involves successfully blinking back tears multiple times after deciding to read this book in public.

Photo of Alma
Alma@burningjellies
5 stars
Sep 17, 2024

i would like to write my parents esp. mamah a book too. as if im too coward to show my affection. but pls.. Ma.. Pa.. be my parents again someday.

+3
Photo of Patricia K
Patricia K@thepoemzone

didn’t enjoy this as much as i thought i would… the barthes example-observation influence doesn’t really flow well with ocean vuong’s prose style - it just ends up being corny. no strong sense of character which makes me less engaged. its very sad and beautifully written though

borrowed, lerry’s copy

Photo of N
N@poemforher
4 stars
Sep 8, 2024

Vuong's writing is so damn beautiful, i've never found any books as beautiful as this. but i honestly expected more from this book. no matter how hard i tried to engage with the plot, i just couldn't.. it's like all the efforts was for the writing instead of getting the reader to immerse into the storyline. but i still recommend this book, it just took time for me to finally understand the plot

+3
Photo of py
py@gojoscutegf
5 stars
Sep 6, 2024

the juxtaposition of being seen and seeing. but after all, that’s what it means to be human

+1
Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence
5 stars
Sep 3, 2024

devastatingly beautiful

Photo of Emma Younger
Emma Younger@emmarain
5 stars
Sep 2, 2024

REREAD

+3
Photo of micki
micki@micki
4.5 stars
Aug 25, 2024

gorgeous book that makes me appreciate life even more and the people around me

+1
Photo of Anya Tindale
Anya Tindale@anyatindale
5 stars
Jul 24, 2024

It was not a simple read; Vuong writes how one might recollect. The use of a concept of a son writing to a mother who will never read what he says, communicates to the reader the very weight of what he feels and cannot voice. It describes how he has attempted to understand himself and be understood beyond language - and this he discovers is through the eyes, that is to say through light. This idea of colour is symbiotic to the temporary nature of life and the temporary existence of what we can see, making it, briefly, gorgeous. Vuong's writing stings with poignancy, but it was this quote, Daphne, that made me hurt because I thought of you reading the same words and feeling that you knew what he meant.

'And maybe that's all I wanted - to be asked a question and have it cover me, like a roof the width of myself.'

+1
Photo of Ada
Ada@adasel
3 stars
Jul 16, 2024

3.5

Photo of Ghofran Mustafa
Ghofran Mustafa @ghfooo
4 stars
Jul 14, 2024

It was profoundly SAD yet undeniably beautiful.. After finishing this one, I felt like I need to write something.. anything..to my mother. What a beautiful book. An extended letter from a son to his mother..about war, migration, family, love...and so much more. I get why some ppl loved it and some didn't. I didn't have a physical copy so I thought I should get an audioable one. the narrator voice was like a dream, I really enjoyed it "in a sad way" and it was so poetic. A tough read at times, but a rewarding one.

Photo of rin 🐇
rin 🐇@chahakyn
5 stars
Jul 8, 2024

dark and hard and heavy and yet so, so bright. the kind of writing that makes life worth imagining, worth wanting, worth living.

Photo of Patrick Book
Patrick Book@patrickb
4 stars
Jul 5, 2024

3.75* I would say. It’s terrific and vulnerable and heartbreaking and powerful, but epistolary narratives just rub me the wrong way.

Photo of Mina
Mina@minabookworm
3 stars
Jul 5, 2024

The story structure bothered me but the book is beautifully written. Some passages accurately captured the diaspora from a war zone experience - e.g. “when does a war end? when I say your name and it mean only your name and not what you left behind.”

Photo of Gelaine Trinidad
Gelaine Trinidad@gelaine
4 stars
Jul 5, 2024

3.5/5

Photo of stefano
stefano@nowaystefano
4 stars
Jun 19, 2024

i haven’t read a book i was captivated by in a bit, this had so much substance

+2
Photo of raia – inactive
raia – inactive@raieuh
4 stars
Jun 15, 2024

despite its complex and flowery writing, i devoured this book in less than 3 hours. i immediately established a connection with it after the first few pages, and the narrator's character settled deep within my mind, and i understood. he was just a little boy who wanted love.


what i think would make this book a better read would be the balance of both telling and feeling. at some parts, telling overpowers the other (then it gets pretty bland for me) and vice versa. overall, this would be a great emotional read for people who have eyes for epistolary writing.

