The Emperor Of Gladness | Ocean Vuong

Some novels break your heart, and Ocean Vuong's novel, The Emperor Of Gladness is one of those. It's a story about broken people who don't and can't fix each other, but who hold each other together, imperfectly, and with deep tenderness. It's a book about care - who gives it, who receives it, and the cost of loving when it's temporary or unacknowledged.

At the centre of the story is Hai, a young man standing on the edge. Literally and metaphorically. He's stopped from jumping off a bridge by Grazina, an elderly Lithuanian woman in the early stages of dementia. Hai moves in with Grazina and their lives become beautifully entangled as Hai helps her navigate a mind that's slowly losing its grip on reality. Their relationship forms the emotional core of the novel: fragile, unsentimental, human.

Hai is surrounded by a ragtag group at the restaurant where he works alongside his cousin, Sony. Sony is obsessed with the American Civil War and is trying to save money to pay the bail for his mum's release from prison. The staff at the restaurant become Sony and Hai's accidental family. BJ is the manager and an aspiring wrestler. She's tough but quietly protects her staff. Maureen is an old, abrasive woman who is grieving the loss of her son. She's Star Wars mad and believes the world is rum by lizard people. Russia is the acne-faced teenager working to put his sister through rehab.

None of the characters are polished or redeemed. They're tired, funny, strange and damaged, but fiercely loyal to one another in small, practical ways. Vuong describes survival as something communal, even if hope feels scarce.

Hai himself is living a double life. His mother believes he's in Boston studying medicine, when, in reality he's still in the same town as her - East Gladness - just on the other side of the tracks with Grazina. He's too ashamed to visit his mum after he lied to her and ended up in rehab for a month. He's trying to keep himself afloat and is haunted by the expectations that he and others put on him. 

The town itself is a character in the book. Vuong manages to capture the quiet desperation of places left behind, where people endure rather than dream. The characters are not meant to be heroes, they're just normal people trying to live. It's a book that manages to be sad but not bleak, tender but not sentimental, and devastating without being loud.

The Emperor Of Gladness is a really deeply human novel and a quiet reminder that sometimes the most meaningful lives are far from dazzling success, recognition or salvation. Sometimes they're just heal together with a little care and kindness.