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Misfits unite: The Emperor of Gladness, by Ocean Vuong, reviewed

Vuong’s disparate characters in rural Connecticut, including a Lithuanian octogenarian and her teenage Vietnamese carer, find fulfilment not in achievements but in loving companionship

14 June 2025

9:00 AM

14 June 2025

9:00 AM

The Emperor of Gladness Ocean Vuong

Cape, pp.402, 20

As a poet, Ocean Vuong has won every prize going. Now here’s The Emperor of Gladness, his second novel. His first, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, a coming-of-age story, is currently being filmed. This latest oneis wild, unwieldy and too long. It is fiction/autofiction mixed with 19th- and 20th-century warfare, plus contemporary angst and craziness.

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