Name: The Emperor of Gladness: Oprah's Book Club: A Novel
Author: Ocean Vuong

Podcast

The Mel Robbins Podcast

Mel briefly mentioned it as one of her favorite books she had read, citing it as a highlight during her yearend reflection.

maybe it was a really good book that you read. I read one of my favorite books of all time. This was a high, The Emperor of Gladness is here.

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Mel briefly mentioned it as one of her favorite books she had read, citing it as a highlight during her yearend reflection.

maybe it was a really good book that you read. I read one of my favorite books of all time. This was a high, The Emperor of Gladness is here.

Podcast

The podcast highlighted the novel as a fresh work by Ocean Vuong that follows a suicidal Vietnamese‑American teen rescued by an elderly widow, using humor and a tone that sidestepped sentimentality while probing class, caregiving and found family. Hosts and the author described it as an exploration of working‑class life in a post‑industrial Connecticut town, noting its literary nods and emotional depth. The overall impression was strongly positive, presenting it as a noteworthy addition to Vuong’s oeuvre.

Highly Recommended

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The book was described as a new novel about a suicidal VietnameseAmerican teen who is saved by an elderly dementiastricken widow, exploring class, work, and found family with a tone that avoided sentimentality.

Poet and novelist Ocean Vuong talks about his new novel, The Emperor of Gladness.

The Emperor of Gladness, like its predecessor, explores what Vuong has called in a recent interview, the loneliness of class movement.

If the novel's opening calls to mind Thornton Wilder glazed with Springsteen, what happens next reads like Vuong's nod to Frank Capra and his classic 1946 film, It's a Wonderful Life.

This is one vision of a found family that Vuong presents in The Emperor of Gladness, and its miraculous lack of sentimentality surely owes something to the fact that he lived a similar story himself.

And this book is funny. I'm a funny person. You know, there's all of me in here.

Episode: Ocean Vuong Sees Himself More As A Teacher Than A...

The host introduced the novel as a new work exploring workingclass life, caregiving and survival in a fictional Connecticut town. Vuong had written it as his first book completed without his mother's influence.

His new novel, The Emperor of Gladness, is an exploration of working-class life and the quiet joys and devastations of caregiving and survival. It's set in the fictional post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, and follows a 19-yearold Vietnamese American named Hai, who contemplates taking his own life before meeting an 82yearold widow with dementia.

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The novel was mentioned as Vuong's new book that would be discussed on an upcoming episode, indicating its recent release and relevance.

poet and novelist Ocean Vuong joins us to discuss his new novel, The Emperor of Gladness.

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Maureen Corrigan described it as a truly great novel about work, noting its expansive scope compared to Vuong's debut and praising its literary vision.

One of this year's most anticipated novels has just arrived. The Emperor of Gladness is Ocean Vuong's second novel. It follows his celebrated 2019 debut, On Earth, We're Briefly Gorgeous. The Emperor of Gladness opens on a view, sweeping in time and space, of East Gladness, Connecticut, a town that manufacturing left behind.

The Emperor of Gladness is a truly great novel about work, still an underacknowledged topic in American fiction. Vuong's achingly austere artistic vision leaves it to his readers to imagine the better world he won't let himself depict on the pages of this wonderful novel.

The Emperor of Gladness Oprah's Book Club: A Novel