Happy Wednesday, everyone! Wednesdays also mean WWW Wednesday updates. WWW Wednesday is a bookish meme hosted originally by SAM@TAKING ON A WORLD OF WORDS. 

The mechanics for WWW Wednesday are quite simple: you just have to answer three questions:

  1. What are you currently reading?
  2. What have you finished reading?
  3. What will you read next?
www-wednesdays
What are you currently reading?

It is already the middle of the week. How has your week been? I hope it’s going well and going in your desired direction. Woah. Time flies! We are slowly inching toward the middle of the year. Speaking of, how has the year been so far? I hope it’s going well for everybody and that it is going your way. I hope you are being showered with blessings and good news. I hope the rest of the year will be prosperous, brimming with wealth, but more importantly, good physical and mental health. I hope everyone is making progress on their goals. If the year is going otherwise, I hope you will experience a reversal of fortune in the following months. In terms of reading, I am already halfway through my goal of reading 100 books. In fact, I am way ahead of my target. Should I not waver, I will be ending 2025 as the fourth consecutive year I read at least 100 books. I hope I can keep the momentum.

Currently, I am reading Eiji Yoshikawa’s The Heike Story, a book I encountered for the first time earlier this year. Honestly, I was not originally planning on reading the book, hoping to get to it later, perhaps next year. When I noted that I was about to read my 1,300th book, I thought of having a “special book” occupy it. My original plan was to read Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. Not only is it one of the 25 books in my 2025 Top 25 Reading List, it is also listed as one of the 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. But then I was reminded that I am in the midst of a venture into Asian literature. Further, it has been some time since I had a work of Asian literature occupy my century read. With this, I immersed myself in yet another work of Japanese literature. Don’t get me wrong. It is one of my favorite parts of the literary world.

Anyway, The Heike Story chronicles the story of the Heike clan, a warrior clan that thrived in twelfth-century Kyōtō which, back then, was the Imperial capital. Japanese society was on the cusp of pandemonium as Emperor after Emperor was deposed or abdicated. These deposed Emperors then plotted schemes to overthrow the current Emperor/s, instigating political and social instability. Effectively, two houses were the loci of political affairs. The first, obviously, is the Imperial Palace. The other one was the Cloistered Palace where the abdicated Emperors reside. Over the years, the Imperial Palace was losing its influence and control, leaving the Cloistered Palace the de facto ruler. The situation was exacerbated by the lack of trust among the courtiers who all wanted to seize control. As the courtiers battled it out in the imperial court, the warrior clans were left to suffer the consequences.

Among the prominent warrior clans is the titular Heike clan. The clan’s leader, Heita Kiyomori is the central force of the novel. He was the son of Tadamori, a trusted Imperial palace official and the leader of the Heike clan before it started losing influence; and Yasuko, the Lady of Gion and former lover of an abdicated Emperor. Kiyomori’s provenance was one of intrigue but this did not hamper him from rebuilding the lost glory of the Heike clan. He slowly gained a reputation not only as a warrior but also as a wise leader. The story charts his interactions with the Imperial court officials and the Emperors. The Heike Story, to say the least, is very eventful, with layers of romance, betrayal, forgiveness, and violence permeating it. And apparently, the novel is the modern prose rendering of a classic Japanese epic. I am nearly done with the book and what can I say. It is some experience.

What have you finished reading?

Because of the heft of The Heike Story, I had a slower reading week than usual. This resulted in just one completed book. Still, I am glad I was able to complete one which happens to be one of the 2025 releases I have badly been looking forward to, Ocean Vuong’s The Emperor of Gladness, the Vietnamese-American poet’s sophomore novel. It was in 2019 that I first came across Vuong, when I included his debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, on my 2019 Top 10 Books I Look Forward To List. The book, lyrical and somber, won me over and made me look forward to Vuong’s fiction. Nearly six years later, the announcement of The Emperor of Gladness filled me with anticipation and thankfully, I was able to acquire a copy of the book. Like in his debut novel, Hai, the novel’s main protagonist, traces his provenance to Vietnam. Hai shares several aspects with Little Dog. They both had shaky relationships with their mothers and had stronger bonds with their grandmothers.

Anyway, nineteen-year-old Hai’s story transports the readers to the town of East Gladness in Connecticut. The year was 2009. When we first meet him, Hai is standing on a bridge, on the brink of taking his own life. His reverie was broken by a shout from an elderly woman living near the bridge. Grazina Vitkus – we soon learn her name – managed to save Hai at the very last minute. Grazina invited the young man into her home, comforting him and learning about his circumstances. In the process, we also get to know about Grazina. She is a Lithuanian refugee who fled her country during the height of the Second World War. Together with her husband, they settled on the house near the bridge. Grazina is now a widow suffering from dementia. Because of her condition, Grazina was under state care but her latest caretaker has not returned; her son left her welfare to the state. This prompted her to ask Hai to be her caretaker; looking for a new one takes time.

When Hai told her his name, Grazina misinterprets it as “Hello,” which translates to “Labas” in her native tongue. It was the start of what would be a heartwarming story between two virtual strangers from different generations. They were also dealing with their own demons. Hai lied to his mother about getting accepted into medical school. He also came from a dysfunctional family although he was close with his cousin Sony, the son of his aunt Kim. Sony himself was an interesting case because he was born with hydrocephalus, making his mother believe that he was mentally handicapped. To be fair, he grew up with a fascination with history, and his knowledge of the Civil War was enthralling. Back to Hai. Secrets and lies undermined the family. Nevertheless, Hai found a semblance of home in the company of Grazina.

I just realized. Grazina was living a reality similar in the case of Sony. Visions of the Second World War kept haunting her. Sony, on the other hand, had a didactic knowledge of the Civil War. It is like they are both living these realities; in fact, there are scenes when Grazina is seized by a feeling of nostalgia, her vision blurred. This also underlines the trauma left behind by war; this is also an echo of Vuong’s debut novel. Overall, The Emperor of Gladness is at once funny and thought-provoking. It is about the complexities of families, both blood and found. On top of this, I am once again in awe of Vuong’s language. It is beautiful and lyrical; his poetic background is in full force. I can’t wait to read more of his prose.

What will you read next?