The Pleasure of My Company [Full leather First Edition signed by Author] - Hardcover

Steve Martin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297829696 ISBN 13: 9780297829690

Publisher: Easton Press, 2003

Synopsis

Luther is a thirty-eight year old compulsive-obsessive.

He knows the exact wattage of the bulbs in his flat, and will panic if this wattage isn't kept constant. This makes it difficult if a woman wants the lights out in the bedroom. He can't cross the street unless two opposing driveways break the kerb.

Such characteristics make it difficult for Luther to find the right woman, but he's very keen on Elizabeth who's selling the flats across the street and Zandy who works in the local pharmacy (though he's yet to actually speak to her).

There's also the murder of Bob from downstairs. Luther has an alibi but is still a suspect, and his agreeing to a TV reconstruction of the murder inquiry could not only backfire, but maybe reveal who really did it.

In Luther Steve Martin has created a highly original, memorable character and THE PLEASURE OF MY COMPANY will extend his unique writing gifts to an even wider audience.

About this title

Review

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

About the Author

Steve Martin is a successful actor and writer.

Edition details

• Publisher: Easton Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0297829696
• ISBN 13: 9780297829690
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1