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jasmiinezhu 's review for:
The Emperor of Gladness
by Ocean Vuong
- Hai is spotted off a bridge and saved by a Lithuanian grandma named Grazina. She offers him housing in exchange for being her caretaker, and he quickly forms a deep bond w her. He learns how to read her signs of dementia, pulling his experience with his own late grandma’s dementia. plays as sergeant pepper during her episodes and acting out wwii scenes. takes care of her better than her own son who just wants to send her to a nursing home
- Hai deceived his mother about med school to make her proud. continued guilt prevented him from visiting home and only having brief calls :( fleeting mentions of a boy named Noah that he “befriended” in the summer tobacco fields that overdosed, a nod to on earth were briefly gorgeous eek!
- Hai gets a job at the local restaurant and goes on many adventures w his chosen family: pig slaughtering, looking for his cousin’s dead dad’s diamond in the car wreck, BJ’s wrestling match to make her family and cultural history proud
- moments of parallels with on earth were briefly gorgeous, through his history w Noah on the tobacco farm, noah’s death trauma making him give up on college, late night drives w no end point