Ocean Vuong is one of my favourite authors (even though I only have read a novel - On Earth We ´re Briefly Gorgeous - and a collection of poems - Time is a Mother - from him. Still.). To me, his writing is lyrical beautiful immensly powerful. So,with that said, I wanted to read more and I bought The Emperor of Gladness.
Ocean Vuong ´s prose - a poet writing prose - is my favourite genre. His writing, mostly the setting with all it ´s colours and smells and the described, felt, feelings are written the way you know them be true. His collection of poems, Time is a mother - fascinated me also even though I did not "understand all of it", it all did not resonate with me. Yet, I could understand his way of combining words, transmitting the feelings, sorrow, confusion. This - The Emperor of Gladness - took me a month to read. Not because it was so brilliant that I wanted to prolong the reading experience (as I did with the latest Douglas Stuart John of John) but because, somehow, I felt I had already read this story (by him). To me, this was an extension of the latter story, his previous words, and yes I am aware most (= a lot of writers ) write the same themes, even the same story over and over again (being a writer myself, too). But, this was a repetition added with all bits of this and that. To me, it did not felt complete but more of a too far fetched, too thirsty to reach all trendy themes, too away from lyrical prose. Fo me, it was just too busy. I could not find the "old" Ocean Vuong yet a much more up to date, more commercial Vuong and I missed the "old " One.