Miller, Christopher 1961–

PERSONAL: Born 1961. Education: Columbia College, B.A.; Washington University, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES: Home—Brooklyn, NY. Office—Bennington College, One College Dr., Bennington, VT 05201-6003.

CAREER: Worked in a psychiatric group home, Seattle, WA; Bennington College, Bennington, VT, instructor, 2002–.

AWARDS, HONORS: Prix Pelléas for best book on music published in 2003, for French translation of Simon Silber, Variations en fou majeur.

WRITINGS:

Simon Silber: Works for Solo Piano (novel), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2002, also published as Sudden Noises from Inanimate Objects: A Novel in Liner Notes, Mariner Books (Boston, MA), 2004.

Contributor to periodicals, including Maisonneuve, Salmagundi, Lit, and New England Review. Simon Silber has been published in French, Dutch, and Japanese.

ADAPTATIONS: Film rights to Simon Silber have been optioned by Leonardo DiCaprio.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Two novels, including Eat.

SIDELIGHTS: Christopher Miller's debut novel, Simon Silber: Works for Solo Piano, is the comical story of a failed musician and a similarly hopeless writer. Ray Olson described it in a Booklist review as being "as thoroughly, unmaliciously wacky as anything since PG. Wodehouse." Although prodded by his wealthy father to become a great pianist, Simon has failed to display any talent whatsoever. This has not deflated his ego, however, and Simon hires Norm Fayrewether, who narrates this story, to write the extensive liner notes for a four-set CD collection of music that includes variations on "Chopsticks," an hour-long performance of the "Minute Waltz," and compositions based on the sounds of phones and wind chimes, all written for the keyboard. Norm, like Simon, is no great talent either. After working as an aide in a library for fifteen years, he is fired after the death of his mother, who he learns actually funded his salary. Norm, who is hired by Simon when he responds to a classified ad, shows complete disregard for the music in his extensive notes while he comments on Simon's life and relationship with his twin brother, Scooter.

A Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded that "the droll cover is a clever indication of this novel's iconoclastic humor, but it remains to be seen whether its audience will spread beyond the Bach and Beethoven crowd." A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that the protagonists "are a perfectly matched pair of pretentious poseurs who give Miller a fine time as he regales us with one tale after another, bursting bubbles of pomposity on every page."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 15, 2002, Ray Olson, review of Simon Silber: Works for Solo Piano, p. 1574.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2002, review of Simon Silber, p. 605.

Publishers Weekly, February 25, 2002, review of Simon Silber, p. 37.

ONLINE

Bennington College Web site, http://www.bennington.edu/ (March 9, 2006), brief biography of Christopher Miller.

Spike, http://www.spikemagazine.com/ (March 9, 2006), Jonathan Kiefer, "Irony and Ivories: Jonathan Kiefer Talks to Christopher Miller about His Debut Novel Simon Silber: Works for Solo Piano."