- This event has passed.
Ocean Vuong Presents On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
April 22, 2021 @ 7:00 pm
This one-time event is presented in partnership with the Wisconsin Union Theater. Poet Ocean Vuong will appear live to discuss his debut novel, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.” Join us at: https://bit.ly/3ddqQSh. Pre-registration is highly recommended.
Written as a letter from a man in his late twenties, Little Dog, to his mother who cannot read, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love and the redemptive power of storytelling. The letter unearths a family history rooted decades ago in Vietnam, while also serving as a doorway into parts of Little Dog’s life his mother has never known and ultimately leading to an unforgettable revelation.
At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” 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 — the novel 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, Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are.
