On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

A Novel

De: Ocean Vuong

Narrado por: Ocean Vuong

An instant New York Times Best Seller!

Longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction, the Carnegie Medal in Fiction, the 2019 Aspen Words Literacy Prize, and the PEN/Hemingway Debut Novel Award

Shortlisted for the 2019 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Winner of the 2019 New England Book Award for Fiction!

Named one of the most anticipated books of 2019 by Vulture, Entertainment Weekly, Buzzfeed, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Oprah.com, Huffington Post, The A.V. Club, Nylon, The Week, The Rumpus, The Millions, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and more.

“A lyrical work of self-discovery that’s shockingly intimate and insistently universal…Not so much briefly gorgeous as permanently stunning.” (Ron Charles, The Washington Post)

Poet Ocean Vuong’s debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late 20s, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born - a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam - and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation.

At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.

Named a Best Book of the Year by: GQ, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Library Journal, Time, Esquire, The Washington Post, Apple, Good Housekeeping, The New Yorker, The New York Public Library, Elle.com, The Guardian, The A.V. Club, NPR, Lithub, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, Mother Jones, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, and more!

©2019 Ocean Vuong (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Vuong writes about the yearning for connection that afflicts immigrants. But ‘ocean’ also describes the distinctive way Vuong writes: His words are liquid, flowing, rolling, teasing, mighty and overpowering. When Vuong’s mother gave him the oh-so-apt name of Ocean, she inadvertently called into being a writer whose language some of us readers could happily drown in.... Like so many immigrant writers before him, Vuong has taken the English he acquired with difficulty and not only made it his own - he’s made it better.” (Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air)

“In order to survive, Little Dog has to receive and reject another kind of violence, too: he must see his mother through the American eyes that scan her for weakness and incompetence and, at best, disregard her, the way that evil spirits might ignore a child named for a little dog. There is a staggering tenderness in the way that Little Dog holds all of this within himself, absorbing it and refusing to pass it on. Reading On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous can feel like watching an act of endurance art, or a slow, strange piece of magic in which bones become sonatas, to borrow one of Vuong’s metaphors.” (Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker)

“A bruised, breathtaking love letter never meant to be sent. A powerful testimony to magic and loss. A marvel.” (Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf)

“This book - gorgeous is right there in the title - finds incredible, aching beauty in the deep observation of love in many forms. Ocean Vuong's debut novel contains all the power of his poetry, and I finished the book knowing that we are seeing only the very beginning of his truly magnificent talent.” (Emma Straub, author of Modern Lovers and The Vacationers)

A strong debut novel

Ocean Vuong's history is in poetry and that certainly shows. The prose is incredibly poetic and emotional, with strong use of imagery and metaphor. Vuong's performance is based in deeply felt emotion, but is one note of generic emotional vulnerability through the entire novel, which can be repetitive and boring. The story is interesting- a long letter from a son to his mother detailing their lives of poverty, abuse, and pain. As a queer Asian American, I relate to the story on a much deeper level than most, but I don't think enjoyment of the story hinges on your sexuality and race. Basically, even if you're straight and white, this is gonna pull at your heart. It's a great first try and I'm looking forward to hearing more from him.

beautifully read memoir that jumps seemlessly

Beautifully read memoir that jumps seemlessly between childhood memories of his mother and grandmother, of a Vietnamese boy, his first love his youth lived in the midst of the opioid epidemic. I can see the buffalos running off the cliffs and the monarch butterflies fly away. Thank you

Back to the drawing board

I , too, am an author. This book gave me pause. It elevated what great writing means to me.

Some of the best writing I’ve happened upon in my life. Ocean is a vessel for genius this world could use much more of.

beautifully poetic

Amazing book. Vuong writes in beautiful proses. Reading this book is like reading a long poem that you just don't want to end.

Rough and Tough

Struggled to finish. Probably not really worth it. Artsy almost beyond words. Won't do it again

I listened to it twice…

There are so many reasons why I might choose a book. In this case, it was the poetry of the title. I began listening and Vuong’s voice was far from what I expected, but from the beginning I was lured by the depth of his humanity and the exquisite weaving of his words.

Sometimes I read a book and feel as though I’ve climbed through a window into a different world - a world I would otherwise never known. In this case, I feel I will carry him with me, that it was an experience.

Words cannot express

How did a human man become an engineer of words — stretching and nailing in pounds them into forms that I had no idea they could be

Truly gorgeous

A masterpiece. This book moved me incredibly. It’s a profound and constant reflection on how fleeting happiness is, how easy is to be taken.

On Earth This Book is Briefly Gorgeous

Overall this book is depressing and mostly terribly over written. There are parts that are beautiful, and that is why I gave it three stars instead of two.

It is read as if every line is supposed to be a masterpiece and have heavy meaning, probably, because it is also written that way. It rarely achieves that goal. About two thirds of the way through the book, I yelled, “Enough!” And turned it off. Not being one to give up on a book, I started listening again about a week later, hoping it might get better and resolve well. It did not redeem itself.

Wow, Five Stars.

Passionate and written with the finest of prose. Heavy emotions with dross sewing the together. One of the finest books I have ever read. Thank you Ms Vuong for the vision of a world never seen. You are an artist.