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Loading... The Pleasure of My Companyby Steve Martin
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I guess because I do not have weird quirks like the main character and I do not know anyone like him, I had trouble with this book. I tended to laugh at the idiosyncrasies of this character instead of really being able to invest in him. I just do not think it was my cup of tea. (  ) WillowOne | May 8, 2009 |  I found The Pleasure of My Company to be a charming, tender and witty little book. Daniel Pecan Cambridge (our neurotic narrator) proves that we are all just a little more alike than we might think. I also enjoyed Mr. Martin's previous novella, Shopgirl. As a person who delights in experiencing the world, and most definitely books, in a visual and tactile way, there is something that I just loved about these slim volumes. I suppose that means I will never stand in line to buy a Kindle (yikes!) because for me a book is a total experience and this whole package is a true delight. (  ) wcath | Mar 10, 2009 | A sweet, charming novella. Steve Martin has the ability to make a normally unrelateable character relateable. (  ) omame | Oct 29, 2008 | An interesting read (and because of the short length and straightforward writing style, a quick one, too!) To me, it is like a mix of "Rear Window" and "Waiting for Godot" (although I enjoyed this much more than "Godot"), in that this novella causes us to stop and see what happens when essentially nothing happens. And we find that a lot happens when nothing happens! Martin explores a lot of deep themes in this novella, while covering a range of emotions from love to grief to heartbreak. What makes this even more interesting is that we view everything through the eyes of a neurotic narrator. He views the seemingly everyday issues we all face with a different perspective than ours – looking much more closely at some many things we take for granted. I particularly found it funny when he quite seriously wanted a mediator to find the common language between himself and the 1-year-old child he is babysitting. The ending is a bit abrupt and ties up a lot of problems a bit too neatly, but overall I enjoyed this book and liked the many questions that the novella inevitably raises for the reader about the nature of love and obsessions and the challenges presented by language. (  ) sweetiegherkin | Oct 10, 2008 | If you enjoy watching Steve Martin as an actor, I think you'd appreciate reading this book. His writing style is very much how I would expect: witty, charming, self-depracating. Personally, I found the book very easy to read and the story, if brief, is an intriguing insight into a man struggling to break out of his mental condition. There were traits in the main character that I could relate to which probably made it more interesting to me than others. I haven't read any of Steve Martin's other books, but I think this is definitely one worth checking out. ( ) ev3thingconnect5 | Sep 7, 2008 | 
 The Pleasure of My Company is a delightful novel as warm as the California sun. Martin has managed to capture in Daniel, the essence of a likeable zany man. Daniel's eventual success at having a happy life despite his many handicaps, is uplifting because it reminds us that life is not all bad all the time. It is always fun to root for the underdog and have him win. It might take some doing but Martin shows us that there are indeed "takers for the quiet heart."  At first, "The Pleasure of My Company" seems unlikely to amount to more than a conglomeration of moments and observations, which, however droll or moving they may be, do not a novel make. But Martin pulls it together... This novel, like its protagonist, is thoroughly engaging and entertaining, at least at first. Daniel's struggles to reacquaint himself with the pleasures of human interaction are at turns funny, heart-wrenching and inspiring. The ending of Steve Martin's new novella is so sweetly sentimental, it'd give John Steinbeck an ice cream headache. This doesn't spoil the book -- or even the ending, really -- but hard-bitten and hard-boiled readers beware: Martin's a softie at heart.  ''The Pleasure of My Company'' is one of those small, appealing-looking books that promise pleasant diversions and few demands.
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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
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:04 -0400)
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