Reviewed:
Stay True: A Memoir by Hua Hsu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publication: September 27, 2022; Doubleday
My review:
My review:
This memoir is written by the author to remember and honor a college friend, Ken, who died in a mugging and senseless kidnapping while in his third year at UCLA. Hua thinks of the What Ifs that could have saved Ken from that death - what if he had gone swing dancing as Ken had wanted that night, what if he had gone back to Ken's party in the early morning so Ken would not have been alone during that mugging.
The book focuses on the many reasons Hua and Ken became friends even though they were such different personalities. Both Asian Americans, yet one was Taiwanese American and a new immigrant, the other a Japanese American with deep roots established in the U.S. Their love of different kinds of music and movies, and their interest in analyzing everything for fun and intellectual sharing are only some of the aspects of this college friendship.
Deeply moving in parts, Stay True, the memoir, delves into the minds and hearts of a group of young university people in search of meaning and identity.
The book focuses on the many reasons Hua and Ken became friends even though they were such different personalities. Both Asian Americans, yet one was Taiwanese American and a new immigrant, the other a Japanese American with deep roots established in the U.S. Their love of different kinds of music and movies, and their interest in analyzing everything for fun and intellectual sharing are only some of the aspects of this college friendship.
Deeply moving in parts, Stay True, the memoir, delves into the minds and hearts of a group of young university people in search of meaning and identity.
Library Find:
Disorientation
by
Published March 22, 2022; Penguin Press
Genre: Asian American fiction, contemporary novel, academia
About: A Taiwanese American woman’s coming of consciousness ignites eye-opening revelations and chaos on a college campus.
An uproarious and bighearted satire, alive with sharp edges, immense warmth, and a cast of unforgettable characters, Disorientation is both a blistering send-up of white supremacy in academia, and a profound reckoning of a Taiwanese American woman’s complicity and unspoken rage.
Chou asks who gets to tell our stories—and how the story changes when we finally tell it ourselves (publisher)
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