★ 03/01/2022
"I was made to die but I'm here to stay," writes Vuong in his second collection. It's perhaps as fitting a theme as there is to be found in the collection, a work that seeks to tease beauty from violence, to find life in pain. Indeed, these intentional contradictions have proved lodestars in Vuong's work, but here he feels scraped rawer than ever, easily sliding between playfulness and acidity, his language both elliptical and meticulous. Given its cathartic character—it was written following the death of his eponymous parent in 2019—this collection bears more thematic resemblance to the author's novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous than to his debut work of poetry, the more austere Night Sky with Exit Wounds. In truth, though, any of the three titles would have proven apt for the author's latest, suffused as they all are with intimations of mortality. But it's easy to see why this title was picked: Vuong's mother is as present as ever here, woven into poems that alternately reach back into memory and cast out toward the future, the author's experimentation of form and fluidity of tone adding further dimension to his articulation of grief's fickle process. VERDICT Enriching Vuong's already sterling early career, this new collection feels abraded by both the weight of loss and of living, yet is cut with a profusion of affecting beauty and humor.—Luke Gorham
In this highly anticipated second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong ruminates on time. It becomes a character of its own, both an obstacle and motherly, something that can nurture and hold. Written in the aftermath of his mother’s death, Vuong’s poems are raw with grief and darkness, but there are radical moments of joy and resilience even through that. Through these poems, Vuong sings loud and clear of everything worth living for and discovering—just as vividly as he did in his critically acclaimed titles On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and Night Sky With Exit Wounds.” —NPR, “Books We Love”
“Piercing . . . The poems in Time Is a Mother give us a path to examine the complexities of what it means to lose a mother, and what it means to embrace family and the self even when we want to look away. In Vuong’s tender yet unflinching words, we are reminded that only a mother can carry a beating heart within her body.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
“Like Orpheus descending into the underworld, Vuong takes us to the white-hot limits of his grief, writing with visionary fervor about love, agony, and time . . . Aesthetically ambitious and ferociously original . . . Here, he breaks open and rebuilds.” —Esquire, “The Best Books of Spring 2022”
“That’s the essence of Vuong’s talent: he alchemizes deeply individual experiences with universal emotions into what is both familiar and new. . . . We need no more proof of Vuong’s importance in the poetic canon.” —Chicago Review of Books
“An ode to his mother’s passing, Vuong orbits the contours of grief. . . . the poet’s linguistic ferocity illuminates his mother’s spirit from the rays of memory.” —Associated Press
“Aesthetically complex yet emotionally accessible, Time is a Mother at once innovates and affirms the existing poetic tradition. . . . Vuong's portrait of Hồng is both intimate and iconic.” —NPR.org
“Time Is a Mother builds on the themes of [Vuong’s] previous books, displaying a new degree of precision and elegant power. . . . Time Is a Mother offers a reckoning with the many versions of ourselves, some altered by time and loss but still true, still open to more life—as a long as we’re willing to risk the depths.” —Nashville Scene
“Vuong’s powerful follow-up to Night Sky with Exit Wounds does more than demonstrate poetic growth: it deepens and extends an overarching project with 27 new poems that reckon with loss and impermanence . . . This fantastic book will reward fans while winning this distinctive poet new ones.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[Vuong] focuses on the complicated relationship with his mother in quiet, astonishing lyrics . . . Even the most ostensibly simple moments prove mesmerizing in Vuong's treatment.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Vuong’s second full-length poetry collection grapples with the aftermath of his mother’s death in poems that memorably evoke the stunning immensity of loss.” —Buzzfeed News, 26 Books to Get Excited About This Year
“Tender and heartbreaking . . . this collection of poems thoughtfully considers grief, both as an emotion and a sacred act, revisiting the history he shared with his mother and the understanding of family they forged together. Delving back into the visceral themes that made his 2019 novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous a revelation, Vuong traverses the intensely personal and the broadly political with grace and courage.” —TIME, “The Most Anticipated Books of 2022”
“These poems glisten and rattle, and they deftly mine a host of diverse topics—sex, privilege, beauty, art, poverty, death—to offer us a fresh way of evaluating and understanding our world. Vuong expertly unwraps clichés and rewraps them in fresh packaging so we can perceive their meanings anew. On each page he demonstrates that untranslatable is a meaningless word. His poems say, We’re all humans having human experiences. Let’s figure this all out together.” —Vulture, “49 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2022”
“Ocean Vuong’s Time Is a Mother is haunting, inconsolable, and at the same time a playful, generous in spirit, tender, inimitable book. The poet’s late mother is these pages’ muse and guardian spirit, as poem after poem Vuong redefines our idea of what an elegy can do it, what it is for. But from all of this intersection of tragedy and tenderness, true wisdom comes: Vuong teaches us not just how to grieve, but how to live.” —Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic and Dancing in Odessa
“All of Ocean Vuong’s writing shows a masterful attention to detail. He comes at language with a magnifying glass. He holds words differently than everyone else, and when he hands them to you, they are changed. . . . Dealing with the death of his mother, this new book comes from a place of grief and memory, turning loss over and over in a way that only this writer can.” —LitHub, “Most Anticipated Books of 2022”
“Ocean Vuong’s sentences are like tiny icebergs: exquisite and annihilating.” —Nylon, “24 Books We’re Looking Forward to in 2022”
“Among the most haunting in the collection is a poem that lists items ordered from Amazon leading up to the death of his mother from cancer, the last line—one pair of woolen socks—a singular reminder that we come here alone and we die alone, regardless of whether time nurtures us or not.” —Oprah Daily, “The 50 Most Anticipated Books of 2022”
“Stories of personal loss are woven into vignettes and memories that explore the most sweeping of subjects—addiction, racism, war, death, family—with a gentle, modest touch and the occasional dose of humor. So, too, does Vuong once again prove himself the rare writer in whose hands experiments with form can become a thing of beauty in and of themselves. . . . Indeed, for all his technical prowess, the most striking thing about Vuong’s writing will always be its warm, beating heart even in the face of life’s cruelties. . . . It’s a body of work as hauntingly beautiful as it is ultimately hopeful, and very possibly Vuong’s best yet.” —Vogue.com, “The Best Books of 2022: A Preview”
“[A] stirring collection of poetry. [Vuong] experiments with language and form while probing the aftermath of his mother’s death and his determination to survive it. Take your time with these poems, and return to them often.” —The Washington Post, “The books to read in 2022 based on what you loved in 2021”
“Both Jarrett and Hess say this poetry collection, Vuong’s second, should be on your radar in 2022. . . . ‘The poetry is just incredible and so moving,’ Hess said. ‘Anyone can read it and cull from it what they need from it at that time, which I love because it really speaks to so many people across many aspects of life.’” —Boston.com, “23 books to look out for in 2022, according to local experts”
