Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

STAFF REVIEW

Having loved his writing in his first full length novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous I was very interested to read The Emperor of Gladness. In part, this book has shades of Demon Copperhead with characters living through financial hardship and limited prospects in what one character refers to as a dead end town. Amongst this is the beautiful relationship which emerges between Hai and Grazina. Hai is homeless and is embraced by Grazina and her offer of a place of refuge. In turn, Hai lives with Grazina to help her manage living at home with her frequent absences from reality as she grapples with dementia. Hai also seeks solace with co-workers at a second-rate takeaway establishment, where he then reinstates a relationship with an estranged cousin. A recurring theme throughout is acceptance and respect and the enduring need for connection.

Reviewed by Suzie

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A masterful story of friendship and how much we’re willing to risk to possess one of life’s most treasured mercies- a second chance

THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER AND TIKTOK SENSATION

Ocean Vuong returns with a big-hearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive

‘By dint of great sympathy and imaginative genius, The Emperor of Gladness is a poetic, dramatic and vivid story. It has an epic sweep but it also handles intimacy and love with delicacy and deep originality’ COLM T IB N

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.

Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing – formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness – are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies- a second chance.

About the Author: Ocean Vuong is the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds and the New York Times bestselling novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. A recipient of the 2019 MacArthur “Genius” Grant, he is also the winner of the Whiting Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. His writings have been featured in Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, Nation, New Republic, New Yorker, and the New York Times. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

15 May 2025

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong ISBN 9781787335417