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A review by rheasingh_
Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong
reflective
fast-paced
4.75
I am just a mortal, existing in a confusing world with the confusing Vuong. Even when my atypical mind doesn't understand what he is trying to convey, it somehow understands everything. Vuong's distinct voice is just his—not borrowed, not ill-formed. He is a master of form; he plays with sentence grammar, structures, and enjambments. He slips into a billion people and narrates their inner tales so poetically. He does that so well. It is so cool that he talks about the american dream from the perspective of Jackie Kennedy or when he talks about how it feels to obsessively hold on to people from the perspective of Jeffrey Dahmer. He takes metaphorizing to grand and new levels.
Vuong hero worship is inevitable. Maybe it has already started. I will do my due diligence by becoming insufferable and quoting his iconic verses every now and then. Here are some:
"& you want to tell him it's okay
that the night is also a grave we climb out of" and
"For in the body, where everything has a price,
I was alive. I didn’t know
there was a better reason." and
"Water whittled down to intention.
Intention into nourishment.
Everyone can forget us—as long as
you remember." and
"If you must know anything,
know that you were born because no one else was coming." and
"I hold the gun
& wonder if an entry wound in the night
would make a hole wide as morning." and
"there’s a lighthouse /
some nights you are the lighthouse / some nights the sea / what this
means is that I don’t know / desire other than the need / to be shattered &
rebuilt / the mind forgetting / the body’s crime of living" and
"I am ready. I am ready to be every animal you leave behind."
Okay, now read some Ocean Vuong for yourself!
Vuong hero worship is inevitable. Maybe it has already started. I will do my due diligence by becoming insufferable and quoting his iconic verses every now and then. Here are some:
"& you want to tell him it's okay
that the night is also a grave we climb out of" and
"For in the body, where everything has a price,
I was alive. I didn’t know
there was a better reason." and
"Water whittled down to intention.
Intention into nourishment.
Everyone can forget us—as long as
you remember." and
"If you must know anything,
know that you were born because no one else was coming." and
"I hold the gun
& wonder if an entry wound in the night
would make a hole wide as morning." and
"there’s a lighthouse /
some nights you are the lighthouse / some nights the sea / what this
means is that I don’t know / desire other than the need / to be shattered &
rebuilt / the mind forgetting / the body’s crime of living" and
"I am ready. I am ready to be every animal you leave behind."
Okay, now read some Ocean Vuong for yourself!