On Earth We’re Briefly Attractive: A Novel
Original price was: $18.00.$11.07Current price is: $11.07.
Value: $18.00 - $11.07
(as of Dec 17, 2024 14:08:38 UTC – Particulars)
A New York Occasions bestseller • Nominated for the Nationwide Ebook Award for Fiction • Ocean Vuong’s debut novel is a shattering portrait of a household, a primary love, and the redemptive energy of storytelling
New York Occasions Readers Choose: 100 Greatest Books of the twenty first Century
“A lyrical work of self-discovery that’s shockingly intimate and insistently common…Not a lot briefly attractive as completely beautiful.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Put up
“This is among the greatest novels I’ve ever learn…Ocean Vuong is a grasp. This e book a masterpiece.”—Tommy Orange, creator of There There and Wandering Stars
On Earth We’re Briefly Attractive is a letter from a son to a mom who can not learn. Written when the speaker, Little Canine, is in his late twenties, the letter reveals a household’s historical past that started earlier than he was born — a historical past whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into components of his life his mom has by no means identified, all of it resulting in an unforgettable revelation. Directly a witness to the fraught but plain love between a single mom and her son, it is usually a brutally trustworthy exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American second, immersed as we’re in dependancy, violence, and trauma, however undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Attractive is as a lot concerning the energy of telling one’s personal story as it’s concerning the obliterating silence of not being heard.
With beautiful urgency and charm, Ocean Vuong writes of individuals caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue each other with out forsaking who we’re. The query of the right way to survive, and the right way to make of it a sort of pleasure, powers an important debut novel of a few years.
Named a Greatest Ebook of the Yr by:
GQ, Kirkus Opinions, Booklist, Library Journal, TIME, Esquire, The Washington Put up, Apple, Good Housekeeping, The New Yorker, The New York Public Library, Elle.com, The Guardian, The A.V. Membership, NPR, Lithub, Leisure Weekly, Vogue.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, Mom Jones, Self-importance Honest, The Wall Road Journal Journal, and extra!
From the Writer
Add to Cart
Add to Cart
Add to Cart
Buyer Opinions
—
4.4 out of 5 stars
766
4.3 out of 5 stars
19,887
Value
$27.90$27.90 $16.90$16.90 $11.07$11.07
Learn extra from Ocean Vuong
A bighearted novel about chosen household, surprising friendship, and the tales we inform ourselves with a purpose to survive On this deeply intimate second poetry assortment, Ocean Vuong searches for all times among the many aftershocks of non-public and social loss, embodying the paradox of sitting in grief whereas being decided to outlive past it Ocean Vuong’s debut novel concerning the energy of telling one’s story and the obliterating silence of not being heard. Written as a letter from a son to a mom who can not learn, the letter reveals a household’s historical past that started earlier than the son was born
Writer : Penguin Books; Reprint version (June 1, 2021)
Language : English
Paperback : 256 pages
ISBN-10 : 0525562044
ISBN-13 : 978-0525562047
Merchandise Weight : 2.31 kilos
Dimensions : 5 x 0.67 x 7.71 inches
Prospects say
Prospects reward the writing high quality as stunning, poetic, and addictive. They describe the e book as stunning, considerate, and full of lush imagery. The storytelling is relatable and complicated, weaving a story of turning into from threads of on a regular basis life. Readers discover the emotional depth inspiring, heartwarming, and compassionate. They describe the pacing as transferring and evocative. Nevertheless, some really feel the graphic content material is pretentious, laborious to comply with, and ugly.
AI-generated from the textual content of buyer evaluations
7 reviews for On Earth We’re Briefly Attractive: A Novel
Add a review
Related Products
Original price was: $18.00.$11.07Current price is: $11.07.
