Ocean Vuong takes us to the grim town of East Gladness in Connecticut where Hai, 19 years old, is preparing to jump from a bridge. Grazina, an old Lithuanian lady with dementia sees him and stops him. He becomes her carer and she in turn, rescues him for a second time with her friendship. This story is one of found family, the expectations of real family, communities in decline, the immigrant experience including how that changes the world for the next generation; and the community that can be found in the crappiest jobs. And more. Ocean Vuong writes sublimely and makes every sentence worth reading.

It's impossible to lose awe of Ocean Vuong's writing style. His unique blend of the lyrical and mundane are on full show here. This isn't a book to pick up if you're a heavy plot reader. It's almost entirely about the relationships between nineteen-year-old Hai, his cousin Sony, and the elderly widow who takes him in Grazina. It deals with so much to do with the mind - demetia, neurodivergence, suicide ideation, trauma. How all of this shows up in their relationships. It also paints their home and the fast food place Hai works in as their own vivid characters. I would love to revisit this when I'm in just the right space for it but it's certainly something special.

Ocean Vuong returns with a deeply moving, quietly powerful novel about survival, chosen family, and unexpected human connection. At its heart is Hai, a 19-year-old queer Vietnamese-American on the edge—literally—when a chance encounter with Grazina, an elderly woman slipping into dementia, alters the course of both their lives.

With lyrical prose and aching tenderness, Vuong paints a portrait of small-town America rarely seen—of exploited labour, invisible lives, and the messy grace of everyday survival. Through Hai’s bond with Grazina, his coworkers at a grimy diner, and his vulnerable cousin, we witness how love and care can emerge in even the bleakest circumstances.

Slow-burning, atmospheric, and full of heart, The Emperor of Gladness reminds us that sometimes the greatest act of resistance is simply staying alive—and choosing to care.

Thank you to Ocean Vuong, Random House UK, Vintage | Jonathan Cape, and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Vuong’s sophomore novel, The Emperor of Gladness follows Hai as he explores grief, addiction, and the intricacies of the immigrant experience in America. Whilst I found his first novel to be too ‘purple-prose’ heavy, TEOG was pleasantly surprising and I found myself preferring it far more. It was reminiscent of Leila Mottley’s Nightcrawling and The Girls Who Grew Big (both of which I love).

The cast of characters are all unique with consistent and clear character arcs. I loved Grazina so much and the autism representation too. Both the pacing and plot were also very well done. I felt that the book could have been condensed a little but the length didn’t detract from my enjoyment.

Hai meets 82-year-old Grazina on the eve of his trying to jump off a bridge. With her needing a carer to cope with her dementia and him needing a place to stay, they become unlikely housemates.
“You see, carrots become bright orange because it’s so dark in the ground. They make their own light because the sun never reaches that far—like those fish in the ocean who glow from nothing? So when you eat it, you take in the carrot’s will to go upward. To heaven.”
Lucidity and clouded mind, fear of not belonging, misfits and awkward cameraderie - it’s all here. The motley crew at the fast-food franchise HomeMarket including Hai’s autistic cousin Sony becomes Hai’s new family and brings much-needed funds for him and Grazina.
It’s a drifty “Harold and Maude” kind of story - in a good way - how people are placed and displaced and tumbled around like dice in a beaker and tossed out and how they look on bewilderedly as their lives just scoot past them.

Ocean Vuong is an extraordinarily gifted writer.

This follows Hai whose Vietnamese born mother is proud of him going off to college. The truth is somewhat different as Hai is unable to live up to her expectations and hits a crisis point. he is rescued from death by suicide by another "outsider", Lithuanian born Grazina. She lives alone and fiercely maintains her independence, despite struggling with dementia.

Grazina and the fast food joint where he finds work become home. His colleagues become his "found"/chosen family.

This is the side of American life I rarely encounter in novels, as the "American Dream" is illusory. Yes they have their dreams (his boss of making it big in the wrestling world) but there is more love and understanding shared between them and shared experience bonds them together. Some really touching examples of empathy and compassion to the most marginalised people in American society.

