What I immediately hated in this autobiography is the typical American habit of labeling everyone as "Asian American", "African American". I am glad that here (the Netherlands) we do not talk about 'Indonesian Dutch' or 'Chinese Dutch'.
It felt like I was sitting in the living room of someone who filled his life with so many nonsensical things, blindly following the discriminatory Black Panthers, listening to the most annoying music from the nineties. Hardly adding anything to the world with his zines. Anyway, to some extent it is very recognizable, after all I lived through that time too, only a few years older than Hsu.
Perhaps the critics who praise his book so highly are all from his generation? The generation that now sees ghosts and ruin everywhere, crying in a corner because Trump won.
In no way can I have sympathy or empathy for the author, other than for his friend who occasionally shows in this book that there was also someone around who used his mind every now and then.
It's a shame that he sometimes allowed himself to be so carried away and manipulated by the main character.
In the end, I even think Ken would still be alive if he had focused on his studies...
Done is never forgotten, the boy is no more, and what is still there is Hsu's swan song, which at least gave us a glimpse into the lives of both students. ( )

A heartfelt memoir primarily about the author's years as a college student at Cal Berkley. He is the son of parents who come to the United States but later go back to their native land Taiwan. The book mainly chronicles his experiences as he struggles to fit in. He becomes a writer early on and fashions his own "zine". Music is also a big influence on him which he inherits from his father's love of Classic Rock. A well thought out introspective work. ( )

Knowing, in retrospect, that he has been made to be around such people, we cannot be surprised Tao Lin has been destroyed; yet it remains possible to conceive of a future-novel characterized by a still-further-concentrated corn-syrup self-involvement, and we must destroy ourselves reading these books if we wish to prepare to face it. ( )

A heartbreaking memoir about self-discovery, unexpected friendship, and unfathomable loss. ( )

The author read this audiobook, one of the more engaging and beautiful audiobooks I have enjoyed recently. Hua Hsu is a Taiwanese American born in 1977. He won a Pulitzer for this book written in 2022, which focuses on his college years in the 1990s and particularly on his friendship with a Japanese American named Ken, who was murdered in a carjacking. He admits that his memories do not translate to facts and yet tell a true story of how he remembers them and how his search for meaning affected his growth during college.

Much of the first part of this memoir outlines Hsu’s search for Asian identity at Berkeley. He was continually searching to reinvent himself and rebrand his image through the music and films of the day. This aspect of his story contributed to many relatable passages since so many of us as youngsters marked time by the popular music that spoke to us. Of course, another universal development during young adulthood is the formation of friendships, defining friends, and engaging in meaningful conversations. When Hsu befriended Ken, he realized how comforting it was to have conversations with mutual understanding and satisfaction. They shared philosophical thoughts and discovered themselves through each other’s experiences.

When Ken is murdered, Hua Hsu holds onto the pain for many years. Although some of his feelings could be attributed to the typical stages of grief, for him, it was more than that and almost obsessive at times, defining too much of his being. Finally, while attending graduate school at Harvard, a counselor helped him define the importance of Ken’s death in his overall coming of age, and he put it in perspective. He promised to write about it someday, and this book is the result of that promise to himself.

The text is rich with lots of tidbits to consider in one’s own life. Some of my takeaways are:
-He and Ken had long conversations about culture and projecting different versions of themselves.
-Asian American stereotypes are often subtle yet pronounced
-Gifts, by their nature, lead to delayed reciprocity and strengthen relationships and bonds in a community
-Navigating the immigrant experience is essential when considering cultural mores.
-Intergenerational conflict is universal.
-What is History? by Edward Carr is a book that discusses the history, facts, the bias of historians.
See my reviews at https://quipsandquotes.net/ ( )