There are some people who can tell stories. They have the unique ability to take the reader with them on a journey. The rare gift to take words and turn them into images, vivid and alive.
Steve Pitt is just that kind of writer, with vibrant imagery, a keen sense of humor and the talent to turn the most inappropriate subject matter into a no-holds-barred laugh riot. You'll kick yourself for laughing, but laugh you will. Again and again. I have the bruised shins to prove it.
In My Life and Other Lies: Tales from the Writer's List Steve Pitt has created a collection of stories that are amusing, poignant and sometimes embarrassingly funny. The kind of stories that make you cringe, squirm, and laugh out loud. No subject is sacred under his rapier pen. From taking a blind date to a strip club to trying to hide from a neighbor after accidentally assaulting him with an out of control boomerang, Pitt's book of faux pas is a delightfully humorous read.
The writing is reminiscent of other notable (mainly American) raconteurs, although there is a distinctly Canadian perspective that adds a certain sense of the foreign and exotic to this collection of worldly observations — or would, if Canada was considered foreign and escargot was considered exotic. Pitt displays an ability to weave wit, humor and nostalgia into artful story-telling similar to the works of Garrison Keillor, the celebrated author of Lake Wobegone Days, and Jean Shepherd whose collected anecdotes eventually became the holiday classic A Christmas Story.
He follows in the fine story-telling tradition of taking situations that most of us have found ourselves in and bringing them to the worst possible conclusion. For instance: the majority of us have walked through the house in the buff without getting caught by a window-peeking neighbor, but life is not so lucky in Pitt's world of perpetual bad-timing. And the results are hilarious.
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