Welcome back to the fifth and final installment of the “Busy Parents’ Book Club” series. This month’s selection was On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong.

We had hoped to keep this book club going a bit longer, but as the title of the club denotes, we’re all pretty busy. We’ve been finding it hard to all read the same book at the same time…and finish by the deadline. Perhaps you can empathize! So, we’ll be shifting gears a bit and putting out a monthly post with short book and/or audiobook recommendations. Our hope is that you will continue to find excitement and encouragement from these posts and carve out time for your reading life (and yourself).

I listened to On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous. The audiobook is narrated by Vuong and I always love when authors choose to do this because I think it gives the experience so much more depth. Vuong is a first and foremost a poet and I truly believe poetry is best consumed when read aloud. Moreover, the cadence of the work flows best in the author’s own voice. This held true for On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous. You could literally hear the pain and longing weave through Vuong’s words, causing my heart to ache with each page.

Although this book is an epistolary novel, it is shaped from Vuong’s own experiences. The story follows Little Dog, a second generation Vietnamese-American who is writing to his mother. It recounts how hard his childhood was, partly because of his mother’s mental illness and partly because they were immigrants struggling in a new country. You immediately feel for the narrator because you know his letter will never be read. His mother was illiterate and is now deceased. So the reader can only hope the writing is cathartic.

The novel shifts between prose and poetry and depicts the narrator’s life in fragmented pieces. I must admit this made it difficult for me to follow. Maybe this was exacerbated by the fact that I was listening to the book, but it gave the effect of almost a fever dream. Nevertheless, I was extremely invested in the narrator and found myself emotionally drained by the end of the book. To me, that is the makings of a powerful story.

Here’s what two of my coworkers thought:

Lisa Wiertel:

“I am glad that I joined this month’s Busy Parent’s Book Club because it gave me the opportunity to read a genre that I typically do not read. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a novel written as a long letter by a son in his late twenties to his illiterate, Vietnamese single mother. I will begin this review by saying that the subjects that are broached in this novel are pretty heavy so if you are looking for a light beach read, pass on this one. Little Dog is the letter’s author and he arrives in the United States as a small child with his mother and grandmother from Vietnam. There are indications that his mother suffers from mental illness due to the PTSD she experienced during the Vietnam War. This mental illness plays a role in the writer’s life as he grows up and recounts different incidents with his mother that made his home life unstable. The section of the book I liked best was when the text switched from prose into poetry. The story flowed better as poetry and I was disappointed when it switched back to prose. First time novelist Ocean Vuong is a poet which explains the beauty of this section . Although it is hard to recommend a book that is so incredibly sad, I felt that the book did make an impression on me. I also thought it depicted well how isolating the immigrant experience is for new arrivals to the U.S. Knowing that Vuong based this book on his own experiences makes the book feel emotionally raw.”

Briesa Koch:

“On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong is a breathtaking debut novel that reads like a long, lyrical letter—because it is one. Addressed to his illiterate mother, the narrator Little Dog, recounts his life growing up as a Vietnamese American, navigating poverty, intergenerational trauma, queerness, and the complexity of love in all its forms. Vuong, a poet by trade, brings his gift for language into every sentence, crafting prose that feels both intimate and expansive, delicate and devastating.

The novel explores the deep emotional cost of war and migration, inherited trauma, and the struggle to be seen and understood in a world that often denies the humanity of people like Little Dog and his family. At its core, the book is about communication—what is said, what is left unsaid, and what cannot be said at all. Vuong’s choice to frame the story as a letter to someone who cannot read it is both heartbreaking and profoundly symbolic.

What makes On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous so compelling is not just its subject matter, but the way Vuong writes about it—with unflinching honesty, poetic intensity, and a tender, searching voice. He doesn’t offer easy resolutions, but instead invites readers to sit with the discomfort, beauty, and truth of lived experience.

This is not a conventional novel. It’s a meditation, a confession, a song. And though it is about being briefly gorgeous, it leaves a lasting impact—resonant, aching, and unforgettable.”