October 2023 Mini reviews
Stay True: A Memoir by Hua Hsu Published: 14th September 2023 by Picador I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way affects my review. This has been quite an anticipated read for me, as I have heard nothing but great things about this memoir, and I really liked the sound of its focus on a blossoming friendship cut short in such a formative time of someone's life. Seeing that it has since won the Pulitzer Prize spurred me to finally pick this up, and I am so glad that I did. Hsu's narrative voice is so strong that it transports you to his time as a college student at Berkeley, and it feels as though you are fully immersed in his friendship group and his conversations with his friend Ken, talking about everything from films to philosophy and everything in between. The grief felt at losing his friend in such a brutal and unexpected way is palpable, and the ways in which he carried his friend with him in the years that followed was beautif