Book Club Night Kit

The Emperor of Gladness

Ocean Vuong

Cozy night

Ocean Vuong's second novel follows a young man adrift in a worn-down New England town who falls into an unlikely caretaking bond with an elderly woman, and finds a makeshift family among coworkers at a fast food restaurant. It is a tender, slow-burning book about who shows up for us when almost no one does.

Come Sit in the Warm Kitchen

We are reading Ocean Vuong's The Emperor of Gladness, and gathering for porridge, sliders, and sweet coffee. Bring your dog-eared pages and wear something you could nap in.

Reading level: Moderate Pages: 416

Best for: A club that likes to linger over beautiful sentences and does not mind a few quiet, teary moments between laughs

Discussion

Warm-up

1.Before we talk about the book at all: what did you make yourself to eat or drink while reading it, and did the book change your appetite at all?
2.Vuong writes the kind of sentences people underline. Find one passage you dog-eared and read it out loud to us, no explanation needed unless you want to give one.

Digging in

1.The novel is full of people taking care of each other without being asked. Was there a moment of quiet caretaking in these pages that reminded you of someone who once did that for you?
2.So much of this book happens in a town that has clearly seen better days. Did it make you homesick for a place, even an unglamorous one, and what do you miss about it?
3.The fast food workplace becomes something closer to a kitchen table. Have you ever found that kind of accidental family at a job, and what made it feel like home?
4.Vuong lets his characters be funny in the middle of hard circumstances. Which moment of humor caught you off guard, and did it comfort you or ache a little?

Going deep

1.This is a book about being needed. Without giving anything away about where things end up, did reading it shift how you think about being on either side of that, the one who cares or the one who is cared for?
2.Memory in this novel is slippery, and people hold onto stories that may or may not be exactly true. Is there a story in your own family that you have decided to keep believing anyway, and what would you lose if you let it go?

On the table & to sip

To eat

A big pot of chicken and rice porridge (cháo) with scallions and black pepper

The classic Vietnamese sick-day comfort food, the thing you make for someone you are taking care of. Simmers unattended while guests arrive.

Build-your-own diner sliders with a tray of crinkle-cut fries

A warm nod to the fast food counter at the heart of the book, scaled down to something you can set out on a platter and let people graze on.

Warm skillet cornbread with honey butter, plus a tin of store-bought butter cookies

Small-town New England church-supper food alongside the blue cookie tin that lives in so many immigrant grandmothers' houses. Low effort, high recognition.

To sip

Vietnamese coffee served hot with sweetened condensed milk (no alcohol)

Slow-dripped and sweet, a drink that insists you sit still for a few minutes. Make a big batch in a French press if the phin feels fussy.

Ginger and honey tea with a lemon wedge (no alcohol)

The thing you press into someone's hands when they are tired. Keep a kettle going all night.

Hot spiked cider with a splash of bourbon and a cinnamon stick

New England autumn in a mug, a little indulgent, easy to leave unspiked for anyone who prefers it.