H. Williams –
Brilliant and poetic and moving, but sometimes also distractingly poetic and fractured
In April 2022, the book discussion group at the LGBT Center in NYC was in almost universal agreement about this poetic memoir-novel, with only some minor disagreement about whether this is a four-and-a-half-star or full-five-star work.Everyone was wild about the brilliant and colorfully impressionistic writing – completely over the top. Bob compared the writing to the complexity of a millefleur paperweight. While I’m a sucker for this sort of literary folderol, a few of us thought that it might be too poetic at times, and that a bit ugly language might be better to describe the Vietnamese war or some of Little Dog’s abuse.We talked about the animal metaphors: the taxidermied deer in the rest area, the trapped monkey, the caged veal calves, the Monarch butterflies that fly in one direction (only the children return), the buffalo who fall off the cliff (search for David Wojanrowicz’s buffalo image) and, of course, Little Dog, himself.”On Earth…” presents the truly poor, the working impoverished. It also shows Vietnam and the war from the point of the invaded Vietnamese, and shows Little Dog as a true outsider: “Keep your head down. Stay invisible. You’re already Vietnamese.” Racism is common. Little Dog’s boyfriend Trevor is also from an impoverished and alcohol-addled broken home (literally, a falling apart trailer). The intergenerational trauma extends across all the families in the novel. Heterosexuality gets a bad rap, too; there are no intact straight families to be found.This is not a coming out story. Little Dog and Trevor find each other and explore their sexuality. When Little Dog tells his mother that he’s gay, she accepts it as she accepts so many other things she doesn’t understand.All the humor is midnight dark: the women at the nail salon, one with the dead horse and the other with one leg; the taxidermied deer in the rest area; and Lan’s dentures after she dies.Facts are dropped into the novel, both about the Oxy epidemic of overdoses and the multi-racial outsider hero Tiger Woods. It reminds us that these stories are real.The novel is built on the themes of escape, memory, and language. It is full of floating fragments, perhaps too many fragments at times, too jumpy, too overlapping and spiral without enough story, and overly metaphoric at times, but beautiful and authentic, all at the same time.
Ridaab –
A beautifully raw story about a personâs life,& the people before them
This was a great and quick read. In total it took me 5 hours to complete this book.This story is a story of an immigrant living and retelling the stories of the immigrants before him such as his mom and grandma.Beautifully written. Loved the portrayal of color. In the beginning of the book, the narrator describes colors to inanimate objects/feelings. As he grows older, other people begin to see him as his own skin color, hence they began to project their understanding of color on to him. Suddenly, color no longer describes an object/feeling but it becomes a weapon that divides people. Color becomes a tool that allows him to be put into a box before ever having the opportunity to give others a chance to know him. Color becomes his identity, as well as the identity of everyone around him. Itâs also interesting how trauma affects not only those who lived through traumatic experiences, but also their children who will end up growing up with that trauma.The book has many themes including:⢠Race⢠Growing up as an American⢠Growing up with different cultural identities⢠Self Identity/Self Discovery⢠Generational Trauma⢠Inherited Traumaâ¢Post war affects⢠Growing up bi racial⢠Complex parental relationships⢠Immigrantsâ¢Immigrants (due to war)â¢LGBTThings I disliked:Children having sex:Although the narrator is telling his story, and he is going back in time. I felt highly uncomfortable with the explicit scenes of minors having sex. There was no need to describe certain parts of the body as he did. Simply because of the fact that they were minors when this physical relationship happened. He could have easily mentioned how he felt instead of drawing explicit pictures for his audience.Neutral comment:Parts the story seemed messy, however I personally liked it and I understood it because thatâs how my brain works. Making footnotes of footnotes. At the same time, it made sense for the story to be âmessyâ as heâs writing a letter to his mother. Itâs not going to be neat. When you write a letter to your loved ones, many times youâre reminiscing about the old times, and so one memory will turn into another into another into another, and so it gives off the authentic vibes of a letter to someone close to you. You want them to remember the scene that you were at.As many have mentioned, this book isnât for everyone.Overall, I rate this book 8.0279/10Itâs a great book, easy to read, and it brought me out of my reading hiatus!
Ginette –
To be so talented. This book is one of the most beautifully written books that I have ever read. My heart is so full from the characters and the pain of just living. What a story. I wonât forget it.
Reading Geek –
Follow @bookrecsbyrushi on instagram to know more about books.I love how beautiful the cover is, pretty leaves and matte finish. Poetic writing style.
Martin L. –
Words canât explain how much I love this book. So Deep and so much potential for growth.
Catherine Schmitz –
Style does not sit with me, but then again I am not a native english speaker.
Valmir Almagro –
An extremely powerful narrative of a Vietnamese boy and his relationship with his mother and grandmother living as expatriates in the USA. Also it portrays a coming of age story set in a rural part of America seen with different lenses and the discovery for his first love for a bitterly sad teenage boy.Writing a letter to his illiterate mother, the narrator reveals all the suffering and complexities that their lives carried away and their struggle for mutual understanding living in a new country.This a debut autobiographical novel by the highly-awarded poet Ocean Vuong who gives us a heartbreaking punch of his experience for being a foreigner in America. The narrative is full of poetry in its poignant fabric of his personal life and reminded me of a great Portuguese writer as well: Valter Hugo Mãe.It was a great pleasure to read such a captivating and intense novel.