The Emperor of Gladness Review

 This was a book that I have had in my collection for a while, but with many other books I also purchased and also the sheer size and intensity of Ocean Vuong’s writing, I only recently got around to reading and reviewing it. I had very little knowledge about this novel, except that I knew it was by Ocean Vuong and after he had ripped my heart out in ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’, I decided that was enough to purchase a hard copy at my local Waterstones. However, while this was undoubtedly a master class in beautiful prose that at times started reading like poetry, I am afraid that his previous novel was a lot more effective and emotional than this one.

‘The Emperor of Gladness’ follows Hai, a young Vietnamese- American queer man and his relationship with an old Lithuanian woman suffering from dementia as he becomes her caretaker. Other characters include Hai’s co-workers at the local fast food restaurant he becomes a part of and their developing relationships. Additionally, I would even argue that the town of East Gladness becomes a character of its own, and its descriptions provide not only a setting for the novel’s events but also an explanation and the cause for many of these character’s personalities. It is a forgotten town in many ways, full of people reflecting that.

Still, what Ocean Vuong does so well is to give all of these people a voice and a face to the point that I could imagine all of them very soon after they have been introduced. They may not be the most interesting or smartest people around, but Vuong did make me care for them. I cared about their mundane everyday life and I wanted to know more about their background and their story, which he had sparingly provided throughout the story.  While I was reading it, occasionally I would find myself seeing them judgmentally, wondering why I am reading a book full of people working in a fast food restaurant spreading weird conspiracy theories. But then I would find out about a tragedy in their family and it would smack me across the fact that I in fact know nothing about so many people I come across on a daily basis.

As mentioned already, Vuong has undoubtedly so much talent and I was not surprised when I found out that he also writes poetry as his style lends itself perfectly to that form. This is not lacking in this novel either. However, at times, in ‘The Emperor of Gladness’, it would take me out of the main story and the plot happening at that moment. It felt as if Vuong would start describing a conversation between two young men or describe an everyday event in an accessible and still compelling way only to then include a few passages of esoteric philosophy as a way to remind the reader that he could still write in that manner as well. While I appreciated these passages for their beauty, there were many instances where they simply did not fit to the overall story.

Additionally, maybe it was because I read ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’ first and connected with that book a lot more than this one, but I had a feeling that Vuong repeated himself a lot. I completely understand that the experiences of being a young, queer, Vietnamese- American man is something that he would personally experience and therefore want to and feel the need to write about. But at times Hai, the main character in this novel and Little Dog from ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’ felt too similar and there was not enough separating them as individual characters in separate narratives in my opinion.

Finally, there was so much happening in this novel, that at times I felt like it needed to be trimmed down a bit. Vuong is skilled at covering a lot of topics, from a beautifully warm and heartbreaking narrative of a found family, especially between Hai and Grazina, the woman he is looking after, addiction, queerness, immigration experience just to name a few. This is also a political novel in many ways, especially criticizing the way towns like East Gladness are forgotten and left behind and the effects that has on people still inhabiting it. However, at times, the scenes would get so convoluted and needlessly long and overdetailed that I was reading them carefully only to see if there should be something deeper in them than what I was seeing. Perhaps the point was to reflect on the mundane nature of the lives of people described in the novel, but I wish there was a way to make them more compelling and interesting. I did care about all of them and wished them all well and wanted them to succeed, but I think I expected more from Vuong.

Still, this is not a novel without hope, quite the opposite actually. While the narrative is bleak at times and I imagined this place covered in a layer of dust constantly, creating a kind of sepia effect on it, I was not discouraged and neither were these people. Even Grazina, an 82 year old woman suffering from dementia and living in poverty, wanted to keep living. They all wanted to keep living and were fighting for their lives to be better and to keep going. This strength, even though they are aware of the conditions they are in, gave me optimism as well.

Although I had a lot of criticism towards this book, it definitely had a lot to do with the fact that I adore Ocean Vuong’s debut novel, especially the relationship between Little Dog and his mom. Here, while this was explored and it was one of the main topics of the narrative, I expected more depth and more understanding of each other’s perspective. But, I did not feel like I got enough from his mother’s side of the story, making her look callous and putting too much pressure on her struggling son. The author is not hiding the fact that Hai is a troubled young man, but this cruelty he exhibited towards his mother quite frequently made me feel very frustrated with him. Perhaps this was also very personal, as I am very pregnant at the time of writing this and I am very much in my head about the kind of relationship I will have with my child. If I had read this before I got pregnant or even thought about having children, my opinion would be different.

Finally, this was far from a bad book. Ocean Vuong has once again proved he can write and wrote he did so well here. However, I had a lot of issues with the structure of the novel, some of the plot points and the overall approach taken. It still offers a lot and I am very glad I have purchased it and read it when I did. Vuong will remain an automatic buy from me for all the future releases he does and I am still in love with his prose.

This one I rated ⅘.