About The Emperor of Gladness

Hai is nineteen, has dropped out of college, and is standing on a bridge in East Gladness, Connecticut, ready to jump. An old woman named Grazina calls him back. She is a Lithuanian widow who fled the Second World War as a young woman, and she is now living with dementia. Within days Hai has moved into her house as her carer, while his mother believes he is away at medical school in Boston. To pay his way, he takes a job at HomeMarket, a fast-casual chain restaurant, through his cousin Sony. There he finds a crew of coworkers who become something close to a family. Ocean Vuong, the poet and author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, follows them through four seasons in a worn-out factory town. The novel was a 2025 Oprah’s Book Club pick. It is long, funny in places, and very sad in others. It works well for book clubs because almost everyone has had a job like Hai’s, or has cared for someone who was slipping away.

Discussion questions for The Emperor of Gladness

The novel opens with Hai on the bridge and Grazina calling him back. Their first meeting is almost an accident. How does that beginning shape the friendship that follows, and who do you think rescues whom?
Hai lets his mother believe he is studying medicine in Boston. Why does he keep the story going for so long? Is the lie a way to protect her, to protect himself, or to hold on to a version of his life that never happened?
At night, Grazina relives her escape from the war, and Hai learns to play along with the past she is living in. Is going along with her version of events a form of care or a form of deception? Where would you draw that line with someone you loved?
HomeMarket is not quite a restaurant and not quite fast food. Which details of the shifts, the smells, and the pressure from above rang true to you? Have you ever had a job where your coworkers became the people who knew you best?
BJ wants to be a professional wrestler. Other coworkers carry their own private hopes. What do these dreams say about the “bigger life” that Hai once imagined for himself, and does the novel treat them as foolish or brave?
Sony loves Civil War history and wants to be a soldier. Hai tells him that most people are soft and scared, and that this is fine. Who do you think is right? What does each cousin need to believe in order to get through the day?
Hai has several mother figures: his own mother, Grazina, and Maureen at work. What does each of them give him that the others cannot? Which relationship did you find most moving?
Grazina lost almost everything in the war. She tells Hai that trying to be a decent person, without making it into something grand, can be enough. Do you agree? Does the novel?
At one point, the HomeMarket crew ends up in a warehouse where pigs are being slaughtered for a holiday rush. Why do you think Vuong put his characters there? How did the scene affect the way you read the rest of the book?
Hai’s friend Noah died of an overdose, and his grandmother died soon after. Hai himself uses drugs. How does the novel write about addiction and grief? Did it ask you to judge Hai, or simply to stay with him?
Vuong is a poet first. Find a sentence or passage you marked. Did his style bring you closer to the characters, or did it sometimes stand between you and the story?
The final pages tell us what happens to several characters, but not to Hai. Why do you think Vuong left his future open? If you could write one more page for Hai, what would it say?

Themes in The Emperor of Gladness

Found family at work

Hai fails at college and cannot face his mother. What catches him is a low-wage job and the people who work it with him. Vuong takes this kind of workplace seriously. The crew covers for each other, argues, eats together, and knows each other’s habits. The novel suggests that for many people, the place they clock in is the closest thing they have to a community.

Care as labour

Hai cares for Grazina. He bathes her, follows her into her memories, and keeps her safe at night. None of it is paid, and none of it is simple. The book shows care as real work that leaves marks on the person doing it. It also shows how much an old woman with failing memory can still give back.

Class and the American dream

East Gladness is a town that industry left behind. Hai’s family came from Vietnam hoping their son would rise. Grazina came from Lithuania with her own losses. The novel asks who the American dream is really for, and what is left for people who never get the bigger life they were promised.

The past that will not stay past

Grazina’s war, the war in Vietnam that shaped Hai’s family, and Hai’s own recent losses all keep breaking into the present. Memory in this book is not tidy. It arrives at night, in the middle of a shift, or in a song. The characters live with their ghosts rather than leaving them behind.

Suggested book club format

Length: About 416 pages, roughly ten hours of reading.
Session count: Two sessions work well. The novel moves through four seasons, so a natural break comes halfway through, after the second season. Save the final section and the ending for the second meeting.
Icebreaker: “What was a job you had that taught you more than school did?”
Moderator note: The novel opens with a suicide attempt. It also includes drug use, an overdose death, dementia, and a graphic animal slaughter scene. Name these at the start, let people share or not share as they wish, and keep crisis resources to hand.

How a real club read this

Share how your circle discussed The Emperor of Gladness: tell us about your reading circle.

More books like The Emperor of Gladness

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt: an unlikely friendship across generations, built on night shifts and quiet grief. Remarkably Bright Creatures discussion guide.
The Wedding People by Alison Espach: another novel that begins at the edge of a suicide attempt and finds its way back through strangers. The Wedding People discussion guide.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver: addiction, poverty, and a young man the system keeps failing, told with warmth and anger. Demon Copperhead discussion guide.
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride: a struggling town held together by the people who look after each other. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store discussion guide.

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The Emperor of Gladness