You know you’ve consumed something great when it changes you. Really changes you. Ocean Vuong’s “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” does that for me.
I’ve been wanting to get back, really get back into reading for the longest time. And while this year has been better than the last couple years in terms of “successful” reading, it’s only now that I truly feel like I’m back. Ocean Vuong is obviously someone who loves words the way they are meant to be loved. And it’s this love that washes over you, dissolves a bit of you with every page.
Every page is cathartic, every sentence is magic.
It’s a book that makes you want to read more, write more, feel more, live more.
Side note: this is what inspiration must truly feel like, to want a layer of this person added to your layers. And then you could apply this new combined layer as a filter to all your thoughts and everything you want to express, and that’d all be really great.
Anyway, the language in the book, by itself, is simple enough, and I mean that in the best way possible, and it’s the arrangement, the tone, and the content that makes it an absolute gem. I could tell you that it talks of war, of immigration, of love, of abuse, of family, of friendship, of art, of addiction, of identity but that’d give you very little information.
What I want to tell you instead, is this: with every feeling that the writer expresses, there will be five more of your own that you’d be able to get in touch with. And then of course, there’d be some that you might just directly resonate with. Both of these experiences, when they occur truly, are priceless.
If you had to read one book this year, make it this one.
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