"Stay True" Book Club Details

How to join our live discussion of the April book of the month

Hi everyone, I hope you enjoyed reading Stay True by Hua Hsu.

This month’s book club pick stands out from some of the memoirs we’ve read for its subtlety. If I had to describe it in a word, I’d say it was simply ‘beautiful.’ And as someone who also lost multiple friends to senseless death in college (and after), it really resonated with me.

Below are some discussion questions to chew over before next week’s live Zoom call. Login details are available for paying subscribers below the paywall at the bottom.

I look forward to hearing what you all think! Next month’s book club choice will be announced on Monday May 1st.

Best,

Marko

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. Discuss the narrator’s relationship with his parents, who are at times far away. How would you describe the Hsu family dynamic?

2. The memoir is set mainly in suburban California during the 1980s and 1990s. How does the time period and location shape Hua’s experience of growing up? How does it mirror or contrast with your understanding of those decades?

3. Music is a prominent element in Hua’s life throughout the book, influencing both how he sees himself and how he judges others. How does the music he listens to relate to or reflect the events in his life, from childhood to college years? How does he change or incorporate other ways of engaging with society over the course of the narrative?

4. The creation of original zines is Hua’s ongoing focus during his college years. How does his creative process evolve across the narrative, and what does the zine represent at each stage of his life?

5. The book explores class and generational differences in identifying with the Asian American label. Hua suspects that Ken’s sense of confidence comes from the fact that his Japanese American family is more assimilated than Hua’s Taiwanese American one is. Did this impact the way you think about cultural differences and Asian communities in America? If so, how?

6. Compare and contrast Hua and Ken’s tastes in pop culture, their approaches to life, and their ultimate fate in the book. What do you make of this unlikely friendship? How does their relationship deepen over time, and how did they end up influencing each other’s lives?

7. Hua explores his friendships and relationships via the lens of Marcel Mauss’s social theory of reciprocity and gift exchange, in which a practice of gift giving is proposed as an alternative to the economic individual and capitalism. What benefits, if any, does a system of reciprocity provide to individuals and communities? What “lost world” (page 105) might be salvaged through a spirit of gift giving?

8. Stay True is driven by the author’s desire to remember his friend and reconcile with a senseless loss. Discuss how Hua’s attitude toward Ken’s death changes over time, and what his final reflections on the person he has become suggest about Hua’s connection to grief, nostalgia, and living.

9. How would you describe the support Hua receives from his friends, peers, parents, and counselors? How effective were they in helping him make sense of a tragedy?

10. Have you ever experienced a sudden, shocking loss yourself or through someone you know? To which events in the memoir were you most able to relate? How would you choose to remember loved ones who have departed?

11. As a teenager, Hua is preoccupied with projecting an image of “cool” and crafting a voice and a place for himself in the world. He broods on the idea of authenticity and the promise to “stay true.” What does it mean for Hua to “stay true,” and why did he choose this as the title for his memoir? What is authenticity to you?

Zoom Login Info

What: Stay True by Hua Hsu

When: Thursday May 4th, 4PM LAX // 5PM CDMX // 7PM NYC