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List Price: $32.95 | | Publisher: Wheeler Publishing
Salesrank: 2915109
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| Our Price: $26.62 |
| Used Price: $0.01 |
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| Media: Hardcover |
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Editorial Review:
A New York Times Bestseller
Daniel Pecan Cambridge, 30, 35, 38, or 27, depending on how he feels that day, is a young man whose life is rich and full, provided he never leaves his Santa Monica apartment. After all, outside there are 8-inch-high curbs and there's always the horrible chance he might see a gas station attendant wearing a blue hat. So, except for the occasional trip to the Rite Aid to admire the California girl Zandy and to buy earplugs because they're on sale, he stays home a lot. And a good thing too, or he would have never been falsely implicated in a murder, never almost seduced Philipa, never done the impossible task of jogging around the block with Brian, never ironed his pillows, and he might never have won the Most Average American essay contest.
Description of The Pleasure of My Company:
Readers expecting something zany, something crudely humorous from Steve Martin's second novel, The Pleasure of My Company, will discover much greater riches. While the book has a sense of humor, Martin moves everywhere with a gentler, lighter touch in this elegant little fiction that verges on the profound and poetic.
Daniel Pecan Cambridge is the narrator and central consciousness of the novel (actually a novella). Daniel, an ex-Hewlett-Packard communiqué encoder, is a savant whose closely proscribed world is bounded on every side by neuroses and obsessions. He cannot cross the street except at driveways symmetrically opposed to each, and he cannot sleep unless the wattage of the active light bulbs in his apartment sums to 1,125. Daniel's starved social life is punctuated by twice-weekly visits from a young therapist in training, Clarissa; by his prescription pick-ups from a Rite Aid pharmacist, Zandy; and by his "casual" meetings with the bleach-blond real estate agent, Elizabeth, who is struggling to sell apartments across the street. But Daniel's dysfunctional routines are shattered one day when he becomes entangled in the chaos of Clarissa's life as a single mother. Taking care of Clarissa's tiny son, Teddy, Daniel begins to emerge from the safety of logic, magic squares, and obsessive counting.
Martin's craftsmanship is remarkable. The tightly packed novella paints rich portraits with restraint and balance, including nothing extraneous to Daniel's world. The book does not try for pyrotechnics but is contented with a Zen-like simplicity in both prose and plot. Avoiding the crushing bleakness of much contemporary fiction, Martin insists through Daniel--a man haunted by horrors of his own making--that there is possibility for compassion, that broken lives can actually be healed. --Patrick O'Kelley
The Pleasure of My Company Reviews:
Waiting 
2009-10-01 - The book was ordered almost 2 weeks ago to be sent from Atlanta, to Atlanta. But it hasn't arrived yet. The order says it has 4 more days to arrive. I will comment again when it arrives.
A great book and a fun read. 
2009-07-06 - Not only is Steve Martin hilariously funny-- he also is a very talented writer and novelist. A few pages into the book you forget about Steve Martin, and instead, the character becomes completely his own, and an extremely interesting and accessible one as well. I finished this book in two days and couldn't put it down. You will love this book, and I know it will keep you laughing. Highly recommended!
A Gem.
2009-06-16 - If you enjoy Steve Martin, you will love listening to this 'easy read'. It is very funny and as a result of listening to it, I have no obsessive/compulsive issues. Not that I did in the first place, but now, none for sure.
Pity, empathy, and the plot grab reader's attention!
2009-05-19 - The Speed of Dark, by Elizabeth Moon, is about an autistic man with "savant syndrome." It really gave me an "insider's view" of what it would be like to... see the world through a different lens.
The Pleasure of My Company, by actor/writer/comedian/playwright Steve Martin, is another story about a man with an alternative view to observing the world.
Daniel Pecan Cambridge lives in Santa Monica, California. His neuroses have restricted his travel (even in his local neighborhood), his interactions with other people, and his employment. He really has no friends, but that's okay; the self-imposed rules that he must follow daily for just living are all-consuming.
There are some people, however, that pique his interest: the therapist intern who visits weekly; a local realtor; a pharmacy technician; and an unemployed actress and her boyfriend. Daniel is supported by monthly disability checks and needed supplements provided by his grandmother. Granny's death initiates a series of events that will change Daniel's life forever.
This really is a touching story, and most readers will pity poor Daniel, who tries so hard to make his life work. There is a subplot in the beginning regarding a murder in his apartment building; the murder investigation, and Daniel's reaction to it, really doesn't seem that relevant to the story. I assume Martin includes it to make the reader aware of how oblivious Daniel is to... society's organizational rules? I'm not sure here. It really injects a bit of expected "Steve Martinesque" humor into the writing. But don't expect this story to be a comedy. It isn't.
Recommended.
Pretty boring 
2009-04-15 - I found the book rather timid and boring, with trite situations and surface psychology that didn't really delve into anything profound. The main character is basically Forest Gump, but with an uneventful life and no discerning characteristics to make him interesting. I thought the title and cover art were interesting, and those were the reasons I checked it out. It was a mistake. I still think Steve Martin is a great comedian, but this book has made me wish that he would stick to his strengths.