Photo of Anjorin Molayo
Anjorin Molayo @bookishtems
5 stars
Jun 1, 2024

I’m not sure how to feel about this book, or what to even write. It is gorgeous, troubling, clever, sometimes contrived; all leaving a unique and haunting experience. I feel empty inside now that i finished reading. i wanted it to go on and on. like it’s just so beautiful. this story captures a specific young person’s experience with family, culture, sexuality, class, education, the legacy of the Vietnam War, and more but, for me, it felt deeply personal to my own experiences. it was palpably painful. when i started reading, i checked to see if this was a memoir because the details were so stark and specific. the novel isn’t quite stream of consciousness but there is a seamless-ness as he winds through the years and across continents that is enchanting, even absorbing. Ocean Vuong is so talented, and this book is hard and worth your time.

Highlights

Photo of a. 💫
a. 💫@oonbim

Trevor had passed away the night before. “I'm broken in two“, the message said. In two, it was the only thought I could keep, sitting in my seat, how losing a person could make more of us, the living, make us two.

Page 167
Photo of a. 💫
a. 💫@oonbim

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.

Page 23
Photo of Eris
Eris@gallowdancer

We sidestep ourselves in order to move forward.

Photo of Alma
Alma@burningjellies

Maybe then, in that life and in this future, you'll find this book and you'll know what happened to us. And you'll remember me. Maybe.

Page 240

MEMANGIS GUE MENANGIS YA ALLAH

Photo of Alma
Alma@burningjellies

To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.

Page 238
Photo of N
N@poemforher

Because the sunset, like survival, exists only on the verge of its own disappearing. To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.

Page 238
Photo of elen
elen@wanl1o

When does a war end? When can I say your name and have it mean only your name and not what you left behind?

Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence

To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.

Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence

I am thinking of beauty again, how some things are hunted because we have deemed them beautiful. If, relative to the history of our planet, an individual life is so short, a blink of an eye, as they say, then to be gorgeous, even from the day you're born to the day you die, is to be gorgeous only briefly.

Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence

To stay tender, the weight of your life cannot lean on your bones. We love eatin’ what’s soft, his father said.

Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence

Sometimes being offered tenderness feels like the very proof that you've been ruined.

Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence

What do you call the animal that, finding the hunter, offers itself to be eaten? A martyr? A weakling? No, a beast gaining the rare agency to stop.

Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence

… Because I am your son, what I know of work I know equally of loss. And what I know of both I know of your hands.

Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence

To love something, then, is to name it after something so worthless it might be left untouched-and alive. A name, thin as air, can also be a shield.

Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence

Ever since I could remember, she flickered before me, dipping in and out of sense. Which was why, studying her now, tranquil in the afternoon light, was like looking back in time.

Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence

What do we mean when we say survivor? Maybe a survivor is the last one to come home, the final monarch that lands on a branch already weighted with ghosts.

Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence

When does a war end? When can I say your name and have it mean only your name and not what you left behind?

Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence

I am writing you from inside a body that used to be yours. Which is to say, I am writing as a son.

Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence

To bake a cake in the eye of a storm; to feed yourself sugar on the cusp of danger.

Photo of Essence
Essence@iridessence

Because freedom, I am told, is nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey.

Photo of felicity hu
felicity hu@feli77

In two, it was the only thought I could keep, sitting in my seat, how losing a person could make more of us, the living, make us two.

Photo of Macy HB
Macy HB@macyhb

They say if you want something bad enough you’ll end up making a god out of it.

Page 238
Photo of Macy HB
Macy HB@macyhb

Let me stay here until the end, I said to the Lord, and we’ll call it even. Let me tie my shadow to your feet and call it friendship, I said to myself.

Page 183
Photo of Macy HB
Macy HB@macyhb

They say nothing lasts forever but they’re just scared it will last longer than they can love it.

Page 176

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