Fifty Steps

Every time Vincent D'Aleo has tried to talk to his kids, he's wound up sounding like his own father. Which is to say he has sounded like a cross between Almighty God and Yosemite Sam. The son of a Sicilian father and an Irish Catholic mother, the only parenting style he knew was "Father Speaks"; everyone does what father says. But his children weren't born during that era. It took him decades to sort out who he was and, consequently, who he is. And in an effort to save his kids time and countless hours of psychotherapy, he began to write stories, stories that would help demonstrate to them—and to himself—how he thinks and who he seems to be. From his irrational fear of monkeys, the 1950s meaning of the phrase, "Wait 'til your father gets home!" and the magical summer when Roger Maris hit 61 and Vincent caught two line drives in left field to the loss of good friends to cancer, westerns vs. horror movies at the Saturday matinees, and the use of adjectives, Daleo's journey paints a portrait of a life well-lived and lessons well-earned. A hilarious look at life, love, and the perils of travel, Vincent D'Aleo's stories and commentaries on the vagaries of being human opens up the proverbial Pandora's Box of idiosyncrasies that make us all unique. Inspired by the writings and musings of Andy Rooney and Bill Bryson, his "slices of life" belie deeper, more complex, and profound truths about what it means to be human. Smart, funny, and engaging, Fifty Steps is an extraordinarily way to remind yourself of the importance held within the little things in life.