• Author: Ocean Vuong
• Publisher: Jonathan Cape London / Penguin Random House UK
• Publishing year: 2019
• Number of pages: 246
• Coverdesign: Suzanne Dean
• ISBN: 978-1787331501

Review:

Oh boy, I was so excited to reread this book! I had read it the first time in 2020, just before all the sh*t with covid hit the fan. I had bought it on a trip to London, on a whim. And when one of my dearest friends told me she read ánd loved it, I was so curious I started it and didn’t stop until I finished it on the same day! I loved it! I adored it! This was definitely up on my Favourite list’!

And now I have reread it! After four years. And it made me realise two things: 1. Don’t reread books you loved so much the first time. Reading them could spoil that ‘first time’ experience (like the first kiss you ever had… there’s no other like it!) and 2. Although it remains still one of my favourite books, I remembered it differently and felt like I wasn’t reading the same book… and my state of mind was different from when I read it the first time, that has to do with it as well!

It’s not fair that the word laughter is trapped inside slaughter

Little Dog

But okay, enough comparing and overthinking!

Little Dog, the main character in this book feels like the personification of the writer himself, is an Asian (Vietnamese) boy growing up in America after his family fled their country during the Vietnam war and Little Dog’s mother was the daughter of Lan (Little Dog’s grandmother) and an American Soldier. The book shows a portrait of a woman who has to survive without a voice. Not that she can’t speak but she doesn’t speak English or only very badly. So she depends on her son to translate everything and be her voice.

But growing up in a land where you’re different (Asian, black, gay…) isn’t easy and coming of age is difficult in its own provides a very difficult youth and puberty for Little Dog. Especially when he meets Trevor, whom he starts a very stormy relationship with, one doomed to fail and end in chaos.

This book is written as a letter from the main character to his mother as a way to tell her how life was for him and for his family and how hard growing up actually really is! Vuong is originally a poet and you can tell this from the way he writes and formulates his sentences! They are vert poetic, full of imagery and not always easy to understand so you may have to reread them once or twice (as you do with a poem as well).

For me, the chemistry between Little Dog (it’s explained in the book why they name him this way!) and Trevor is the best and at the same time the worst part in this book as it is heartbreaking and feels like you want to protect Little Dog from even going in… but sometimes people need the mistakes they make to learn from… life lessons, you know!