Fiction Book Club: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

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Program Type:

Book Club, Authors & Books

Age Group:

Adult
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Program Description

Details

The library's Fiction Book Club meets the second Monday each month at 1 PM and 7 PM. All are welcome.

Whenever possible, copies of each month's title will be available for checkout with a library card.

Registration is optional - register to receive reminders!

This club will be held in hybrid format. Come in person at the library, or attend online! Click this link to connect via Zoom. Password: 3GWdHC

For more book groups, visit cityofportsmouth.com/library/book-discussion-groups.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Monday June 13 | 1 PM or 7 PM

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 tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.