On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Last updated

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (Vuong novel).png
First edition cover
Author Ocean Vuong
Audio read byOcean Vuong
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Penguin Press
Publication date
June 4, 2019
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages256
ISBN 978-0-525-56202-3
813/.6
LC Class PS3622.U96 O52 2019

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is the debut novel by Vietnamese American poet Ocean Vuong, published by Penguin Press on June 4, 2019. [1] An epistolary novel, it is written in the form of a letter from a Vietnamese American son to his illiterate mother. It was a finalist for the 2020 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction [2] and was longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction. [3]

Contents

Plot

The novel is written in the form of a letter by a young Vietnamese American nicknamed Little Dog, whose life mirrors that of Ocean Vuong. The letter is written to Little Dog's mother Hong, more often called or translated as Rose (hồng). The novel has a nonlinear narrative structure. [4]

The novel also recounts the life of Little Dog's grandmother, Lan, who escapes an arranged marriage during the Vietnam War and becomes a prostitute. She's four months pregnant when she meets a white American soldier. They marry and she gives birth to a child, Rose. Later, when Rose is Little Dog's mother, she is barely literate, having left school at the age of five when her schoolhouse in Vietnam collapsed during an American napalm raid. She suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder as a result. Rose marries an abusive man but eventually separates from him.

Working in a nail salon, she struggles as a single parent living in Hartford, Connecticut with her son and her mother Lan. Living in America as refugees, the three can barely speak English. Little Dog, who is gay, is abused by his mother throughout his childhood. Halfway through the novel, Little Dog meets a young white man named Trevor while working on a tobacco farm one summer, and the two begin a romantic relationship. Trevor eventually becomes addicted to opioids and later overdoses and dies. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Reception

Critical response

According to Book Marks, the book "positive" reviews based on 41 reviews: 22 "rave" reviews, 14 "positive" reviews, and five "mixed" reviews. [11] In Books in the Media, a site that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a rating of 3.92 out of 5 from the site which was based on ten critic reviews. [12] In the September/October 2019 issue of Bookmarks , a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a rating of 4.0 out of 5 based on critic reviews with a critical summary saying, "Ultimately, however, Vuong successfully pushes the boundaries of the novel, creating "a riot of feeling and sensation" (USA Today)". [13] [14] [15]

The novel debuted at number six on The New York Times Hardcover Fiction best-sellers list for the week ending June 8, 2019. [16] It spent six weeks on the list. [17]

Kirkus Reviews , in a rave review, wrote, "The result is an uncategorizable hybrid of what reads like memoir, bildungsroman, and book-length poem. More important than labels, though, is the novel's earnest and open-hearted belief in the necessity of stories and language for our survival. A raw and incandescently written foray into fiction by one of our most gifted poets." [18] Ron Charles of The Washington Post praised the novel, calling it "permanently stunning". [19] In his review for Time , Vietnamese-American novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen wrote, "Vuong refuses to be embarrassed. He transforms the emotional, the visceral, the individual into the political in an unforgettable–indeed, gorgeous–novel, a book that seeks to affect its readers as profoundly as Little Dog is affected". [20] Writing for the Los Angeles Times , Steph Cha called the novel "a book of sustained beauty and lyricism, earnest and relentless, a series of high notes that trembles exquisitely almost without break." [21] Writing in The New Yorker, Jia Tolentino sees the "structural hallmarks of Vuong's poetry—his skill with elision, juxtaposition, and sequencing" in the novel. [22] Heller McAlpin, writing for NPR, said that "Vuong's language soars as he writes of beauty, survival, and freedom". [23] E. M. Tran, in the Harvard Review , found the novel's genre difficult to categorize but saw genre as beside the point, as "This writer puts into his letters all of his hurt, happiness, and self-discovery—and in giving a name to those memories and experiences, he brings them into being." [24]

Dwight Garner of The New York Times gave the novel a mixed review, writing, "Vuong's writing about nail salons, and the way mothers raised their children in them, is moving and rarely less than excellent. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is, at the same time, filled with showy, affected writing, with forced catharses and swollen quasi-profundities. There are enough of these that this novel's keel can lodge in the mud." [25] Tessa Hadley, in The Guardian , found the subject matter moving but stated that "the flow of the story is freighted with too much of a different kind of writing: an explicit commentary on the meaning of what's happening, or a sort of choric lyrical lamenting between scenes." [26]

