Nancy's Book Group - Stay True

"Character is the fingerprint of your soul" - Frank Sonnenberg.

Please join Nancy Zachary in the Scott Room to discuss Stay True by Hua Hsu.

"A stunning, intricate memoir about friendship, grief, and memory. 

A Taiwanese American writer remembers an intimate but unexpected college friendship cut short by tragedy.

Hsu, an English professor and staff writer at the New Yorker, began his undergraduate years at Berkeley with the intention of cultivating an alternative, punk persona consistent with his love of indie bands and his obsession with creating zines. ... Consequently, when he first met Japanese American fraternity brother Ken, he wrote him off as “a genre of person I actively avoided—mainstream.” As they got to know each other, to Hsu’s surprise, he and Ken grew very close. ... Then, one night, Ken was killed in a carjacking, abruptly truncating a relationship that Hsu thought would last forever and sending him into a spiral of grief and self-blame that lasted for years. This memoir is masterfully structured and exquisitely written. Hsu’s voice shimmers with tenderness and vulnerability as he meticulously reconstructs his memories of a nurturing, compassionate friendship. The protagonists’ Asian American identities are nuanced, never serving as the defining element of the story, and the author creates a cast of gorgeously balanced characters."

- Kirkus.