August 21, 2006

“The Pleasure of My Company”

I wasn’t surprised to see the name Steve Martin on the spine of a colourful book in the library. (I was, however, surprised to find myself in a library.) I heard about his film Shopgirl based on his book, so I knew he was a novelist. What I didn’t know was he has more than one!

The story is narrated by a man in his early 30s, Daniel Pecan Cambridge, who has a number of odd quirks. He’s essentially crazy, but not clinically insane. He makes certain rules and limitations for himself, and has an undeniable fear of “8 inch high curbs.” (Eight inches!?) Apparently Santa Monica, where the novel is based, does not have many accessible curbs. Daniel gets around the long way by using scooped-out driveways. For some reason he has no fear of stairs! Anyway, he enjoys visiting Rite Aid, making magic squares in his head, and writing essays — or at least he realised he was good at it when he won an essay contest… twice.

Some of his quirks remind me of things I did as a child: “don’t let the grown-ups see you!” or not allowing myself to have either foot on the floor when a car went by, while waiting for someone. Or eventually being oddly decided to not take a book out of the high school library for a full year.

Try spending a few days without saying any word that contains the letter e. He may be crazy, but he’s a genius.

Next up: Citizen Girl and Le coeur est un muscle involontaire

Previous favourites include: L’Amour Mallarmé (Guy Moreau), Kitchen (Banana Yoshimoto), and A Far-Off Place by Laurens van der Post. (You may remember the movie of it starring Reese Witherspoon, but the original story’s hero is a young man.)