"Stay True," by Hua Hsu

I have recently accumulated a small pile of books about grief and loss, wanting to have the books but mostly unable to actually read them yet, almost a year after the death of my beloved husband. When I read about New Yorker writer Hua Hsu’s memoir about the sudden, violent death of his best friend in college, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read it, because it would be too painful. But although I was torn, I did read “Stay True” (Doubleday, 2022), partly because I had read some of Hsu’s New Yorker articles and been impressed and drawn in by them, and partly because I was intrigued by his focusing on the death of a friend, a less common focus than the many (important and valuable) books about deaths of parents, spouses, children, siblings, and other family members. Hsu went to Berkeley, and since the campus is just across a bridge from where I live, the setting was also an attraction. But the main feature that drew me in was that Hsu captures so well the lives of college students, with their intense friendships and interests and emotions. Even though I teach at a university, I sometimes forget what an exciting but also fraught time one’s college years are. This book made me remember, including remembering my own college days, long ago as they were. Hsu's friend Ken was an important part of Hsu's college experience, and the author honors Ken by portraying him in such detail, and portraying their friendship so vividly. "Stay True" is powerful, authentic, emotional, full of telling details, and very well written. Highly recommended.