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Hai, 19, is poised to jump off a bridge that spans the Connecticut River. but old Grazina, who lives right on the other side, talks him down and takes him in. Her place is crumbling and so is her mind, but he has nowhere else to go and ends up taking care of her. He also gets a job at HomeMarket, a fast-food joint where his benighted cousin, Sony, works. Both young men struggle with addiction and are at odds with their mothers who are sisters. But the eccentric—to say the least—restaurant workers form another kind of family that works in its own strange way. The” Gladness” of the title refers to East Gladness, a benighted small town near Hartford, CT. And that “Emperor” is a huge hog, bound for slaughter. This is a fever dream of a book that offers surprising humor and vivid descriptions of the surroundings, littered with franchises and failing businesses but often bursting with beauty.
Who should show up at Mad’s (short for Madeleine) farm in Tennessee but a total stranger. He’s Reuben, a brother she never knew she had. Reuben’s father had deserted his first wife and son long ago. When Reuben’s mother died, he hired a private detective and discovered the three unknown siblings. Now he’s on a quest to meet his new family members and confront their father in California. They pick up the other siblings: Pep, a college basketball star, in Oklahoma and Tom, an 11-year-old, in Utah. It’s an uneasy road trip at first, to say the least, as they discover how each iteration of their father was different but his modus operandi the same: he left each without further contact. Why did he do what he did? Dad can’t explain it, but mental illness could be a factor. The result: a bittersweet reunion but now they have each other’s backs. An intriguing tale that mixes humor with pathos and self-revelation.
Almost every character in this challenging book suffers greatly from frustration and shame. A “narrow-shouldered” guy is constantly spurned; a woman shares details of her attempts at sex in a funny text thread with friends: a man named Kant (ahem) finds a really nice boyfriend, but their sexual life is nil; and the mysterious Bee—Kant’s sister (perhaps)—gets into philosophical weeds exploring the rocky terrain of relationships. It’s a house of mirrors, with “Tony” commenting on it all at the end. Humiliation is rampant, and some scenes made my skin crawl, but it was worth it.
In Portland, hugely pregnant Annie is in search of the very best crib at IKEA, when a whole lot of shaking ensues. It’s the Cascadian earthquake, long expected. She’s trapped under collapsed shelves and boxes, but Taylor, a previously snippy clerk, finds and frees her. Thus starts a perilous journey through the destroyed city to reach the cafe where her husband, an aspiring actor, is supposedly working. (She was an aspiring playwright but is now on maternity leave from her soul-destroying 9-to-5 job.) At times she’s alone, but a twist of fate reconnects her with Taylor, who’s trying to get to her child at school. At the end Annie’s on her own again in a park near her house, and (no surprise), labor commences. Big subjects like Grief (Annie’s mother’s recent unanticipated death), Love (the quotidian grinding away at romance); and Home (what will be left if it and husband are no longer there) are beautifully explored in this satisfying novel.
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