“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, 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.”
Trigger Warning: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous has graphic descriptions of abuse, addiction, animal violence, racism, homophobia, death, and trauma, which can be unsettling to read. Although these add to the narrative of this book, we would like any potential reader to know this despite spoilers, so they are not distressed by it.
Throughout life, we all experience moments of hardship and as we struggle to cross those hurdles, we look to a horizon that is undefined and tell ourselves, “It will get better.” We reassure ourselves like this as we move through a tumultuous existence, even though there is no way to know if what lies ahead is more pain or peace. In this cycle, can we really pick the point when we stop surviving and start to live? Or is survival so intrinsic to our nature that without it, we will be unrecognisable to our own self?
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is autofiction- a form of fictionalised biography by Ocean Vuong, providing a look into experiences of migration, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and self-identity. If we were to evaluate this as any other book, we’d have to say that there is no plot, no linearity in this story, but it is a story worth reading. The book is a letter by Little Dog, a Vietnamese immigrant young man, who is writing to his illiterate mother. Little Dog writes this letter in English, a language his mother cannot read, and perhaps this knowledge allows him to candidly pick at the bonds of family, friends, and love. It is perhaps the most poetic form of stream-of-consciousness writing we’ve encountered and the atemporal nature of the book adds to this effect.
The book is divided into three parts, which we connect to certain thematic elements in Little Dog’s life. The first section heavily deals with the themes of migration, minority identity, language, and war. Little Dog’s mother grew up during the Vietnam War and despite emigrating to America, continues to relive the trauma of this violence. To so many of us, the Vietnam War is merely a chapter in history textbooks. But through Vuong’s writing, we were transported to this battlefield, this homeland now wrecked by bombs and poison. Raised by his mother and grandmother in a predominantly white community, Little Dog’s childhood is the untold story of many migrant children. He learns English to communicate on behalf of his mother. He remains conscious and unsure of his English and his Vietnamese is stunted at what little his mother could teach him.
Throughout the book, Little Dog grapples with his Vietnamese origins- while he was not born during the war, his generation is not untouched by it. He recalls childhood memories of his mother being startled by loud noises, being upset at him playing toy soldiers, his family haunted by what it takes to survive. Simply escaping to the United States did not mean a better life for Little Dog and his family, an unfortunate reality for so many refugees. The poverty and violence of Vietnam follow them to America, only taking a more insidious form- where hardship is the price of hollow freedom.
Nevertheless, Little Dog notes, “Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence - but that violence, having passed through the fruit, failed to spoil it.”
The second theme of the book follows Little Dog’s exploration of his identity and his first love, Trevor. It is a visceral, raw perspective into what it means to identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, while also being at the intersection of other marginalised identities. Little Dog’s mother tells him to stay low, keep himself hidden, telling him- “You’re already Vietnamese.” In an age of heteronormativity, homophobia, and white supremacy, Little Dog’s exploration and acceptance of his identity is defiance in itself. The sections of Little Dog’s romance with Trevor are mixed with sections of poetry prose, which threw us off a little. In some ways, the relationship explored in this section did not deliver the same emotion that Little Dog’s exploration of his familial bonds did- in fact, one of the stand-out moments in this section is the moment when Little Dog comes out to his mother about his sexuality.
The final section of the book is not as structured, and an amalgamation of the other themes Little Dog’s story touches upon. It is a dive into survival and death. While the previous sections of the book are a glimpse of fractured families, beauty, and desire, this final section is a story of freedom within destruction. Personally, we found this part of the book one of the most abstract, where the somewhat concrete events described by Little Dog meld into his emotions. It is difficult to pin down the exact theme of this final pages-what stood out however was the definition of freedom. Are we truly free, when all we do is survive? And are we truly alive if all we do is survive? Or is it merely a death that keeps on dying, where it is better to go unseen than to be seen and hunted? This final theme is expressed in what Little Dog writes on freedom, that it is “nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey.”
Reading On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous was an emotional experience. The writing may be poetic and occasionally flowery, but Vuong manages to capture feelings that we only recognise in ourselves when we read those words. There were several times when we had to literally put the book down after a few pages because of how heavy it was. The book is not perfect, and not for everyone. The poetic and erratic nature of the novel may not be for everyone. There are also parts where Vuong’s prose seems a bit too archaic and disjointed- not all phrases and concepts can be meaningfully called back as the book progresses and Vuong’s attempts at this in certain sections fall flat. There are experiences and emotions in this book that may be uncomfortable to some, which is why we will not recommend it to everyone. But if you are looking for something poignant and poetic, definitely check out On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.