Hai is an intelligent, twenty-one year old druggie whose family immigrated from Viet Nam. He has dropped out of college but has his mother believing that he is in medical school in Boston when he is really only a few miles away from her in East Gladness, Connecticut. One night he is seriously contemplating suicide by jumping off a bridge into a fast flowing river when a voice calls out for him to stop. The voice belongs to Grazina, and elderly woman with dementia who escaped from Lithuania during World War II. Hai ends up living and taking care of Grazina while working at HomeMarket, a fast food restaurant specializing in Thanksgiving fare. The workers at HomeMarket are quirky and sad but they care about each other as well as the restaurant.

Ocean Vuong writes beautifully and I appreciated The Emperor of Gladness, but it is not an easy read. All of the characters are weighed down by what life has offered them. There is very little that is uplifting or positive in any of the characters’ lives. The Emperor of Gladness is not a beach read!