Wednesday, November 19, 2008

#73. The Pleasure of My Company


Title - The Pleasure of My Company (2005)
Author - Steve Martin
Runtime - Five Hours [Unabridged]
Language Variety- North American English
Genre- Fiction

Book Description

Meet Luther. He is 38-years-old. He is a compulsive-obsessive.

Luther knows the exact wattage of the bulbs in his apartment, and will panic if this wattage isn't kept constant. This makes it difficult to be spontaneous if a woman wants the lights out in the bedroom.

Luther can't cross the street unless two opposing driveways break the curb. This makes the simplest of journeys a complicated affair.

Luther finds it difficult to find the right woman, but he's very keen on Elizabeth, who's selling the flats across the street, as well as 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 seems to be backfiring.

In Luther Steve Martin has created a highly original, memorably comic character. The Pleasure of My Company confirms Martin's position as a novelist of rare talent.