A review by leslielopezholder
Stay True by Hua Hsu

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.25

Clearly I’m in the wrong about this as it has won a Pulitzer Prize and maybe I’m too simplistic in wanting this memoir to be more focused and straightforward. Hsu is such a talented writer, crafting sentences that often feel like poetry. However, I felt this memoir meandered too much, where he could talk about two completely different subjects in sentences right next to each other. This, I felt, detracted from my ability to connect with the people mentioned in the book. I did, however, love reading about his parents and this was probably aided by the fact that those sections were a little more focused.

It was also difficult for me to connect with him as he often spoke about his pretentiousness on music, life, philosophy. It made me feel like he was constantly looking down on others. 

There are some beautifully tender reflections on grief and friendship but ultimately I felt it was undone by unstructured storytelling and not enough self-reflection on his attitudes toward people and society.