Two Five-star Memoirs

November is coming to an end and so is Nonfiction November. I'm making an all-out attempt to review all the books I read this month for the challenge. Today I am highlighting two wonderful memoirs.

Stay True: a Memoir by Hua Hsu

Doubleday, 2022. 208 pages.

Writing a memoir must be very difficult. How do you write about yourself without sounding like you are bragging or being self-deprecating? It must be very difficult but Hua Hsu pulls it off perfectly.

Back in 2024 the NY Times published a list of the top 100 books of the 21st Century (so far) and Stay True was number 58 on that list. Here is how the newspaper describes the book:

An unlikely college friendship — Ken loves preppy polo shirts and Pearl Jam, Hua prefers Xeroxed zines and Pavement — blossoms in 1990s Berkeley, then is abruptly fissured by Ken’s murder in a random carjacking. Around those bare facts, Hsu’s understated memoir builds a glimmering fortress of memory in which youth and identity live alongside terrible, senseless loss. (NYT)

Both Ken and Hua are Asian but their Asianess is very different. Hua was born in the United States to parents from Taiwan and his father returned there sometime during Hua's teen years, leaving the parenting to his mother or to notes faxed back and forth with his father. Ken's grandparents came from Japan and settled in California. Some of his relatives spent time in internment camps during WWII. Even though the boys are American they both feel "other" at times and find their way to each other during their freshman year at Berkeley in the mid 1990s.  A deep friendship is formed, the kind of friendship that blossoms in youthful years and is hard to replicate in adulthood. After Ken's murder it is a miracle that Hua made it out the other side of his grief. But with the help of a college counselor, he does make it out to the other side, giving him time and perspective to write this marvelous memoir and a beautiful tribute to a friend.

When Stay True won the inaugural Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography in 2023 the committee had this to say about their selection:

Determined to hold on to all that was left of one of his closest friends—his memories—Hua turned to writing. Stay True is the book he’s been working on ever since. A coming-of-age story that details both the ordinary and extraordinary, Stay True is a bracing memoir about growing up, and about moving through the world in search of meaning and belonging (Pulitzer).

Don and I listened to the audiobook of Stay True, narrated by the author. We both rated it with 5 stars. Don was especially taken by Hua Hsu's ability to write about his experiences in the past without placing current knowledge and adult wisdom into the narrative. It felt like he was writing about something that just happened not something that happened almost thirty years ago. 

I get to check off a few boxes for different challenges:

• Audiobooks with Don
• Nonfiction November
• Novellas in November, which includes short nonfiction.

All My Knotted Up Life: a Memoir by Beth Moore

Tyndale Momentum, 2023. 304 pages.

Many years ago the Women's Bible Study at church used a video series by Beth Moore and her organization, Living Proof Ministries. Every woman in our group really enjoyed the study, especially the video portion where Beth was filmed speaking to a group of women on Ephesians, a New Testament book of the Bible. I thought she was incredibly warm, personable, and, surprisingly, funny. I looked forward to every session. After that session ended our group went on to study some other topic or book of the Bible and I didn't think about Beth Moore much after that until her name came up on the news.

In 2016 Beth Moore made a bit of a splash on the news because she was one of the few well-known Christians to criticize publicly then-candidate Trump for his Access Hollywood tape where he talked about the way he treats women. I remember being please when I heard this. Finally a Christian standing up to despicable Trump behavior. What we didn't hear about on the news was how awful the people in her church and the Southern Baptist Conference (SBC) treated her after that criticism. Christians were angry with Moore, not Trump. 

Moore was back in news again in 2021 when she announced she was splitting from the SBC over the church's handling of sexual abuse cases among pastors that had been going on for decades but had recently come to light and how the church was covering up these crimes. When she confronted the church's leadership over their white-washing of these serious findings, the men on the council essentially told her to "shut up and stay in your lane." She'd had enough and she quit her association with the denomination, which meant it also ended her association with her own congregation. Once again, I rejoiced that some woman was finally standing up to those bullies, disguised as men of God. What I didn't know at the time was Beth Moore, herself, is a sex abuse survivor.

All My Knotted Up Life is Beth Moore's story, starting in her childhood when, as a young child, she was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her father; through her young adult years where she heard the call to serve God; and onto her ministry years and beyond.

I loved every minute listening to this remarkably candide, funny, excruciating memoir. Beth read the book herself and her Texas drawl is so charming. In fact, I kept thinking her voice reminded me of someone I know well and then realized I have a friend, also from Texas, who sounds just like Beth. I was charmed. I cried as she shared hard stories for her to tell and couldn't help wondering if some of her friends from her old congregation are ashamed at the way they treated her as she tried to stay faithful to God and his calling in her life.

As a Christian I found much comfort in her words. It is so hard to confess to being a Christian these days when so many Christians behave in such un-Christlike ways... purporting to love Jesus but then being the most angry, racist, sexist, unforgiving people on the planet. Not Beth. She's one of the good ones.

This is her story.

My rating: 5 stars.

Challenge met: Nonfiction November.

-Anne