Chris Nicholson's Writing Weblog
December 08, 2005 • Thursday
I recently read Steve Martin's second novel, The Pleasure of My Company.
I ignored his first novel, Shop Girl. I flipped through it in a book store once, and quickly agreed with the poor reviews I’d heard.
But when Pleasure was released, the reviews concurred that Martin’s novel-writing skills had notably improved — in fact, one review I read claimed that the book was very well-written. So I bought it.
That was about two years ago. I finally read the book last month.
True to reviews, Pleasure delivered. At first the novel had the feel of a very long humor column; its tone was equal to that of the excellent "Shouts & Murmurs" pieces that Martin wrote for The New Yorker in the 1990s.
Pleasure was funny enough to make me laugh out loud ... reading alone ... in bed ... at 2 in the morning. What surprised me was that after 70 pages of laughing, I realized I was in the middle of a cleverly crafted character study.
I not only enjoyed the humor and the character, but I also enjoyed Martin's prose. He is gifted at choosing perfect words and at creating precise phrases.
I highly recommend reading this novel.
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