WHOEVER thought the day-to-day life of an obsessive compulsive American man could be so enthralling, so hilarious, and so ultimately moving?

In this, his second novel, Steve Martin gives us a protagonist - Daniel Pecan Cambridge - with whom we can laugh and cry.

His Santa Monica days are filled with intrepid visits to the Right Aid store, taking care to avoid dreaded kerbs and attendants in blue hats.

With the few people who enter his life - neighbours, estate agent, councillor - his dealings seem at best dysfunctional, at worst sinister.

But as narrator he always confides the episodes with such a dead-pan, quirky honesty, born of his obsessive-compulsive condition, that we are entertained with regular bursts of god-that's-so-true humour, while at the same time warming to his innocence and melancholy.

When Daniel enters a Most Average American Competition, once as himself, and once as an imaginary character, and both become finalists, his squirms are hilarious. When he travels to read his speech and receive a prize, accompanied by his increasingly protective neighbour Brian, the scene is strangely tear-jerking.

Later he travels with his counsellor-cum-friend and her one-year-old son, Teddy, to exorcise some personal ghosts, before truly facing his own demons.

No character ever deserved a happy ending as much as Daniel, and as his relationships develop and his anxiety thaws, you are left with a warm glow from this life-affirming tale.

For an actor-turned-writer, Martin has created a refreshingly interior comedy which is about people, not events, and is certainly not written with an eye on the film rights.

Thoroughly recommended.

Updated: 10:10 Wednesday, August 25, 2004