The Pleasure of my Company - Hardcover

Martin, Steve

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297829696 ISBN 13: 9780297829690

Publisher: W&N, 2003

Synopsis

The Pleasure of My Company

About this title

Review

Of all the celebrities who've tackled novels in recent years, one of the most conspicuously successful in the field is comic actor Steve Martin. In books such as Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Shopgirl, Martin showed the same dazzling wordplay that marks his film and TV work, and his new novel, The Pleasure of My Company, builds on the earlier work to produce a book that is both effortlessly entertaining and beautifully wrought.

Martin's protagonist is Daniel Pecan Cambridge, a thirtyish loser whose life is wrecked by a whole slew of neurotic compulsions and tics. The small, irrational fears that plague most of us are the bane of Daniel's life, but he resolves to shed these straitjackets and move into something like normality. One of his aims is a normal relationship with a woman and there are several potential targets in sight: his therapist Clarissa, struggling to relieve him of his demons, Zandy, the beguiling assistant in the chemist's shop, and Elizabeth, selling apartments in his street.

But his compulsions are only one of his problems; his neighbour Bob has been murdered and Daniel is in the frame for the crime. The attention of the media seems set to keep him living an abnormal life for quite some time, which might undercut his hopes of winning the "Most Average American" competition.

Novels by comedians can often collapse into a series of one-liners, and while there are some zingers here, Martin is a real novelist--this quirky black comedy has both a solidly realised structure and a sharply etched cast. Daniel is a wonderfully characterised anti-hero--a natural, perhaps, for Martin himself to play when the inevitable movie is made. --Barry Forshaw

Review

'It's like reading PG Wodehouse on acid or Monty Python on Valium: calmly surreal.... this is light-hearted, quick-witted slapstick; innocent and playful, original and funny.' (Will Hammond, THE OBSERVER)

'The book succeeds as a light comic novel and there are a number of set-pieces -.... where Martinn uses Daniel's obsessive compulsiveness to great comic effect.' (David Baddiel, THE TIMES)

Although he has written another fable about the transforming power of love, Martin keeps the sentimentality in check...... the tragic subtext is balanced by slapstick that makes you laugh out loud.' (Mark Sanderson, THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

'It is often laugh-out-loud funny: Daniel's OCD (which he never refers to by name) enables his observations to be sharply ingenuous, a viable vehicle for the author's wit.... deftly sustained and thoroughly enjoyable.' (Dominic Maxwell TIME OUT)

'What Martin has done is to create a distinct, believable and very strange character, Daniel Pecan Cambridge, who bears no resemblance to anyone except Daniel Pecan Cambridge.' (Brandon Robshaw, THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY)

'Many comedians try to write novels: Martin's consummate and kindly work proves he can.' (SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY)

'This highly entertaining book.' (Alex Clark, RED MAGAZINE)

'a highly original and moving story' (SUNDAY MIRROR)

'every bit as amusing and compulsive as its creator' (SAINSBURY MAGAZINE)

genuinely comic scenes with cinematic overtones and a memorably mixed-up clown in a Woody Allen mould. (Tom Widger SUNDAY TRIBUNE)

About this edition

• Publisher: W&N
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0297829696
• ISBN 13: 9780297829690
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256