“I am thinking of beauty again, how some things are hunted because we have deemed them beautiful…To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.”
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a haunting letter from a son to his illiterate mother written in a dark, poetic stream of consciousness focused on death and cruelty. The writer, Little Dog, is 28 years old at the time he is writing this letter. He is attempting to communicate with his mother about his thoughts on his life up to the time of writing.
Little Dog was born somewhere outside Saigon. Two years after his birth, and after the war (1990), Little Dog, his mother (Rose), his father, his grandmother (Lan) and his aunt fled to the United States. His father disappeared after being imprisoned for beating Rose and Little Dog grew up with Rose and Lan. Rose worked in a factory and then as a manicurist. She frequently struck Little Dog during his childhood. Lan was bipolar and mischievous and generally treated Little Dog with love and kindness
When Little Dog is a high school freshman he takesa job in the tobacco fields, where he meets Trevor. He and Trevor become romantically attached and spend a great deal of time getting high and drunk. His relationship with Trevor and their conversations are a central part of the story. Little Dog’s observations about his relationship with Trevor are reflective of his deeply introspective nature. After rejecting a kindness from Trevor, Little Dog observes that “sometimes being offered tenderness feels like the very proof that you’ve been ruined.”
Little Dog’s story moves back and forth among his mother’s life in Vietnam, his grandmother’s life in Vietnam, their lives in America, stories of drug overdoses and his relationship with Trevor. At the time of the writing, he is living in New York, but recounting his childhood in Hartford and his trip to Vietnam to bury Lan.
Vuong’s writing is beautiful and evocative. He focuses on the details, the movements and colors of nature and emotion, the sensibilities of animals, the depths of sorrow. His use of words and descriptive energy elicits strong emotion. I could feel the depths of his despair, his angst over the details of life and its inevitable end; I could feel the colors of the moment. Sometimes when I read a novel filled with angst I find myself becoming resentful of the author’s blatant effort to manipulate. But this novel makes you see the detail, feel the emotions and travel through the writer’s world so that it feels less like manipulation and more like a step into another’s life. That said, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief when I was done!
This book may not be for everyone because of its overwhelming sense of despair, but if you are drawn to extraordinary writing that moves you outside yourself (and into a dark place), you will want to read this novel. It can be reserved at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.