Fourteen exquisite, interlinked stories, set mostly in Washington, D.C., comprise Leslie Pietrzyk's shrewd Admit This to No One. Pietrzyk (Silver Girl) humanizes Beltway insiders (and wannabe outsiders), even as she skewers their hypocrisies, weaknesses and dreams. In a city where "so, what do you do?" matters most, Pietrzyk is more concerned with exploring "what are you... really who are you."
Pietrzyk opens and closes with Madison, a 15-year-old waiting for her father at the Kennedy Center in " 'Til Death Do Us Part," later a college student emulating said father as she juggles cheating relationships in "Every Man in History." Madison is one of the children of the philandering Speaker of the House, whose well-known inappropriate affairs blocked his path to the presidency. His oldest--and favorite--daughter, Lexie, finally broke away 10 years ago, but when, in "Stay There," she hears at her 40th birthday party that he's comatose, she immediately leaves North Carolina for D.C. She uncharacteristically pulls the "do you know who I am?" card in "My Father Raised Me," then invents a pregnancy to access his hospital room past her father's territorial young fourth wife in "Kill the Fatted Calf."
Pietrzyk deftly interrupts the family dysfunction with broader reveals. The standout "People Love a View" captures a white cop/Black driver scenario that goes horrifically awry in the most unexpected ways. "Wealth Management," "This Isn't Who We Are" and "Green in Judgment" each brilliantly exposes white entitlement pretense. The winks, protestations and complicity throughout induce both can't-make-this-stuff-up shock and all-too-knowing nods. Racism, sexism, elitism, so many -isms, fabulously fuel one of the finest collections of the year. --Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon