On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous: Genre 1 key example

In On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Vuong chooses not to center those with PTSD; rather, he sympathizes with the children of traumatized parents from war-torn countries. Little Dog recalls neither the war in Vietnam nor the diaspora it caused. Despite this, war's after-effects penetrate the entirety of Little Dog's life, impacting everything from his relationships to his sense of cultural and national belonging.

In addition to being a trauma narrative, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous functions as an epistolary novel. Little Dog narrates his messy, complicated relationship with his mother, addressing his musings to her in the form of a letter. This single letter comprises the entire novel. Little Dog frequently comments on the letter-writing process, asserting that it is the only means of communication capable of bringing him closer to his mother—across the gulf PTSD engenders. In this way, Little Dog's letter is a reflexive response to intergenerational trauma.