Briefly putting together several works by Steve Martin
- The Pleasure of My Company
- An Object of Beauty
- Shopgirl
- Pure Drivel
These are great because they are audiobooks, performed by Steve Martin. So you get his complex intonations that are unlike anyone else. The first three listed are novels, very difficult to categorize into anything as simple as comedy, thriller, psychological commentary, etc. They are books about main characters who are in trouble. I would characterize that "trouble" as a collision between themselves and a not-so-comprehensible society. There is the feeling of barely getting on. Of impending panic of almost constantly feeling that there is something very wrong with me, or there is something very wrong with society, or both. But the beauty of his writing is that it is not nihilistic. Steve Martin has a clear perception of human psychology "as it is", and maybe also a perception of our inner life "as it could be". It is very rare for comedians, or anyone really, to describe the difficulties of life in a way that is not judgmental, or mean, or cynical.
About "Pure Drivel", it's just funny, very funny. The book is a dozen or so short pieces, ranging from Socrates proving it is OK to get nude pics of breast feeding women, to five minutes of side effects from prescription drugs. You can't think too much about it all, because he is leading you down truly absurd alleys - but there is so much thought underneath it all that you feel like you having a delightful shakedown of all your logical self-importance.
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