Silver Girl
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Published by Unnamed Press
February 2018
cover art by Jennis Li Cheng Tien
A nameless young woman starts her freshman year of college with one goal in mind: survival.
Newly transplanted to the big city of Chicago, she is one of the rare few to leave her small working class town in Iowa, let alone for a prestigious university. She is not driven by academic ambition, nor is she a social butterfly. Her true gift is an ability to understand the needs of others, and to reflect back the version of themselves they wish to see, rendering herself invisible.
Deftly, she conceals her deeply troubled past—especially from her charismatic yuppie-in-the-making best friend and roommate. For a while, she assimilates, living a new life not in any way her own. But the mask she wears cannot hide her secrets forever, and at some point she will be truly seen, possibly for the first time in her life.
Set in the early 80s, against the backdrop of a city terrorized by the Tylenol Killer, a local psychopath rumored to be stuffing cyanide into drugstore meds, Silver Girl is a deftly psychological account of the nuances of sisterhood. Contrasting obsession and longing, need versus desire, Leslie Pietrzyk delves into the ways class and trauma are often enmeshed to dictate one’s sense of self, and how a single relationship can sometimes lead to redemption.
Award-winning writer Beth Kephart interviews Leslie Pietrzyk.
FB Live! Reading and conversation with Patricia Smith at Chop Suey Books in Richmond, VA. (April 2018)
Try the Absolut-ly Silver Girl cocktail!
Reading at Gettysburg College, April 4, 2019.
Praise:
“A profound, mesmerizing, and disturbing novel that delves into the vagaries of college relationships and how the social-financial stratum one is born into reverberates through one’s life…In addition to capturing college life on a Midwest campus, Pietrzyk brilliantly depicts the push-and-pull dynamics between the two women, resulting in a memorable character study.”
~Publishers Weekly, starred review
“They think she is a simple, well-mannered girl, quiet and helpful. But the reader has seen into her past, knows her uncle, her little sister, her father, and all that happened back in Iowa. She is anything but. A dark, intense novel on a hot subject: female friendship complicated by class and privilege.”
“Even through all her mistakes, even though she lets no one into her mind and heart all the way, not even the reader, this central character is compelling and unforgettable. As is this novel. It’s a novel in the finest, most challenging sense of the word.”
“A gripping campus novel…a dark, suspenseful and multidimensional twist on the coming-of-age story.”
“This 1980s Chicago and its nearby suburbs, where the Tylenol killer was doing his ruthless, dangerous thing, is the backdrop of Silver Girl, the affecting new novel by Leslie Pietrzyk…. And a compelling, provocative story it is…. This narrator is both in control and not, powerful and prey, willing and used; she is a complicated woman grappling with imperfect situations.”
“Silver Girl is a novel about the intricacies of young women–their conflicting desires, their anger and how they hide or reveal themselves. Their relationships–in-born and chosen, loving and fraught–are given ample space for exploration. Raw and beautifully written, Silver Girl is also about whether it’s possible to be truly known by anyone, though friends and sisters come close.”
“Leslie Pietrzyk’s haunting SILVER GIRL begins in 1980, with a nameless narrator starting her freshman year at a prestigious Chicago-area university. The narrator escaped her economically depressed Iowa hometown, but the emotional baggage of a grim childhood and dysfunctional family continue to weigh her down like the bulky, cheaply made trunk that holds her belongings… SILVER GIRL concludes with a surge of hope, like the spring thaw after an icebound Chicago winter.”
~Foreword Reviews (5 /5 stars)
“The friendship and the sister relationships are so vividly rendered as to remind us that the richness of female bonds are more than enough to fill the lives of women and the books about them.”
“Pietrzyk writes enthralling, descriptive prose and is a masterful and calculated storyteller”
~JMMW
“A complex story about social class, female friendship, and feels like Plath’s Bell Jar.”
How’s this for crazy!? Silver Girl is a #2 regional best-seller, says Bethesda Magazine!
