Red’s Book Reviews: The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin

This novella is about a man in his late twenties early thirties – hard to know which because he tells other characters different ages throughout the story – who “suffers” from some sort of personality disorder – likely OCD and perhaps some sort of autism. His life revolves around a bizarre yet strict set of rules such as not stepping off of curbs onto the street. It’s an enlightening glimpse into how seemingly normal people battle mental illness – the main character appropriately wins an essay contest with the theme of persuading the reader that the writer is the most “Average American.” The conflict of the story is can the main character overcome his debilitating issues. The story is written with sincerity, sarcasm and humor all wrapped together. One thing of note is that I struggled to divorce the main character from being Steve Martin. It must because I am more aware of the personality of the writer than in other books. The only other time I’ve encountered a similar issue is when Chuck Klosterman wrote the fiction novel “Downtown Owl.” I’ve read so much of his non-fiction, that I just heard that voice/person in all his characters.

Up next: The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs

Red’s Book Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

This is a romance cloaked in the science fiction trope of time traveling. The genre might be perfect for the trope because it allows the author to gloss over some of the icky specifics of how the time travelling occurs. Her approach is to make it a genetic disorder, one the traveler cannot control. The chaos this creates leads to his relationship with Clare. She meets him first, she as a child and him as a man in his thirties and forties. In his linear timeline, he doesn’t meet her until his mid-to-late twenties. This allows for a book in two halves where first he has the advantage of knowing all the things to come in their relationship, and then she reverses that advantage as he experiences her childhood moments while they are married. Eventually this leads to a point – clearly the conclusion. I thought this was an original book, but one that finished with a cliché. That’s where the romance genre probably hurts this for me. Romances often end with a cliché. I was hoping for a little more.

Up next: Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin