Rating: 
Summary: Amusing, Amazing, Uplifting Short Novel
Review: Daniel Pecan Cambridge is a young man who is totally incapacitated by OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder). He is unable to hold a job or have friends, he is barely able to make it to the neighborhood pharmacy because he cannot navigate curbs. His love life is limited to looking (from afar). And yet, there is more to Daniel than his illness. For one, he is a mathematical genius who can tell you what day of the week your birthday will fall on in twenty years. More importantly, he has a heart for people, a discovery which will surprise Daniel himself as much as the reader of this book.The Pleasure of My Company is a short novel, beautifully written, easy to read, funny, insightful, delightful and redemptive. It explores in depth (and with humor) the suffering of Daniel's self-imposed limitations, and it shows the way to his healing. How does it happen? You will just have to read the book to find out. Author Steve Martin is well known for his comic films, but he is also an extremely good writer. He has a deep understanding of people and their sufferings, undoubtedly drawn from life experience. In this book he has done it again, and I recommend it highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.
Rating:
Summary: The Pleasure of Steve Martin's Company
Review: I really enjoyed Shopgirl, but fell in love with the Pleasure of My Company. I often hestiate to buy a novel in hard cover (one might call me budget conscious? ) that is this short--however, it worth it. I read the book in just a few hours, but it will stay with me for a long time. Daniel is a wonderful, warm, and slightly sad character. I loved the first person narration. Daniel is obsessive-complusive and Martin nails down his inner life. His hilarious attempts at romance, his nutty essay, his road trips are all spiced with humor and a twinge of realism. Martin's writing is warm and honest. The ending is so wonderful, it might move you to tears (I will say no more so as not to ruin it). I was quite impressed by a modern man who works to solve his own problems instead of blaming others (his attempts at therapy are also humorous). Martin dispels, intentionally or not, so much of our addiction based culture. Daniel learns strength and tries to conquer the world on his own terms--with a quiet heart. A beautiful little story. Martin is fantastic.
Rating:
Summary: Exquisite!
Review: I had such an unexpectedly strong reaction to this novel. Martin's prose is simple yet eloquent; its beauty sneaks up on you. I fell in love with the main character--his quirks, his fears, his gentle heart. There is a genuine sweetness to this novel, but it never feels forced or overdone. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys unconventional characters and skillful writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite a Character
Review: All seems to be going well for Steve Martin these days. His movie career continues apace with the occasional hit and he continues to develop as an author. The Pleasure of My Company is a distinct improvement over his debut story, Shopgirl. Though not noticeably longer, The Pleasure of My Company gets tagged "a novel" whereas Shopgirl was "a novella;" still, I'm willing to forgive since this book has the depth. Martin has made a wise move by focusing on a single character, Daniel, this time around. Martin's main talent lies in characterization and wry commentary and Daniel gives him an opportunity to do both. This streamlines the story and makes it much more interesting. Daniel is a mentally disturbed young man whose ability to leave his apartment is very limited because of his obsessions and phobias--his inability to step off of curbs, for instance, or his obsession with thinking of things in terms of magic squares. Still, he attempts to reach out to the world around him: entering essay contests, joining MENSA, trying to meet the realtor across the street or the pharmacist at the Rite-Aid. Eventually, as his obsessions shift and he gets a little luck, his world begins to open up. Admittedly, I'm a little tired of the mentally disturbed protagonist but Daniel is an engaging character mainly because he is basically a nice guy and he struggles to overcome his problems instead of giving into them. And the observations of the unbalanced often hold more truth than the lives of the "normal." Though there is nothing mind-bendingly fantastic here, this brief read is a good one.
Rating:
Summary: A truly wonderful book
Review: I have been a huge Steve Martin fan ever since I saw Father of the Bride as a little girl. When I discovered that Mr. Martin was also an author, I raced to the book store and picked up copies of Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company. This book in particular (The Pleasure of My Company) absolutely blew me away. It is clever, sensitive, touching...just absolutely brilliant. Steve Martin really showcases his talent in this book by telling the story of a man living with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), using just enough humor to keep the story lighthearted and fun, but enough candor to provide a very insightful look into the lives of people living with OCD. Once I started reading, I simply could not put the book down. When I finished the book, I gave it to my mom and she couldn't stop talking about how much she loved it too!! I definitely recommend this book as an enjoyable read for anyone.
Rating:
Summary: A Surprise! Don't Miss It!
