The Emperor Of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

 

Hai is on the bridge getting his courage up to jump when he hears a shout.  It is Grazina and she calls for him to come to her yard.  Grazina is an elderly immigrant from Eastern Europe and has dementia but still lives alone.  Hai is nineteen and has no where to go or live.  They form a pact.  Hai will live with her and watch over her and she'll provide a room for him.  Their friendship becomes strong over the next months.

They are living in Gladness, which is a former industrial town in Connecticut but now the factories have closed.  There are few jobs and Hai considers himself lucky when he gets one at what's considered the best fast food restaurant in town, something along the lines of Boston Chicken.  There he finds a group of friends.  His cousin, who is autistic works there and is obsessed with the Civil War.  The grillmaster is from the South and wants nothing more than to go home and open a barbecue restaurant.  The owner has dreams of becoming a female wrestler.  There is another young man who is a Russian immigrant.  Together they also form a family of sorts.

Grazina has a son living about an hour away but she seldom hears from him, his wife or her two grandchildren.  He wants to put her in a home so that he doesn't have to worry about her and so he can sell the house for whatever it will bring.  He suspects Hai of having some sketchy purpose in living with Grazina and tries to take her away from Hai.  

Ocean Vuong is a poet who was born in Saigon, Vietnam.  He is also a MacArthur Fellowship winner and has written a best selling novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.  His poetry background shows up in his lyrical writing and the reader will be transported to Gladness.  Relating to Hai is easy as we see what he has done with his life and how he has tried to move on but can't seem to fight the obstacles and poverty he has lived with his entire life.  The love between Grazina and Hai is a sustaining one and it is heartrending when they are torn apart.  This is a new author for me but I'll be reading more by him.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.