As he continues to care for Grazina, her dementia means she has flashbacks to trauma during wartime (there's intergenerational trauma in Ha's background too)

If this sounds bleak, as it covers Vuong's usual themes of trauma, identity and family, that's not the whole story. Unlike "on Earth" there is fair smattering of humour and even some laugh out loud lines. There's more light as well as shade.

A stand out book for me. One of the best of the last few years.

The Emperor of Gladness is a beautiful story about an unlikely friendship between two cast out people in the town of Gladness, who help each other through loneliness and sadness by escaping into other worlds and by lifting each other up.

As usual Vuongs writing is lyrical and beautiful, a stare at the wall in silence kind of experience

Pretentious and overwritten. Vuong needs to touch grass, maybe? All of his character interactions felt unreal.

The Emperor of Gladness By Ocean Vuong
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.5 stars
Publication date: 15th May 2025

Thank you to Vintage Books and Netgalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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.

After loving On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous when I read it 2 or 3 years ago, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Vuong's new novel, and it was everything I could have wanted from this author (I've said it before, and I'll say it again: novels written by poets are in a league of their own, and very special indeed.) The prose is gorgeous, as expected, and this book is a beautiful character study and a slow-moving tragedy. Even though it has moments of levity, this can be a heavy and difficult read - the decaying small town, the unfulfilled ambitions, drug addiction, sense of hopelessness and fraught family relationships. But this is also about finding a community where you least expect it - with Hai's relationships with Grazina and his cousin Sony being the beating heart of this story. This was ultimately desperately sad, which made the rare nuggets of joy and light in this story even more fragile and precious. I loved it, and will forever and ever read anything Vuong decides to write in the future.

Nineteen-year-old Hai, a Vietnamese American college dropout grappling with addiction, is preparing to end his life on a bridge in East Gladness, Connecticut. His attempt is interrupted by Grazina, an 82-year-old Lithuanian widow with advancing dementia. Their encounter sparks an unlikely bond, and Hai becomes her caregiver, moving into her crumbling home in a deserted street.
As Hai cares for the old lady – bathing her, cooking and role-playing through her psychotic episodes – the pair form a surrogate family rooted in mutual need, humour and tenderness. To get by, Hai takes a job at a fast-food diner populated by oddball coworkers who provide him with another kind of chosen family amid the drudgery of low-paid labour.
Through this poignant and darkly comic tale, Vuong, a celebrated poet, explores the emotional terrain of class struggle, queer identity, addiction and inter-generational trauma. It’s a love letter to survival – people facing the everyday struggles of life with huge courage and offbeat humour. The novel is shot through with a lyricism that makes for sheer reading pleasure and I was brought to the edge of tears more than once.

This is such a wonderful book, hopeful yet sad too. Hai is a teen that’s had enough, the story starts with him climbing over the rail of a bridge and looking at the water below. Before he can jump he hears someone call out to him. It’s an elderly lady calling from her house down by the river. He promises he won’t jump and climbs back over the rail and heads to her house. Here he meets Grazina, an octogenarian who is in the early stages of dementia. He ends up staying with her the night, then moves in as her carer, making sure she is taking her meds on time and generally looking after her as much as she looks after him. It’s an unusual friendship but one they both need as life has dealt them both challenges. To help with the cost of meals, Hai gets a job at HomeMarket with his cousin Sony. It’s a fast food joint that promises meals that remind you of family and home.cooking. Here we meet a group of colourful characters each with their own problems and how they lean on each other and help when they can. Sony has learning difficulties but a thirst for knowledge and through the story he narrates bits he’s learnt about the US Civil War for one.
As the story progresses we get the backstories of Hai, a Vietnamese refugee and pill popper in remission and Grazina, formerly from Lithuania and survivor of a war that stole some of her family.
The friendship of the two is the part of the book I really enjoyed best and Hai’s caring and help for Grazina when she is reliving a different time, pretending to be an officer of the war, here to help her escape. His struggles to care for her, work long hours and try to curtail his addiction to pills and Grazinas love for Hai and her reliance on him for help with most things and the grandson, grandmother bond they carry through the book.

