I had to check, about a quarter of the way in, that On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous was not, in fact, a memoir because it feels that real.

Written as a series of letters to his mother, “Little Dog” philosophizes on their family history, racism,  homosexuality, the opioid epidemic…

It’s beautiful and heartbreaking and almost too full for such a short novel. It took me much longer to get through than the page count would indicate.