On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

I was with my partner in the Castro District in San Francisco and we happened to walk into a book store and finally found this book! I’ve been itching to read it for awhile. I picked it up and immediately started reading it. This book is so beautifully written.. it’s very poetic and it’s unusual for me to understand poetry but reading this made it easy. The story follows the main character throughout his life as he understands his sexuality, his relationship with his mother, his part in history, his setting in the US as a child of an immigrant, so many facets of life that I can relate to. There’s talks of trauma and happiness. Beauty and destruction. I loved it.

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Estaba con mi pareja en el distrito Castro de San Francisco y, por casualidad, entramos en una librería y ¡por fin encontramos este libro! Llevaba un tiempo deseando leerlo. Lo cogí y empecé a leerlo de inmediato. Está escrito de forma tan hermosa... es muy poético y, aunque no entiendo poesía, leerlo me lo facilitó. La historia sigue al protagonista a lo largo de su vida, mientras comprende su sexualidad, su relación con su madre, su parte en la historia, su vida en Estados Unidos como hijo de un inmigrante; tantas facetas de la vida con las que me identifico. Habla de trauma y felicidad. Belleza y destrucción. Me encantó.

This novel by Ocean Vuong is told from a first-person narrative as an autobiographical story written to the protagonist's mother. But using this as a device, it tells multiple stories simultaneously. Each is almost a parable, and none is independent of another. It takes place in the USA primarily.

The protagonist relates his coming into the world, his childhood, his first love, his violent youth, his grandmother's love for him (and her past life in Vietnam), and his experiences of grief. Entangled are the acts of violence of the Vietnam War, the estrangement of the protagonist from his two nations, drug addiction and abuse, philosophy and thoughts on how words find meaning. The story alone is uncomplicated, and ticks along at a pleasant pace, but the poetic undertones and masterful weaving of story with concept make it a wonderful experience. To paraphrase Vuong's words: This book is not created from the violence of the past, but in spite of it. It is created from beauty, and it is beautiful.