Community Library Notes
“On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” by Ocean Vuong, is a beautifully written story of a life, in the form of a letter from Little Dog to his mother. She cannot read. So he tells it to us.
In the beginning, he describes the flight of Monarch butterflies who must immigrate from the southern U.S. to Mexico in the winter in order to save their species. He tries on his mother’s new dress in the front yard, and the kids call him names. He thinks of the butterflies as fleeing Napalm clouds in Vietnam, finally fireproof. His name, Little Dog, is a shield against evil spirits so they will pass by his home.
The protagonist tells stories about Lan, his grandmother. How he plucked gray hairs from her head. How she never flinched from firecracker blasts when everyone else ran away. His ma loved hummingbirds, and one day he sees a feeder in their backyard. He became his family’s official interpreter, and ordered lingerie from Victoria’s Secret for his ma. Lan, his ma and Little Dog are all happy in America.
A woman stands by the road, holding a baby wrapped in a blue shawl just bought at the marketplace. A boy holds a rifle pointed at her, then allows her to pass the checkpoint. Five men sit around a table drinking vodka and a monkey is chained under the table. The men will scalp him and eat his brains to make them more virile. The author Vuong is imaginative and “raw,” as one reviewer says.
The woman on the road is Lan. She meets Paul at a bar in Saigon. He was in the Navy. Lan had been a whore, the only way to put food on the table. She tells this to Little Dog as he pulls out her gray hairs. She left her 12-year-old daughter with her sister in the village when she was taken by soldiers to a room. Later, she and Paul are a couple and love one another.
Vuong talks about Tiger Woods, the world-famous golfer. He had been born to a U.S. Army Colonel and a Thai woman. He was nicknamed Tiger after a buddy his father knew in Vietnam who died after being imprisoned and tortured. Little Dog’s ma is a manicurist, her fingers are rough and battered, and her lungs damaged by the salon’s
acetone and chemicals. One day, a frail 70-year- old woman comes into the salon. She removes her prosthesis and asks for her absent foot to be massaged. She sighs with pleasure as if the foot feels better. After the other foot is treated, she gives ma a hundred- dollar bill. Ma puts it into her bra.
When Little Dog is 14 he gets a job working tobacco. He must ride his bike more than eight miles and makes $9 an hour, under the table. It is the summer of 2003. President Bush had declared war on Iraq and Tiger Woods would win PGA player of the year for the fifth time in a row. Author Vuong describes the tobacco harvest from beginning to end. The workers are mostly illegal immigrants and always say “Lo siento” — I am sorry. In the nail salon, “I am sorry” is also the most common English word spoken in hopes of getting a tip, even if no tip was given. It made the client feel powerful, and important.
Little Dog tells how he and Trevor, the tobacco boss’ grandson make love, in the back of Trevor’s truck, in the barns, on the garage floor, in a bed. Little Dog tells his ma he doesn’t like girls, he likes boys. It started when he followed a boy from his class who gave him a pizza bagel. He was six years old. The boy told him to get lost. He and ma trade stories. She had been pregnant and swallowed pills to abort the baby.
One day, Trevor and Little Dog ride their bikes to the suburbs and look at the mansions with wideopen curtains that show no people inside. They both say they hate their fathers. They see the city of Hartford, brilliantly lit. The astute reader will find many beautiful phrases and verbal scenes here.
Trevor had been prescribed Oxycontin when a boy to ease the pain of a broken leg. He became hooked on it and soon after, on heroin. When Little Dog is a student at a New York college, he receives a message that his friend has died of an overdose. He rushes out of the class to get back to Hartford as soon as possible. When his grandmother is diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, Little Dog stays with her until the end. His ma and Rose, Lan’s daughter and granddaughter are there too. Author Vuong talks about the buffalo who run off a cliff following one another. Trevor had said it was because of Mother Nature, following their family. But Little Dog sees them turn into butterflies and fly off unharmed.
Is Little Dog an optimist? Does he return to college and turn his life around and become an outstanding academic? Find this beautiful novel at your Mendocino Community Library.