To Be Honest

Michael Leviton

ISBN 10: 1419743058 / ISBN 13: 9781419743054

Published by Abrams, 2020

About this Item

A memoir about one man's strange upbringing in a family fanatically devoted to honesty Raised in what he affectionately calls "our little honesty cult," Michael Leviton was ingrained with his parents' core philosophy: You do not tell any lies; you do not withhold the truth; and you speak your mind always, regardless of how offensive or hurtful your opinions may be. For young Michael, this freedom to be yourself-despite being bullied and ostracized at school-felt liberating. By the time Leviton was 29 years old, he had told three (what most people would consider) lies in his entire life. But his parents' enthusiasm for "just being honest" bordered on extreme. After Michael graduated high school and left home, truth telling-in job interviews, on dates, in social interactions-slowly lost its luster. When the only woman who ever appreciated his honesty brought this radical approach to truth into their relationship, Michael decided it was time to embrace the power of lying. To Be Honest is a quirky, tender, and wry story of a man discovering what it means and how it feels to lie in one's daily life.

Seller Inventory # CIN1419743058A

Bibliographic Details

• Title: To Be Honest
• Publisher: Abrams
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1419743058
• ISBN 13: 9781419743054
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: Fair

About this title

Synopsis

A memoir of “great wit and irony” about growing up in a family fanatically devoted to honesty, and navigating what came next (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

If you’re like most people, you probably lied today―maybe to soften a truth, save face, or keep the peace. Michael Leviton grew up in a home where that was unthinkable. In what he calls his family’s “little honesty cult,” he was taught to say exactly what he thought, never withhold a truth, and never pretend. It felt liberating―until the real world pushed back.

By twenty‑nine, Leviton estimates he had told only three lies in his life. But absolute candor came with a cost: awkward job interviews, friendships that couldn’t withstand bluntness, and a love story that began to buckle under the weight of “just being honest.” When the one person who admired his honesty brought that radical approach into their romance, he started to wonder whether kindness sometimes requires a gentler version of the truth―and whether a well‑placed white lie could be an act of care.

To Be Honest is Leviton’s funny, tender, and disarmingly self‑aware memoir about unlearning the absolutism of his childhood and experimenting―often disastrously―with being “as casually dishonest as the rest of us.” Along the way there are family‑therapy camps, ukulele gigs, philosophical showdowns with strangers, and the dawning realization that intimacy depends as much on listening as on confessing.

Celebrated for its crackling wit and emotional clarity, To Be Honest explores how we tell the truth, why we sometimes don’t, and what it really means to respect other people’s realities. Readers drawn to smart, voice‑driven memoirs about family, identity, and the weird art of being human will find themselves laughing, squirming, and―yes―reconsidering their own relationship to honesty.

About the Author

Michael Leviton is a writer, musician, photographer, and storyteller. He hosts the storytelling series and podcast The Tell, and his work spans screenwriting and composing music for television, including HBO’s Bored to Death. His debut memoir, To Be Honest, chronicles an upbringing devoted to “radical honesty” and the complicated, often funny ways truth plays out in love, work, and friendship; it received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.