The Emperor of Gladness
by Ocean Vuong
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What It’s About
The novel follows 19-year-old Hai, a Vietnamese American college dropout teetering on the edge of suicide in his decaying hometown of East Gladness, Connecticut. After an elderly widow named Grazina rescues him from a bridge, he moves into her home and becomes her caregiver as her dementia deepens. Over nine months, Hai builds a found family among Grazina and fellow underpaid workers at a fast-casual restaurant, HomeMarket. Through odd jobs, drug dependency, caregiving duties, and laughter in small moments, he grows toward belonging.
My Take
Quiet, bracing, graceful.
This novel feels both wide open and close to the skin. Vuong’s language is still poetic, but it moves with more structured scenes, characters, tension without losing the softness he’s known for.
Hai’s world feels lived in. It’s tender, rough, awkward in moments. But there’s a kind of warmth that sneaks up on you. Not grand or showy just small gestures, shared silences, unexpected care.
It’s a story about loneliness and caregiving, queerness and class, and what we hold onto when everything else slips.
Would I Recommend It?
Yes, especially if you appreciate lyrical fiction grounded in everyday life. This one is for readers who want prose that blends emotional clarity and narrative weight.
Read it slowly, and let the subtle moments accumulate.
Read it if you liked:
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
The White Book by Han Kang
Burnings by Ocean Vuong
Poetic, fragmentary stories about grief, family, and identity
Where to Read It:
Buy on Amazon or Bookshop.org
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