Week 20
Long time no see! In week 20, I worked, slept, ate, spent time with my family and most importantly - spent an afternoon in a sunny forest with my friends, talking, yapping, relaxing like sleepy cats in their favourite spot.
My reviews might be a little lacklustre because I’m really summoning memories from almost 6 MONTHS AGO. I’m so sorry. I will be better.
Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
I loved Ocean Vuong’s debut work - On Earth, We’re Briefly Gorgeous, and I was excited to read Emperor of Gladness. I think I paid full price for this, which is insane because I stopped buying hardbacks at full price!
Emperor of Gladness is about Hai, who one day moves in with an elderly widow, Grazina. He realises quite quickly that Grazina has dementia, and he volunteers to take care of her. There’s more than just kindness to Hai’s offer. After some time, Hai scores a job at a local store, and he’s pulled into the lives of the people around him, simultaneously battling his own issues. It’s a wonderful novel about, well… Humanity. Family. It feels lyrical and light, matched with often quite heavy topics, and it’s a masterpiece! It’s a novel that takes you for a ride, pulling your reluctant hand forward, almost gently at times, and harshly at others.
I often find characters like Hai really difficult to like (which is my own character flaw), but Vuong is so so so good at making you see the goodness, the whole picture, the complexities of how a person comes to be.
Rating: ★★★★★
Albion by Anna Hope
Like the review above, I loooooved Anna Hope’s novel Expectations. It was one of the first novels I read in 2019/early 2020 that reminded me why I love reading. It really cemented what I enjoy about books, and so I was very excited to read Albion.
And this is one of those books I knew I’d love. Messy, complex family dynamics under the microscopic lens of a recent family death. The characters, siblings, in this book are extremely rich, ready to inherit significantly - but their land comes at a surprising cost, with a surprising history. It all unravels quickly, certainly and with difficulty.
Like I said, I knew I would love this and I did love it. There were lots of characters, and a real focus on people that had worked on the estate and worked as part of the estate for their entire life. What would it mean for them to move on? Did they feel able to? How are casual arrangements dealt with legally? Just excellent.
Rating: ★★★★★