Is On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (2019) CHUD or WOKE?
chudrank score: 68 / 100 (WOKE-leaning (left-wing)). 0 is CHUD (right-wing), 100 is WOKE (left-wing).
Book by Ocean Vuong, 2019.
12 votes: 58% WOKE, 42% CHUD.
Why: Queer, immigrant and Vietnamese American coming-of-age; progressive themes
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 tender…