Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Heroic Day-to-day Life

"Sometimes living day-to-day can be heroic, as it is in this subtle, gentle book... a quietly wonderful delight." -O Magazine

The main character/narrator of The Pleasure of My Company, who has yet to be named, is the most interesting character I've ever read about or heard of. He seems to have a lot of not-too-serious mental conditions, like social anxiety and awkwardness. He describes his obsession with numbers in a way that shows but doesn't tell that he is obsessive compulsive. He overthinks anything involving numbers so much, he loses a romantic opportunity with the young, beautiful, recently heart-broken actress who lives upstairs, Philipa. After she complains about the lighting being too bright and "not dim enough, not sexy enough" the main character goes and gets a lower watt bulb, and of course he has to change all of the other light bulbs in his small apartment to match the ones in the bedroom. After a while, the intoxicated and exhausted Philipa falls asleep. Being an honorable man, the main character helps her back into her own apartment. I love the description of his thought process during the whole scene, especially his miles and miles of thought in just a few moments.

5 comments:

Irini said...

I think the main character sounds interesting. He reminds me a little bit of some of Jane Austen's men. What time period is the book describing?

~Irini

Stacey said...

Sami-

This sounds like it would be a seriously interesting book to read. I didn't read your previous posts- Can you infer if his condition involves solely numbers or is it something like OCD also?

Stacey

Saharie said...

I agree with the interesting aspect of the book. The way you write about it reminds me of that one kid Boone, in "The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-time" I enjoyed that book in a weird sick way, and I think this may be very similiar. I will have to wait for your last blog post and your overall opinion of the book to pick it up though.

Elizabeth said...

Miles and miles of thought in just a few moments? That sounds very interesting. In fact, the whole book sounds interesting. Not only is it a book about an obsessive compulsive awkward man and his life, but let's throw an actress in too. I might just have to check this book out for myself.

Anonymous said...

This book sounds really different but its really appealing. i love reading little sad romance books and this book looks like it has the whole package with the OCD and the losing his chance with love. sounds real cool.