1001 Novels: A Library of America
On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous (2019)
by Ocean Vuong
Hartford, Connecticut
Connecticut: 9/9
Here we are at the end of Connecticut and almost the end of Chapter One of the 1001 Novels: A Library of America Project, Pointed Firs, Granite Coves & Revolution. I actually read On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous- bought the hard back in fact, but never posted a review because... I just didn't have much to say about it- Vuong comes from a background in poetry, and On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous is a poetic bildungsroman adjacent tale about growing up in rust-belt Connecticut from the perspective of an LGBT teen/young adult. I remember enjoying the fact of the location- rust belt New England, and the fact that the POV was that of an Asian-American immigrant who did not come from a privileged background.
Even though I grew up in the Bay Area I knew few Asian-American families who were disadvantaged. This wasn't the case for white kids I knew- my prep school had plenty of disadvantaged white, black and latino students but no disadvantaged Asian student. Same thing in college. In law school I finally met some Asian-Americans from working class backgrounds, but they were high achievers. Anyway, it's all to say that I appreciated Vuong's POV and I think it's a great addition to the canon of American bildungsromans.
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