Stay True

A Memoir

By: Hua Hsu

Narrated by: Hua Hsu

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A gripping memoir on friendship, grief, the search for self, and the solace that can be found through art, by the New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu

“This book is exquisite and excruciating and I will be thinking about it for years and years to come.”—Rachel Kushner, New York Times bestselling author of The Flamethrowers and The Mars Room

One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

In the eyes of eighteen-year-old Hua Hsu, the problem with Ken—with his passion for Dave Matthews, Abercrombie & Fitch, and his fraternity—is that he is exactly like everyone else. Ken, whose Japanese American family has been in the United States for generations, is mainstream; for Hua, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, who makes ’zines and haunts Bay Area record shops, Ken represents all that he defines himself in opposition to. The only thing Hua and Ken have in common is that, however they engage with it, American culture doesn’t seem to have a place for either of them.

But despite his first impressions, Hua and Ken become friends, a friendship built on late-night conversations over cigarettes, long drives along the California coast, and the successes and humiliations of everyday college life. And then violently, senselessly, Ken is gone, killed in a carjacking, not even three years after the day they first meet.

Determined to hold on to all that was left of one of his closest friends—his memories—Hua turned to writing. Stay True is the book he’s been working on ever since. A coming-of-age story that details both the ordinary and extraordinary, Stay True is a bracing memoir about growing up, and about moving through the world in search of meaning and belonging.©2022 Hua Hsu (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

WINNER OF THE 2023 PULITZER PRIZE IN MEMOIR • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR • ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE NOMINEE • WINNER OF THE CHINESE AMERICAN LIBRARIANS ASSOCIATION'S BEST BOOK AWARD FOR ADULT NONFICTION

A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, TIME, The Atlantic, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, NPR, The Boston Globe, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The Millions, BookPage, Lit Hub, Reader's Digest, Vulture, Goop

“An elegant and poignant coming of age account that considers intense, youthful friendships but also random violence that can suddenly and permanently alter the presumed logic of our personal narratives.”—2023 Pulitzer Prize Committee

“Quietly wrenching. . . To say that this book is about grief or coming-of-age doesn’t quite do it justice; nor is it mainly about being Asian American, even though there are glimmers of that too. . . This is a memoir that gathers power through accretion—all those moments and gestures that constitute experience, the bits and pieces that coalesce into a life. . . Hsu is a subtle writer, not a showy one; the joy of Stay True sneaks up on you, and the wry jokes are threaded seamlessly throughout.”—The New York Times

“[Hsu] is that rare thing: a chronicler and critic who [engages] fully, emotionally as well as intellectually, with every subject. . . In Stay True Hsu makes us see how his and Ken’s and their friends’ stories are tossed on the sea of history, how identity takes shape from a thousand factors, how personalities flow into one another, how chance and destiny can be hard to tell apart.”—Lucy Sante, The New York Review of Books

Touching and Well Written

This was a joy to read, having lost two friends this year. I binged this book in a day, lovey prose and reminded me of Berkeley in the 80’s/90’s, great sense of place, draws you in. Narration is perfect.
Memorable.

Bright College Days

“Stay True” is a moving memoir of college and friendship. Hua Hsu lovingly recalls his undergraduate years at Berkeley: the friends, the music, the endless conversations and even the insecurities. Much of the memoir focuses on his closest friend, Ken, and the impact of his loss. Hsu is thoughtful about the sadness and sense of displacement that follows the death of a friend. He is also thoughtful, casually, about the challenges confronting Asian-American students in California. “Stay True” rings true. However, I would have preferred a professional narrator.

Grief, immaturity, self realization, friendships

The story relates examples of all the nouns in my title. Mostly I was struck by the author’s articulate wording in his ability to describe his wrenching grief at losing someone he admired and loved. And to find humor and joy in the memories.

Shattering and hopeful

The writer says the things you think and feel that you rarely say aloud. This book was beautifully written and was able to tap into really nuanced descriptions of thoughts and outlooks and really captured the spirit of the era it’s set in and also shine a new light on an individual’s experience of the time. I loved it.

Sad

This is a sad book. I did not realize going in. It is a focused memoir that centers on an event that happened in college and left its marks. The author keeps the narrative on point, just like a disciplined soccer player who keeps position no matter what. Hsu is a fine writer, a regular New Yorker contributor and a professor with a PhD from Harvard. Surprisingly, this memoir felt flat to me. As many memoirs out there today, this is introspective to a fault. It has its merits, but it did not inspire me.

Challenging listen, but good

I loved parts of this book; the scenes with Ken and HH feelings of friendship and his description of “God Only Knows” by the BB. Parts were a little over my head - HH is very intellectual but this book is worth listening to.

Wonderful

This book was incredible. I appreciate the story and the story teller. It is nice to hear the stories of Asian Americans who grew up in the Bay Area in the 90s. I hope this book opens doors and inspires the youth of today as well.

As an English major …

Born within a year of hua hsu this book was made for me. I totally connected with hua’s story and his musical taste and he captures so well the period in your life in which friendships matter so much. Perfect for what it is.

A Moving Memoir. Lyrical. Reflective

When I listened to an interview Hua had on NPR, I knew this was a book worth reading. Hua shares not only his parents immigrant story, his own growing pains but also the death of his friend/classmate Ken.
The beauty of the book is the searing honesty and emotional tumult Hua shares with the reader. He holds nothing back and the pain of losing Ken is palpable.
What makes this gem of a book masterful is Hua's soothing and lyrical narration. He pulls us in with his calm and steady voice and holds us captive from the opening line to the final sentence.
I hope he continues to write as he is a much needed addition to an ever expanding genre. Highly recommended.

What does the author want me to learn?

I really loved the bits about his parents. I wish there was so much more about the parents. I couldn't tell what he wanted us to learn about the friendship that we don't already know about friendships. It was such a tragic loss. Horrendous. What else should we know? I think there was quite a bit of redundancy (if I have to hear the word Zine one more time...) and a tinge of elitism. Still, I respect the effort it takes to do this work.