Immigration is traversing multiple worlds and assuming multiple identities while clinging to the periphery of a long-gone past fraught with truth, fiction, and violence. On the surface, however, we’re living and breathing the American Dream drenched in blood, bureaucracy, and alcohol.
Ocean Vuong’s novel, “On Earth, We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” is an exploration of the limits of language, horizon, and empathy. The structural, formal, and thematic elements of the novel are woven together in a letter from son to illiterate mother. It illustrates the complex relationship many immigrants have with the English language. Language becomes a focal point, highlighting its power when unfettered. Voung has a particular way of visualizing immigration not as a failure but as a form of salvation and an opportunity for renewal. Consider this:
“Because freedom, I am told, is nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey.”
Throughout the novel, Voung reflects on enduring abuse from a mentally ill, illiterate, and sometimes incapacitated mother. His torn state of mind between an irrefutable family bond and a painful coming-of-age experience in America. And his finding solace in the act of reading and writing. It compounds to powerful emotions that are hard to overread. Vuong’s extraordinary use of language and form is evident throughout the narrative.
“On Earth, We’re Briefly Gorgeous” is a hot-and-cold novel that is both laden with complexity and clarity by bouncing between a wealth of cultural themes. At times, I found it beautiful. At times, I found it overwhelming.