I think Myshkin1981's criticism is valid. Vuong focuses too much on trying to create "profound" prose and not enough on a cohesive narrative so the end result is a fragmented collected of meandering phrases. I think this is the poet in him not translating for long form well.

To me, it comes off as a shallow person trying write intellectual & deep prose but it's immature, tedious, and yes, cringe. There were just too many obvious and bad metaphors.

I am really surprised so many people like this book, one of the worst books I've read in recent years.

I think you can accomplish the same thing without writing it the way Vuong did. His style felt like he was trying so hard to be profound and instead it came off like Tumblr quotes.

Just my personal opinion, it just wasn't for me.

I thought it was way too schmaltzy. Maybe I'm too cynical but it was not my taste and thought it was very "im14andthisisdeep".

Actual quotes from the book:

>!"I know, it's not fair that the word laughter is trapped inside slaughter"!<

>!"The day was a purple day - neither good or bad"!<

>!He also whispers to a jolly rancher "tell me what you know."!<

>!"To be or not to be. That is the question. A question, yes, but not a choice."!<

>!"Our hands empty except for our hands."!<

>!"Isn’t that the saddest thing in the world, Ma? A comma forced to be a period?"!<

>!"The truth is we don't have to die if we don't feel like it. Just kidding."!<

It can be a good gauge though. Like if something has 500,000+ reviews and is at around 4.25, then there's a good chance it's a terrible book haha.

Some books with commercial success just aren't great but appeal to a wide range of readers.

I'm lucky that I have 2 very good used bookstores near me so I exclusively buy from there.

Or maybe Dumas just has a really great PR team.