Simon Silber: Works for Solo Piano

by Christopher Miller

Simon Silber has a huge ego, a pushy father, a house full of pianos, a closet full of tuxedos--in short, all the trappings of musical genius except genius itself. He seeks inspiration by walking... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 061814336X
• ISBN13: 9780618143368
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Finally, a book about Aphorists

This is really a beautiful book. Take the reviews written about Richard Powers (particular Galatea) and apply them to Mr. Miller. The prose is meticulously crafted, but not just that--the subtle (though not too subtle that his non-literary readers didn't pick up on them)changes in voice, as the narrarator's mood oscillates from adulation to envy to spite to disgust to amusement and all back again.Just really fine, fine writing.

Funny, witty and intelligent - a rare combination

Talk about a knock-you-off-your-feet first novel! SIMON SILBER is an ingeniously well-written comedy noir that kept me laughing from the first paragraph to the last.Miller's razor-honed prose makes the antics of biographer Norm and insane musical "genius," Silber, come alive, sometimes to the point that you can even begin to visualize who they might cast in Hollywood to play the characters if we are lucky enough to ever see a true adaptation of this work on the Big Screen.And, if you are sharp enough to catch all the clues early on, you will have a great time deciding who is more nuts - Silber or the ever-suffering narrator!I HIGHLY suggest you read this book asap!

A smart, funny read

Let's face it. Every one of us has something -- writing, painting, music, dance, etc -- that we secretly believe ourselves to be much more talented at than we are. This book is a hilarious yet also poignant look at what happens when these delusions take over. Classy, devious, with a subtle, delightful twist at the end, SIMON SILBER is the most enjoyable novel I've read in a long time. I highly recommend it.

great read

This book had me rolling with laughter. I think its true hilarity comes from the author's incredible power of observation. He not only captures what it means to be an artist, but what it means to be human. There are scenes in this book that are priceless; and Simon Silber will appeal to any reader, whether or not they have a knowledge of classical music. (I actually know nothing about classical music.) I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a book that's managed to be both hilarious and moving. It's incredible!

Wow! What a hilariously, horrifyingly true story...

I think the Publishers Weekly reviewer may have missed the point: This isn't just highbrow slapstick - you don't have to know a thing about classical music to enjoy it and, while it's very funny, there are some very serious things being said here about life among what, if the Nature Channel were to do a show about humans, would be called "non-breeding males." What we have here is something simultaneously rolling-on-the-floor hilarious and astringently satirical that every few pages reveals a frightening truth: something in the nature of A Confederacy of Dunces (or, in a lesser degree, the Neon Bible) or, more recently, David Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius or David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day - although personally I found Simon Silber much more enjoyable than the latter two.It has been said that all first novels are autobiographical, and certainly every aspiring novelist must have shared the long years of obscurity and self-doubt that defines the lives of the two main characters in this novel. The endlessly rewritten, never-to-be-published novel has become something of a cliché. We all know someone who's written one, and the longer they go without publishing, the more deeply entrenched they become: endlessly pacing back and forth, manuscript in hands, wearing a rut in the earth that gradually rises above them, until eventually the writer vanishes and only his or her hands, still clutching the text, remain above ground; like Simon Silber, they hope that fame will at least descend upon them posthumously, as it did on John Kennedy Toole. Miller, fortunately, is still alive, which means that we can look forward to much more from him.Many, many readers who will recognize friends, family members and - scariest of all -- themselves in the various portraits of obsession and compulsion Miller has drawn here. And for every classical music in-joke there are dozens of quotable lines, delivered in Fayreweather's delightfully unreliable voice, that will go over no one's head: "Like most men, [Simon Silber] defaulted to thoughts of naked women any time he wasn't straining to think about something else." Or "I had been thinking of writing my own memoirs... but [was] wondering if it wouldn't be wiser to practice on someone else's life first."