To Be Honest: A Memoir of Radical Honesty, Love, and the Occasional Necessary Lie

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—unti...