Stay True by Hua Hsu

Sunday, Apr. 9, 2023--San Antonio

Stay True by Hua Hsu is a memoir.  I usually read novels.  But this memoir won the National Book Award, so I decided to give it a try.  I almost quit it at the beginning due to lack of a plot and to being filled with details that did not excite me.  I put it down often after only a few pages at a time.  But I kept at it.  Eventually, I became more interested. And just after the mid-point, I never wanted to put it down again.  The story had pulled me in emotionally.  It is the story of a son of a Taiwanese immigrant family in California and the many friends he made in college after a high school period of leading a rather quiet and distant existence.  It took him a long time to determine what he wanted out of life, to make a "closest" friend, to begin dating girls, etc.  Then tragedy struck.  It is a stirring memoir devoted to learning how to leave living in the past, to re-evaluate one's life goals and develop a new outlook, etc.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.