“This memorable study of character and friendship can be troubling at times and hopeful at others, but is engaging on every page.”
“As the character we inhabit, the protagonist seems so clear-eyed about everyone but herself. I ache for her, want to walk up to her standing alone by that keg and talk to her about the things she thinks—make a list with her (one of her pastimes) about those stupid, sweet boys—and point out all the other girls at the party just like her who are only better at pretending, but no different, not really, than she is.”
~Brain Mill Press, Voices, review by C. Kubasta
“Silver Girl glitters. The dialogue is vivid and funny, the plot zips forward, the characters are sharp and real.”
“In SILVER GIRL, Leslie Pietrzyk fearlessly explores the complex inner life of a young woman and her myriad complicated relationships with friends and sisters, while unearthing secrets about her traumatic past. Pietrzyk treats her characters with incredible empathy and tenderness, producing a deeply affecting novel about the terrible things we ask our young women to endure.”
~Mandy Berman, author of PERENNIALS
“Unflinching, thoughtful, and sharp. SILVER GIRL is the story I’ve been waiting to read: complicated women navigating life with grit and grace. From small town Iowa to Chicago, rural to urban, haves to have-nots, SILVER GIRL delivers a poignant truth about how relationships and regret shape our definitions of home.”
~Melissa Scholes Young, author of FLOOD
“SILVER GIRL is a blunt and piercing character study of a young woman making choices that are both understandable and unthinkably wrong; we watch helplessly as our unnamed narrator digs herself in deeper and deeper, sabotaging nearly every relationship in her life. Pietrzyk writes insightfully about female friendship, personal morality and accountability, unspooling an eminently compelling plot and delivering us, finally, to a redeeming moment of grace.””
— Carolyn Parkhurst, NYT Bestselling author of The Dogs of Babel, Lost and Found, The Nobodies Album and Harmony
“The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Leslie and her stories is the courage and ferocity of her women. Women who must negotiate a culture not of their own design and not of their own choosing. Women who have experienced tragedy and misfortune. Women who have made mistakes. Women who are honest in their testimony, resourceful in their lives, daring, not shy.”
— Robert Olmstead, award-winning author of Savage Country, Far Bright Star, Coal Black Horse, and The Coldest Night
Read an excerpt:
RECIPE FOR SILVER GIRL
The narrator of Silver Girl would very much like to leave behind her troubled past and her humble beginnings. One might say she would like to be a little bit “fancy,” so here is a “fancy” recipe—that is actually an easy recipe for, well, crackers. Seems one can’t entirely leave behind those roots.
I’ve served these fancy crackers with cocktails before many dinners, and someone always asks for the recipe. I bet they’ll ask you too.
This recipe is super-easy—though you’ll need a food processor, and be sure to allow time to chill the dough. And don’t overbake!
Rosemary-Parmesan Icebox Crackers
~from a Williams-Sonoma brochure
- ¾ cup flour
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped [it really has to be fresh, not dried
- ½ stick [4 tablespoons] unsalted butter, cut into small pieces [keep it cold]
- 1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese [use the good stuff!]
- ¼ cup heavy cream [I’ve used half & half]
In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, salt, pepper, and rosemary and pulse twice to mix. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 pulses. Add the cheese and pulse twice to combine. With the motor running, pour in the cream and continue processing until the dough forms a single mass. Transfer the dough to a work surface [covered with parchment paper, I suggest] and roll with your hands into a log about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap with plastic wrap [I wrap the dough log in that work surface parchment, then cover with plastic wrap] and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to 2 days.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with [new] parchment paper.
Slice the dough into 1/8-inch-thick slices and place them on the prepared baking sheet. [Not too, too close.] Bake until the crackers are light golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes [I start checking at around 15 minutes; don’t overbake]. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack. When the crackers are cool to the touch, transfer them to the rack. Makes about 24 crackers.
Store in an air-tight container at room temperature.