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Book Review: The Pleasure of My Company

posted by Tipsy Reader
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 12:01pm CST

Author: Steve Martin
Pages: 176
Date Started: 2/7/11
Date Finished: 2/10/11
Simple Summary: Due to various fears and neuroses Daniel Cambridge is confined to his one bedroom Santa Monica apartment… and a very strange route to the Rite Aid. Through various interactions and occurrences Daniel finds his place in the world — and out of his own.

Rating: ★★★★☆

My Review: If you had asked me six years ago how I would rate this book you would have been caught in the hurricane of my rapture. But as the years pass and you come back to a book and sometimes you are a different person, reading with new outlooks and perspectives. Mind you, I was doing a semester at SMC when I read it too. (Can you guess my age now? *wiggles eyebrows*)

But now I actually payed attention to the book and started to find that the writing dragged. Still slightly comical, I found the book to be far more morose and … heartbreaking. Daniel, for his reasons, has cut himself off from the world, yet fixates himself on three women. All who play specific roles in his life. Realistic in his storyline, Martin brings you up close and personal with someone who is profoundly intelligent yet emotionally confined. And it might make some people uncomfortable — myself included.

Still, Martin’s writing is so inspiring and well composed that I can’t help but recommend it. Take your time with this book, it is not a novel to be flippantly read.

Audiobook Review: Hypnotic and beautifully coupled with eloquent writing Steve Martin gives a fantastic read of his own book (he is an actor after all). Touching in all the right places — this book contains mostly awkward comedy — you are not only drawn into Daniel’s world, you’re inside his head.