I read On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Hello everybody, and welcome back to my blog.
Today, I want to share one of the most beautiful books I have ever read and advance a little more on the story of my reading journey.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I read Identity by Milan Kundera and Choke by Chuck Palahniuk; I am looking into reading authors that I am familiar with and have already read before. The idea was that going through previously known writers would be a way to make sure I would finish the book. However, the reason I chose to read this one was a little different.
In my first post on this blog, My Journey as a Reader, I mentioned how finding the BookTube and Indie Writer’s community on YouTube, both filled with so many people passionate about reading, did make me feel like literature, and the love for books was still something fresh and alive. That is a different perspective from the one I got studying literature at the university. We constantly discussed how we have fewer readers and people interested in books as time passes.
Maybe the significant shift of perspective came with the language shift as well. I studied in Brazil, a degree in my mother language, Portuguese. We would think about literature from a national perspective, Brazilian Literature, Portuguese Literature, and African Literature written in the Portuguese language.
Leaving Brazil in 2019 and reallocating to Canada set things in a way where my only option was now reading in English. I was already comfortable with reading in English before, but I never had this as the only option, and I was never thinking of books, reading, and writing from a more globalized perspective.
I am absolutely in love with the Portuguese language, my mother tongue; however, one cannot deny how easier it is to find specific types of content in English. Especially when it comes to sharing content, it makes it easier for someone who has a different life and universe, living in other countries, to be in touch with me. It feels global.
So all those BookTubers, young readers, and people talking passionately about books made me come up with this blog, with this plan to read as a lifetime goal, with this absolute passion for books that once again grows inside my being.
A BookTuber I fell in love with is Jack Edwards; he is a fantastic reader, his opinions and topics that he raises about the books he reads are incredible, and most amazingly, he reads A LOT. I watched one of Jack’s videos reviewing some books he had read, and he mentioned On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. He said that the first time he heard of the author was on a podcast called On Being, where Ocean was giving an interview and mentioned how touching that interview was.
The book title just moved me so much, and I could not hesitate to look for more information about the author. I bought his book on Amazon, and as I waited for it to be delivered, all I could do was find whatever I could find about Ocean Vuong on the internet. What touched me was the way he spoke and how cute he was.
I listened to his interview on On Being; Ocean Vuong is so gentle with his words and careful with what he speaks about every time he appears. He always seems to say things he has reflected upon for a long time. How much he reflects on language and how language works are also fascinating. While listening to him speak, I laughed and cried harder and more times than I am fine to admit. After that interview, I already knew that I would face a fantastic book right after.
The book did not disappoint. It tells the coming of age story of Little Dog, the son of an American soldier, born from a Vietnamese mother during the Vietnam War. From an American perspective, I can see how much having someone who experienced such an iconic war in American history can be appealing. But as someone who is not American, not born amidst the logic of war, I found so many other exciting things to connect me to this book.
Ocean Vuong is a poet mostly known for his collection of poems, Night Sky With Exit Wounds (2016). His book On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (2019) is the first work of prose written by the author. While reading the book, you can feel how much attention Vuong gives to language and how careful he is when choosing his words.
Ocean Vuong is such a sensitive writer, his story was so real and vivid, and it was easy to get immersed in the book's universe. Vuong's poetic background gave this narrative the most interesting tone; as he goes through the stories of his childhood and teenage years, it is just so easy to relive many scenes of our own lives.
Especially if you are the only son of a Mother like me, this book brings special meaning. As Ocean Vuong writes to a mother who cannot read, we begin to understand that it's not just the fact that the author wrote the book to a mother that could not read, but he was only able to write it because the mother could not read. That way, the narrator Little Dog could tell his story sincerely and honestly.
Writing this book was Vuong’s way to recognize the power of the stories he heard growing up and show how much these women that raised Little Dog were terrific storytellers, making him into what he has become, a writer.
The way he writes through painful moments of his life with such honesty and beauty. Ocean Vuong brings magic to a familiar story and shows how much, through language, we can expand our minds to infinite universes and possibilities of beauty.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous was a book of many firsts for me. It was the first book I read by an Asian-American writer, the first time I read about the perspective of an Asian gay man, and the first time I read such a rewarded book that was yet so original and sincere.
I recommend this book to absolutely everyone. I will be re-reading it for sure, as I have been returning to quotes and random pages of the book daily since I read it.
One last funny thing, once I finished reading On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, I hugged the book and honestly felt like hugging a person. Once I finished reading it, I felt so deeply connected with the book that hugging it was the only reasonable action to do with it.
That was it for today; I will see you guys again soon.
― On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
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