On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

About the book

Structured as a letter from a son to his illiterate mother, the story follows Little Dog, a Vietnamese American man coming of age in Hartford, Connecticut. He recounts his family’s history, tracing their path from the aftermath of the Vietnam War to their lives as refugees working in nail salons and tobacco fields. The narrative details the physical abuse he suffers at his mother’s hands, his grandfather’s absence, and his first romantic relationship with a white boy named Trevor during the height of the opioid epidemic.

Readers of contemporary literary fiction and lyric prose will find a history of how trauma moves through immigrant generations. The book serves those interested in the intersections of queer identity, rural poverty, and the American working class. A reader walks away with a specific understanding of how language both connects and separates a family when the child gains a vocabulary the parent cannot access. It provides a granular look at the toll of manual labor and the chemical realities of addiction in marginalized communities.

Details

Published

2019

Language

EN