Marko Book Club: "Stay True" by Hua Hsu
Our April pick is a new memoir called a "once-in-a-lifetime book"
Of all the memoir’s published recently, the one that keeps popping up on my radar is Stay True by New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu.
The book has been named a Best Book of the Year by TIME, The New York Times, Pitchfork and many more. The New York Times calls Hsu “a literary phenomenon.” Jia Tolentino (one of my favorite writers and author of the previous book club pick Trick Mirror) called it a “once-in-a-lifetime book.”
Most reviews I have read don’t reveal much about the plot: the story takes place at Berkeley in the 90s, involves the search for Asian-American identity, and centers around the senseless murder of his friend Ken.
Hsu is the son of Taiwanese immigrants. Ken’s family have been in the States for generations. Hsu makes ‘zines, browses Bay Area record shops and hates Ken likes - Dave Matthews Band, Abercrombie & Fitch, his fraternity. But they bond through their struggle to find their place in American culture and become close friends.
Then, less than three years later, Ken is killed in a car-jacking — and Hsu has been trying to make sense of the tragedy through writing ever since.
The product is a “a gripping memoir on friendship, grief, the search for self, and the solace that can be found through art.” And I’m excited to read it with you this month.
As always, my book club recommendations are free to all subscribers of The Missive. But if you’d like to join our live monthly book club discussions you can upgrade to a paid membership for full access.
Also, it was my birthday yesterday. So if you’re feeling generous, please consider upgrading to paid or even becoming a founding member of The Missive and I’ll send you a signed copy of my book when I’m finished writing it.
We’ll be discussing Stay True on May 4th, so get your copy and join us. Our discussion for last month’s book Come Fly the World will take place this Thursday April 7th with the author, Julia Cook. Zoom details here.
Lastly, just a reminder that all month I will be writing a series of articles with journalist
, author of . We’re calling it Global Gentrification - Are Digital Nomads Ruining Everything? — and we’ll be exploring the impact of remote work on travel, local communities, and notions of citizenship.Lauren is publishing the first article on her Substack
tomorrow and I’ll respond next week. We’ll go back and forth two times each and host a live discussion on social media each week, alternating between Twitter Live and IG Live.We’ll be hosting the first live discussion on Twitter Live this Wednesday, April 5th at 10AM CDMX time (9AM LA // 12 PM NYC) which you can register for here.
We’ll be joined by Kach Umandap, Sharon O’Dea, John Lee, Stefan Heggelund, and Jovan Radnic, so give them all a follow as well.
In short, it will be a month full of lively discussion. Thanks to everyone for your support — and happy reading.
Marko
Looks like a great pick!