We Didn't Love Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Today, the Weird Book Book Club joins forces with Shawn the Book Maniac to discuss Ocean Vuong's novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.
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Goodreads: / dan
Twitter: / weirdbbc
OTHER WORKS MENTIONED
Shawn the Book Maniac's Channel: / @shawnbreathesbooks
Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong: www.goodreads....
Alex / What Page Are You On's review of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: • On Earth We’re Briefly...
#BookTube

[@BookishTexan]

I really liked your points about the dangers of reviewing a book you didnt like. All three are important to keep in mind. Great colaboration!

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

Thanks, Brian! I don't know how often I'll do negative reviews in the future, but I'm less intimidated by it now.

[@bigalbooksforever]

You two make a great reviewing combo-- there is kind of an angel/devil over the shoulder vibe here that works so well. I loved hearing your thoughts about carefully constructing a negative review, especially the part about how readers often fault the author for not meeting their specific expectations. I have a hard time separating my subjective experience while reading a text from the text itself, so I thought it was really valuable to hear about your process analyzing this book. Thanks for the great content!

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

Thanks, Alex! Sometimes I worry I'm getting too "meta" , so glad you found the discussion worthwhile. I still found myself missing that warm-and-fuzzy feeling of gushing about something I loved, but I don't think I'll shy away from negative reviews in the future as long as I have something substantial to say.

[@whatpageareyouon]

This was wonderful!! I definitely feel more whole with my ideas about this book thanks to yours and Shawn's thoughts. I think what Vuong ultimately does, to me, is confuse vulnerability for truthfulness? Which is fine, but where Vuong seems to push and pull between either deciding that the reader needs help understanding what his prose means or relying too much on the reader to match what Little Dog is feeling because of general feelings of yearning, desire, and love, it all feels like it lacks direction somehow. Nonetheless, I can't wait to see what Vuong does next. I hope people find this duel review, no doubt maybe as a result of a minor upset that Briefly Gorgeous The Novel didn't make the cut for the Booker prize

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

So glad you enjoyed it, Alex! I agree with you 100% about confusing vulnerability for truthfulness--that's a perfect way to sum up something I've been struggling to describe about this book: an apparent underlying assumption that if we see characters suffer enough we'll be compelled to identify deeply with them, which just wasn't the case for me (stone-hearted monster that I am.) That said, like you, I'm still looking forward to seeing what he does next. In many ways, Vuong's career is just getting started, and even if I didn't care for his first novel, I'm glad that his NYT Bestseller status has guaranteed him the opportunity to keep trying new things while developing his literary voice.

[@shawnbreathesbooks]

whatpageareyouon Alex didn’t see this comment until just now - love the thoughtful observation about vulnerability not equating to truthfulness!

[@josmith5992]

Great to see a new video from you Dan and hear your thoughts not only on the book but on negative reviews in general. Booktube would be very boring if all reviews were positive and as this is a book that has had such high praise, it’s so interesting to hear contrary views. Can I also just say I admire your music taste from the vinyl behind you, I had a cassette tape 😬 of Control that I played over and over again, loved George Michael in the eighties and own most of Prince on vinyl, fabulous!

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

Haha, thank you, Jo! I usually try to match the vinyl in the background to the tone of the book I'm discussing, so those are my gay club jam records (plus Fleetwood Mac cuz, Stevie Nicks, obviously.) Glad you enjoyed the review!

[@MadeleineSwannSurreal]

Sounds very emotionally distant, which isn't good for a book like that. Thanks for the dirty words, I learned stuff. Generally I don't do negative reviews because I read a lot of underground books, but if something is quite big like this or has issues I want to talk about I will.

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

Thanks, Madeleine! You're right, there was definitely a disconnect for me in that the characters were often explained to be in emotionally heightened states (love, anger, episodes of PTSD) but the writing puts you at such a remove with its explain-y-ness that it was hard to feel those things along with them. I also think you're right that negative reviews seem to add more to the conversation when there's already a lot of positive appraisals being shared to weigh them against.

[@PopleBackyardFarm]

Hi Dan :) just subbed

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

And howdy to you! Glad you enjoyed the review--thank you so much for subscribing.

[@TootightLautrec]

Since I am a unicorn (and yes, I do fart glitter) I will chime in here without having read said book, and simply commend you both for a thoughtful and entertaining review. I would love, one day, to hear more about what you think poetry is able to do that fiction is not able to do, and vice versa. I may do a video (if I can get my ass in gear enough to do any kind of video again) that tries to address just that topic. I'll add it to the list of twenty or thirty video ideas I'd like to do so I can think about it while I nap instead of actually record a video.

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

I would love to see your take on that topic! (I am also a huge proponent of naps, so I support your prioritization there.) I have so many poetry collections on my TBR right now (Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara and The World Doesn't End by Charles Simic being my top priorities) it'd be nice to have some added incentive to get started on them.