OPEN A BOOK,OPEN THE WORLD
𝙊𝙣 𝙀𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙒𝙚'𝙧𝙚 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙛𝙡𝙮 𝙂𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙤𝙪𝙨
★紐約時報票選21世紀百大必讀★
★紐時、華盛頓郵報、英國衛報、科克斯書評等各家評論一致推薦★
★史上最年輕艾略特獎獲獎詩人—王鷗行 Ocean Vuong 首部小說★
【以灼熱淚水與傷痕書寫自我與家族記憶】
這是一本寫給不識字的母親的情書，也是他最真實也深刻的回憶。
主角「小狗」身材瘦弱、聰明敏感，和逃出越南的母親和祖母同住。祖母的心智早已在恐怖的戰爭中迷失，時而瘋狂尖叫，時而像回到過去，溫柔地對小狗唱歌；不會說英文的母親，在美國底層社會工作，幫人修剪指甲，受到歧視與蔑視的怒氣時常化作拳頭，落在無辜的小狗身上。
展現出不同性別氣質的早慧少年，在學校似乎註定受到同學霸凌，青春期的小狗認識了白人少年崔佛，高大、身上有著刮鬍泡和啤酒的氣味，彷若美國男性社會的縮影，小狗和崔佛互相探索內在與肉體的歡愉，一次又一次，在暴力與性的激烈碰撞下，小狗原以為能在之中找到愛與認同，但留下的卻只有空虛與自我厭棄。
成年後的小狗，面對祖母去世，和聽聞崔佛濫用藥物身亡的噩耗，他再次回望人生的每個片刻，在記憶中搜尋每一道撕裂的傷口，每一個醜陋疤痕，背後所隱含的愛和理解，看見傷痛背後不完美的美麗與燦爛。
王鷗行以詩人極富洞察的眼光，書寫自身的成長記憶，以毫不保留的開誠布公，真實地披露在讀者眼前，沒有矯揉造作的過度修飾，沒有刻意的無病呻吟，字字句句如細針刺入人心，這是一部以灼熱淚水刻寫的創傷故事，也是一個倖存者的生命告白。
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.
With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.