Accolades

Organization [lower-alpha 1] Year [lower-alpha 2] AwardResultRef.
American Library Association 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals Longlisted [27]
Stonewall Book Award for LiteratureHonored [28]
Aspen Words2020 Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlisted [29]
Before Columbus Foundation 2020 American Book Awards Won [30]
Bibliotekets litteraturpris2022Literature for AdultsNominated [31]
Brooklyn Public Library 2020Literary Prize for Fiction/PoetryWon [32]
Connecticut Book Awards2020FictionWon [33]
Digital Book World2019Book (Fiction)Won [34]
Dublin City Libraries 2021 International Dublin Literary Award Finalist [lower-alpha 3] [35]
Dylan Thomas Prize 2020 Dylan Thomas Prize Finalist [lower-alpha 3] [36]
Goodreads Choice Awards 2019Debut NovelNominated [37]
FictionNominated
Kirkus Reviews 2019 Kirkus Prize for FictionFinalist [38]
Lambda Literary Society 2020 Gay Fiction Finalist [39]
Mark Twain House 2020Mark Twain American Voice in LiteratureWon [40]
Massachusetts Center for the Book 2020FictionWon [41]
National Book Foundation 2019 Fiction Longlisted [42]
New England Independent Booksellers Association 2019FictionWon [43]
PEN America 2020 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel Longlisted [44]
PEN/Faulkner Foundation 2020 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Finalist [45]
Publishing Triangle 2020 Ferro-Grumley Award Won [46]
The Center for Fiction 2019 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Finalist [lower-alpha 3] [47]

Listicles

Most Anticipated Books

PublisherYearCategoryRef.
Buzzfeed News 201966 Books Coming in 2019 That You'll Want to Keep on Your Radar [48]
Entertainment Weekly 2018The 50 Most Anticipated Books of 2019 [49]
HuffPost 201961 Books We're Looking Forward to Reading in 2019 [50]
Literary Hub 2018Most Anticipated Books of 2019 [51]
Los Angeles Times 201911 Authors to Watch in 2019 [52]
Nylon 201950 Best Books To Read In 2019 [53]
Powell's Books 2019We Can't Wait: The Best Reads of 2019 [54]
The A.V. Club 2019The 15 Most Anticipated Books of 2019 [55]
The Boston Globe 2019Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2019 [56]
The Guardian 20192019 in Books: What You'll Be Reading This Year [57]
The Millions 2019Most Anticipated: The Great First-Half 2019 Book Preview [58]
The Rumpus 2018What to Read in 2019 [59]
The Week 201915 Books to Read in 2019 [60]
Vulture 201937 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2019 [61]

Year-End Lists

PublisherYearCategoryRef.
Amazon 2019 Best Books of the Year [62]
Boston.com 201918 Best Books of 2019 [63]
Buzzfeed News 2019Best Books Of 2019 [64]
CBC.ca 2019The Best International Fiction of 2019 [65]
Chicago Public Library 2019Best Books of 2019: Top Ten [66]
Elle 2019The 28 Best Books of 2019 [67]
Entertainment Weekly 2019The 10 Best Books of 2019 [68]
The 10 Best Debut Novels of 2019 [69]
Esquire 2019The Best Books of 2019 [70]
Good Housekeeping 201960 Best Books of 2019 [71]
GQ 2019The Best Books of 2019 [72]
Kirkus Reviews 2019Best Fiction Books of the Year [73]
Best Debut Fiction of 2019 [74]
Library Journal 2019Best Books 2019 – Literary Fiction [75]
Literary Hub 201950 Favorite Books of the Year [76]
The Ultimate Best Books of 2019 List [77]
Los Angeles Times 2019Best Books of 2019 [78]
Mother Jones 2019What We Read in 2019 [79]
New York Public Library 2019Best Books of 2019 [80]
NPR 2019Maureen Corrigan's Favorite Books Of 2019 [81]
NPR : Books We Love [82]
Paste 2019The 19 Best Novels of 2019 [83]
Penguin Random House 2019Best Books of 2019 [84]
PopMatters 2019The Best Books of 2019: Fiction [85]
Powell's Books 2019Staff Top Fives 2019 [86]
San Francisco Chronicle 2019These Are the Books That Stayed With Us in 2019 [87]
The Dallas Morning News 2019The Best Books of 2019 [88]
The Guardian 2019Best books of 2019 – Fiction [89]
The Best Books of 2019 – Picked by the Year’s Best Writers [90]
The Harvard Crimson 2019Top 10 Books of 2019 [91]
The New Yorker 2019The Best Books of 2019 [92]
The Sydney Morning Herald 2019The Books We Loved in 2019 [93]
The Washington Post 2019Best Books of 2019 [94]
Thrillist 2020The 51 Best Books of 2019 [95]
Time 2019The 100 Must-Read Books of 2019 [96]
The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2019 [97]
Vanity Fair 2019The Best Books of 2019 [98]
Variety 2019The Best Books of 2019 [99]
Vogue 201910 Authors on The Best Books They Read This Year [100]

Adaptation

A film adaptation of the novel by A24 was announced on the December 21, 2020, episode of The A24 Podcast. [101] Bing Liu, director of Oscar-nominated documentary Minding the Gap , is attached to adapt the novel to screen. [102]

Notes

  1. Awards, festivals, honors and other miscellaneous organizations are listed in alphabetical order.
  2. Indicates the year of ceremony.
  3. 1 2 3 This is also the final list before announcing the winners.

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