Bookshelf
A beautiful elegy to friendship, maturity, and youth set up against the backdrop of Asian migration to the US.
Stay True is a portrait of a friendship sprouting from an unlikely beginning and cut short by a senseless act of violence. But beyond the central premise of loss, grief and growth is a book that captures the idea of "becoming" and the intricacies and emotions associated with navigating through an individual's most formative years as they bridge the gap to adulthood. It dives into the value of friendships and "the willingness to know, rather than be known", the significance of identity and the ache to be understood. Hsu writes not just as a devoted friend but as a devoted observer of the world who, in the process of ensuring his late friend Ken's legacy, reflects on the human details and experiences that make a memory feel so real; the smell of second hand smoke on flannel, the sun hitting a specific shade of golden brown, the deep anbivalence you once felt towards a song that now devastated you, the threshold when a pair of old boots go from new to worn...
Stay True is a book that makes you remember what's important in life and cherish the moments with the people you love. -19/11/2023