Review: Daniel Pecan Cambridge is a man with problems. Not only is he an obsessive-compulsive, unemployed, Mensa reject, but he is also a murder suspect, a near seducer of his only male friend's girlfriend, in love with one of three women (he hasn't decided which) and the winner of the Most Average American essay contest. Daniel embarks on a journey of self-discovery without the apparent advantage of being able to cross the street anywhere except where two driveways line up, the ability to travel any distance without restricting himself to words missing the letter "E," or speak to a woman without the horrifying image of himself as a murder suspect showing upon the television. Can Daniel pull himself together? Which woman will decide his faults are not as serious as they first appear? Will he ever be able to cross the street at a curb? These and many more burning questions are answered in Steve Martin's The Pleasure of My Company. Told in a very intimate first person viewpoint, The Pleasure of My Company is compelling, amusing, enlightening, and tender. Somehow Martin manages to take a man doing very little with his life and grip the reader. It is a trick worthy of a veteran novelist. This is a short book without any extra padding and is, therefore, a very easy read. There are no wasted words, no unnecessary scenes. The pace is fast, the characters lively. From a peroxide and plastic female real estate agent to an angelic shrink with more problems than her patients, the supporting cast is wild and wonderful. The setting is as odd as the main character, and the self-discovery is believable, well done, and very tender. The ending felt a tad rushed, but not bad. Generally speaking, I avoid books written by celebrities, but this one is frankly amazing. At various points, I laughed out loud; I empathized; I cried; I questioned my own sanity. This is not at all common for me. I hope you will enjoy this one too. Another offbeat Amazon quick-pick I recommend is "The Losers Club" by Richard Perez
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS BOOK
Review: How many more dimensions of true talent can this man master. This work is much better than Shopgirl and would make a great film. The only thing disappointing about the book is that it was not longer. It is fiction that captures OCD like a first hand case study.
Rating:
Summary: Steve Martin Keeps Getting Better
Review: A charming, funny, mature (if I can say that without being too corny) little book. A thousand times better than Shopgirl. Way to go, Steve.
Rating:
Summary: tour de force
Review: Martin is a comic genius and this book is just as good as his last warm character study, Shopgirl. Actually, the guy is getting better and better, which is a surprise because he was pretty great when he started.
Rating: 
Summary: Portrait of a young obsessive-compulsive
Review: Steve Martin is without a doubt one of America's top, multi-talented entertainers over the past four decades. His best films ("Roxanne," "L.A. Story") are warm, funny, uplifting portraits of regular (okay, slightly irregular) folks. I enjoyed "Shopgirl", finding it to be a touching true-to-life story of people connecting amidst the paradoxical loneliness of life in a crowded modern day American city (Shopgirl has the potential to make a very good movie). "The Pleasure of My Company" explores similar themes, yet since the main character is so obviously mentally disturbed, I could not develop a deep attachment or identification with him, which prevented the story from affecting me as deeply as Martin's best work. Although almost everyone has episodes of shyness, which handicap them from directly obtaining the object of their desires, the protagonist of TPOMC handicaps himself to such extremes that it is hard for the reader to know how to react. Martin spends a significant portion of the book describing these self-afflictions, in painful detail in many cases. Some of them are terribly sad, some are just plain stupid, and some are quite funny (my favorite was when the main character decides, for several days, to avoid saying any words with the letter "E" in them - the slightly convoluted sentences that he devises to converse with others who don't know about this self-imposed limitation show off Martin's subtle humor at its best). So, while humor is definitely one of Martin's intents, at other times I felt as if I was being asked to laugh at the truly mentally ill. Or, more likely, Martin did want to invoke more complicated feelings of pathos in the reader. But whatever his intent, it did prevent me from identifying with the main character, which in turn made it hard to apply the lessons from the book. There are a few other more minor flaws in TPOMC. There is a diversion in the plot whereby the main character enters an essay contest and gets invited to speak at fictional "Freedom College", modeled after evangelical colleges here in the U.S. Yet the essays submitted are so awful (as the main character states, every sentence in his essay contradicts the prior one) and the people at the college so wooden that Martin fails to concede even an iota of intelligence to the target of his satire. But no one is that stupid, so it is too easy to dismiss the points Martin was trying to make. TPOMC does have a redeeming message to convey: even a painfully shy, afflicted individual can, if they open their hearts widely to others and open their lives a tiny bit to social interaction, find a true, healing love. And there are some warm and humorous passages. However, for those who have not yet read any Steve Martin, I would recommend "Shopgirl" over TPOMC, and I would urge some caution before spending time and money on TPOMC.
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