Whitcoulls Recommends: The Emperor of Gladness and The Warrior

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong. This is the story of Hai, a Vietnamese immigrant to America where he lives in the town of East Gladness, Connecticut where, at the most difficult moment of his life he’s befriended by Grazina, an 82 year old Lithuanian widow. They become each other’s support person, an unlikely pairing but each of them living lives so far away from the promised American Dream. It’s a masterly portrait of life for the underdog, from a world that the author clearly knows well. His previous book, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, was widely applauded and positively reviewed.

The Warrior by Christopher Clarey. The subject of this book is Rafa Nadal, with a terrific and very familiar image of him on the cover. The author wrote a previous book called The Master, about Roger Federer, and has covered tennis for many years, having unprecedented access to these top players. It covers Rafa’s life from the time he first held a racquet, all the way through to his decision to retire and everything that happened in between. Perfect for followers of tennis, and fans of Nadal. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks AB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
John mackenzie, good morning, Hello. Now tell me about to
the Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vong. I hear Oprah
call that hauntingly beautiful.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Yeah, she's not wrong. And I'll start by saying that
this guy has great titles for his books. I think
The Emperor of Gladness is really good. His previous book
was called Here on Earth, We're Briefly Gorgeous, isn't that love?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
They are good titles.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
This is about a young man called High Hai who
lives in the town of East Gladness in Connecticut, and
we meet him when he's got one leg over a
bridge and he's about to jump when an elderly woman
sees him and talks him down and they strike up
a really unusual friendship. She's eighty two with dementia and
he's a young man in despair with nowhere to live.

(00:57):
But he moves into her house and they become each
other's best support people. He's Vietnamese. His parents brought him
to the States after the war, but he's really struggling
to find his place in the world and his mother.
Of course, she's brought him the next generation to America
looking for a better life, and she's desperate for him
to take the opportunities her generation didn't have and get

(01:18):
himself to medical school and be a doctor. And he
can't bear to tell her that he didn't get in,
so he brings home the brochure for a degree at
a university in Boston, which he says he's got into,
and on the day he's due to leave, it's heartbreaking.
He won't let her walk him to the bus stop,
but she prepares this package of beautiful food, special food
for him to take for the journey, and actually he

(01:40):
doesn't know where he's going. She sends him off with
such pride and love, and after wandering the streets, he
checks himself into rehab and he wrings her occasionally from
rehab and says, I'm here on the campus and everything's great,
being a medical student. Like I say, it's just heartbreaking.
And it's after he gets up from rehab that he
goes to the bridge. He gets a job at a

(02:01):
local restaurant through his cousin who works there, and together
these people they have difficult lives and there's no Eureka
moment in this book. It's all about being vulnerable in
a world which doesn't care. And it is, however, quite
uplifting to read because it's written with such empathy. And
before we came on here, you and I were comparing

(02:22):
this to Trent Dalton because Trent Dalton also writes so
well for the Underdog.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Absolutely add The Warrior by Christopher Carry. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
He wrote a book called The Master about Roger Federer,
and he's got about thirty years of tennis journalism with
extraordinary access to top players. I've read both these books
and I loved them both. But of course I do
love a bit of tennis, and I am really proud
to say that I saw Rafa Nadal play in Auckland
when he was seventeen years old.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
I thought you were going to tell me that you
were very proud that when you were seventeen you won sometimes.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
No, no, no, I was there. I saw him at
the age seventeen, and I've never forgotten. He is the
only man to rank number one in three different decades.
He's the only man to spend nearly eighteen consecutive years
in the top ten. It's just extraordinary. He first held
a racket when he was three years old. And people
who know tennis know that his uncle Tony saw the potential,

(03:17):
which is folklore by now, and by most standards, Tony
was considered completely ruthless. A large part of what he
did was to make Raphael run towards the challenges and
teach himself how to get through the difficult times. And
he was so talented. He could have had a career
in soccer, well, football, but he didn't. He chose tennis.
And this is a portrait of a relentlessly focused, disciplined man.

(03:41):
He has a degenerative congenital issue in his left foot
for which he's had to take constant painkillers through the
course of his career. You just wouldn't know.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
No, it was going to say, as somebody who follow
it likes tennis. Do you learn quite a bit reading
this book? Oh you do?

Speaker 3 (03:56):
You really do. Yeah. He's known as the King of Clay,
and not only do you learn about him, you learn
fascinating stuff like how a clay court is constructed. I
could give you a little lesson on that. I'm sure
you're fascinating another time. But there's really interesting stuff on
it and it is clear that he is a really decent,
lovely man who speaks to journalists when he comes off

(04:17):
the course exhausted after a five hour match. He's really
kind to the player support people at tournaments. They all
speak so highly of them. I will say that it's
reasonably tennis heavy. There's a lot in here about the
various matches, so you will get more out of it
if you enjoy and follow tennis. But if you do,
then this is the book for you.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Thank you so much, Joan. The first book was The
Emperor of Gladness by Oceanvong and the second one was
The Warrior by Christopher Clary. We'll took next week.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
See you then.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.