Starting from the title, On earth we're briefly gorgeous is an exceptional, poetic book. If I had noticed ReadEra's new quoting function, I would have quoted the hell out of it.

Little Dog - Ocean himself, it would appear, is growing up gay in the suburbs of New York (New Jersey?), brought up by his Vietnamese mum and grandma, both with mental health problems. Around him, malls - where to go on a Sunday afternoon, all dressed up, to stroll and suck on two hardly-earned Godiva pralines - fields - cultivated with tobacco, handpicked by Latino workers - and opioids - relentlessly destroying Little Dog's friends, one by one.

The book is told in the form of a letter to the narrator's illiterate mother. The two stories waved into it are how Little Dog's family came from Vietnam into the US in the aftermaths of the war, and Little Dog's romance with Trevor, a white boy from a messy, unloving background, ashamed of being gay, intent on proving how tough he is all the time, but capable of being really sweet to Little Dog. I liked the romance, I liked the power dynamics between the two, Trevor being white, but far from rich, and son to an alcoholic, violent father, Little Dog being Asian, more 'urban' but poor, son to a mentally unstable but loving mother.

It was a great book to start 2020.