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thanhl 's review for:
Stay True: A Memoir
by Hua Hsu
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I'M SORRY FOR NOT LOVING THIS BOOK DON'T CANCEL MEEE 🙏 it's more of a 3.5 stars if that makes you feel better... i will start with good things first! ken seems like such a lovely person through the book and the way that hsu writes him makes you fall in love w him. he reminds me a lot of my favourite people's best traits. i really like how he discussed the nuances of experience of being asian american, especially the generational differences between him and his parents. i love the fax exchanges between him and his dad, which felt intimate and familiar to me. the last 20% or so of the book was definitely the strongest, particularly when he began journalling.
unfortunately, this has three book characteristics that i generally hate. firstly, as a teen and uni student, hsu is self-absorbed and pretentious, which is something that he makes obvious. this is reflected in how he describes ken and despite how they clearly care for one another, i just don't like how he viewed ken's hobbies and way of living as inferior. hsu and i don't think we'd get along as people at least at that age an i don't like reading about people i dislike. secondly, there were quite of themes introduced but none i felt truly got fleshed out. for such a short book, i wish hsu had focussed more about delving into these themes rather than commenting so much on what he was into, which felt repetitive and sometimes insignificant to me. thirdly, i have a problem with memoirs with a lack of personal reflection. i felt a lot of "ok and?" moments with the writing bc things would happen but there's little he would say about how that affects him as a person. as a result, i always felt a disconnection with the text throughout the reading process.
hua hsu writes very beautifully about culture and the asian american experience, which is what he is known for. he did win a pulitzer for this and i don't have a single literary prize so what do i know......
unfortunately, this has three book characteristics that i generally hate. firstly, as a teen and uni student, hsu is self-absorbed and pretentious, which is something that he makes obvious. this is reflected in how he describes ken and despite how they clearly care for one another, i just don't like how he viewed ken's hobbies and way of living as inferior. hsu and i don't think we'd get along as people at least at that age an i don't like reading about people i dislike. secondly, there were quite of themes introduced but none i felt truly got fleshed out. for such a short book, i wish hsu had focussed more about delving into these themes rather than commenting so much on what he was into, which felt repetitive and sometimes insignificant to me. thirdly, i have a problem with memoirs with a lack of personal reflection. i felt a lot of "ok and?" moments with the writing bc things would happen but there's little he would say about how that affects him as a person. as a result, i always felt a disconnection with the text throughout the reading process.
hua hsu writes very beautifully about culture and the asian american experience, which is what he is known for. he did win a pulitzer for this and i don't have a single literary prize so what do i know......