The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong: book review
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong This is a book that both attempts to and succeeds at holding so much between two cupped hands. This is a novel about Hai, a nineteen-year-old boy who's dropped out of college, returned to his hometown, tried to get clean of a pill addiction and relapsed, and is lying to his mother about being in med school in Boston. But it is also a novel about East Gladness, a forgotten, under-resourced Connecticut town only remembered by its residents. This is a book about a place, that contains every person in one way or another, no matter how briefly they brush through the story. Part of this comes through in Vuong's poetic prose. While there's been much discussion of this, most of the book is straightforward. It is when sinking into the world building that Vuong lets his pen truly flow, a contrast that is also a treat. Most of his background as a poet comes through in his ability to evoke profundity from the mundanity of life without making it s...
