On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Definitely for keeping. This book is the kind that you need to sit with. There were times when I just had to pause and think on the words and write my own thoughts. There were times when he is able to articulate life in a way I haven't thought of that it just took me by surprise. I definitely took my time reading this book because I needed the words to sit with me. For me to turn a description in many ways and see what he sees. Reminds me of a pollock painting, you look at it as a whole and it's a complicated web and you look at each fragment of text closely and it's just as complicated and together, it makes for a beautiful read.

In its totality, this book is about vulnerability. By the very nature of how it was written, a son writing a letter to his mother who might never be able to read it, detailing his life, stories he could never communicate in the hopes of being able to share it to her someday. How he slowly accepts vulnerability as a part of his beauty and how the same fragility and its acceptance applies to our lives and how to see the beauty in it.

This is not a very plot driven book and if you read it expecting it will lay out answers for you, you will be disappointed. This is a book, that when read, will make you ask more questions to yourself.

Do not read this book expecting a linear plotline, that chapter one will make chapter 4 make sense somehow and all the dots will get connected and it will give you a grand conclusion. It's not that kind of book. Read this book like how you live in the present, not thinking about what came before and not anticipating what comes after and you will enjoy it for what it is.