#TheEmperorOfGladness. #NetGalley

Love Ocean Vuong's writing, and love this novel. Hai is a young Vietnamese-American man living in a small, run-down town. He is struggling with the untimely death of his friend, and with his own addiction to prescription drugs and, on a bleak day, he stands on a bridge, and considers taking his own life. This is when Grazina, an elderly Lithunian woman, arrives in his life.

The novel follows Hai across a year as he moves in with, and cares for, Grazina, and takes on a job at a local fast-food restaurant. Through flashback, we learn more about Hai, and about his family. We also meet his new co-workers, all of whom have their own struggles in working-class America.

I loved so much about this novel - the unexpected humour, the plethora of characters, and Hai himself whom I felt for deeply. Brilliant book, highly recommend.

This was my first Ocean Vuong novel, and I was really looking forward to it after all the glowing reviews. Unfortunately, it didn’t resonate with me, and I ended up DNF-ing it about halfway through. While the prose is undeniably beautiful, the overall substance just didn’t land for me. I struggled to connect with the characters or feel invested in the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

There is real beauty here, in both the writing and the story itself. Young college dropout and recovering drug user Hai reaches the end of his desire to continue living and is talked down (quite literally) by elderly Grazina, who is battling with dementia. Somehow the two form a strong emotional and practical bond and face the cruelties of the world together. And what cruelties they are - aggressions large and small are directed at this young man of Vietnamese heritage and the elderly Lithuanian immigrant, but their strong bond helps both of them to deal with the challenges they face. Although there is much to admire here, and much to get the reader questioning their own attitudes and preconceptions, the story does move a little slowly and could use a little more direction in places. Overall, a thoughtful and stirring read.

I adored the 2 main characters and their relationship. I really liked their bond. I overall thought this book was really good however I thought it was maybe a bit too long for me. I slightly wanted more to happen but I did like the characterisation and connecyions the characters had and the theme of new found family and connections. I would recommend:)

Ocean Vuong has a way of writing that just always gets to me. Almost as heartbreaking as it's beautiful. And of course it's not only how he writes but also what he writes about. Storys of 'normal' people that may sometimes get overlooked but still deserve to be heared/read. He manages to capture their lifes accurately and so vivid you could almost smell the connecticut air. A story about ups and downs and just life in general but from a perspective I haven't read about before. Parts of it was hard to read because it felt so read but that's okay.

A very real account of caring for an elderly person with Alzheimer's plus the writing was lyrical and beautiful.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

Ocean Vuong returns to the novel form with the incredibly moving 'The Emperor of Gladness', a novel about a college dropout and recovering drug addict (Hai) and an octogenarian Lithuanian immigrant (Grazina). Hai does not see the point of living, and Grazina is in the winter of her life, but she does want to continue living. Yet somehow they are meant to meet, and form a bond that saves them from the cruelty of life. Vuong is an expert at exploring the chaotic mindset of characters who believe they do not belong in the world. He shows his readers what happens when people feel estranged from a world that does not value compassion and understanding. When a world thrives on cruelty, that kind of emotion is often turned inwards when you have no self-sovereignty. The novel understands our current world and makes a case that the quietest and more vulnerable victims are often willingly overlooked by the dominant culture. Extraordinary.

It was such a treat to dive back into Ocean Vuong's lovely, poetic writing. The novel did have some lengthy bits in the middle, but ultimately the characters and the pages filled with human connection, hope and despair drew me back in toward the end.

I have never read this author before and initially loved the lyrical style, though it dragged a bit when the town was described page after page. Another reviewer writes ’I read 11 pages about a HomeMarket (like Boston Market?) interview and descriptions of grease and cutting boards and a manager on a diatribe.’, and I did find this uninteresting, especially as I am not American.
The rest of the story was ok, but I felt that the author had had too many issues to write about, which detracted from the central story of a teenager caring for an elder person.