Migration, sexuality and the afterlife of war inside family memory connect Ocean Vuong’s poetry and fiction. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous takes the form of a letter from Little Dog to his Vietnamese mother, moving through their life in Connecticut, his grandmother’s memories of Vietnam and his first love with a farmworker named Trevor. Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time Is a Mother approach related material through poems that shift between family history, desire, grief and the body. Vuong’s prose and poetry are image-rich, fragmented and intensely lyrical, asking readers to follow association and memory rather than a straightforward plot. The most useful neighbouring categories are His work Vietnamese-American literature, queer writing, contemporary poetry and literary fiction about migration and intergenerational trauma. Read more Less
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