→You’re Note Bathing Your Car – Enough

→Could Anything Win a Fight Against a – T-Rex

→Morning Person vs Night Owl – Which is Better

→Which is Better for Your Health (this week LOL) – Chicken or Beef

→Can You Paint Your Side of Your Neighbors Fence

→Opinions are Like ________. Everyone Has Got One – Homeowner Landscaping Backlash

→You’re Not the Only One – With Dead Orchids

→Why Should We Care About Kevin Bacon’s Porch? – Why Not, I guess…

(WBR) Wayne’s Book Review

Aren’t you lucky?  Yes, I think you are.  Because I am continuing my quest to read a book every month (last year’s New Year’s Resolution), and you get a rare glimpse into the somewhat chaotic mind of Wayne Romain and his take on said book.

Just so you know, I’m not a reader.  Other than last year, I have probably read six or seven books in the previous 10.  No literary giant here, but like a lot of things in life, you get outside your element, do things you don’t normally do, and you might learn something.

What does this have to do with the outdoors?  Maybe nothing.  Maybe a lot. But it does represent another pastime that we can enjoy (or muddle through) in The Outdoors.

This month’s book:

The Emperor of Gladness

by Ocean Vuong

Book Overview (From Thriftbooks)

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to transform Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community on the brink.

Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Ocean Vuong’s writing–formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness–are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.

My take…

The author does a fine job of unveiling this chapter of Hai’s life, a lost and transient soul with no clear direction while addled with the chains of addiction.  The son of a Vietnamese refugee, he wants nothing more than to please his mother, who single handedly raised him while working tenuous hours at a nail salon.  When he falls short, Hai escapes his reality with drugs, lying, and leaving his familial home.  Maturity and growth elude him. He then meets Grazina, an immigrant herself, in the latter stages of her life.  Both depend on each other for this epoch and the ultimate fate they cannot hide from.

It is a somewhat dark and serious novel with episodes of hilarity interspersed in between.  There was only one part towards the end that seemed somewhat “cheesy” to me, like the author playing to an audience who might set this book up for a movie production.  All in all, it was an interesting journey to take, and one that I would recommend.

On a scale of 1-10, I’d give it an 8.

Note: This is my unprofessional, biased, informal review. I make no claims and receive no money or support for my reviews.  It’s just an extrapolation from the mind of WR.

La Última Palabra (The Last Word)

“I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.” – Winston Churchill

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