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Title: Simon Silber: Works for Solo Piano by Christopher Miller ISBN: 0-618-14336-X Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company Pub. Date: 15 May, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (12 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Very funny in-jokes
Comment: This book contains a plethora of very funny ideas, but is not directed towards a general reading public. Rather, this book will appeal most to two groups of people: those who find modern music of the Cage-kind pretentious and preposterous; and those who are fed up with biographies that seem to be more about the biographer than the subject. And, just maybe, I should add a third category: people [messed] up for life because of the ... theories and thinking of their parents.
While I fit into the above categories, I found myself laughing more at the situations described in this book after I read it. In others words, the situations are very funny, but the writing is flat. I know this "biography" is supposed to be the work of a poor writer, but I think this approach was unintentionally too apropos. Thus, I laugh at what I read, but not particularly while I was reading it. Telling people about this book is almost more fun than reading it.
Silber's father is a sadist who develops a "method" for turning out a great pianist. He tortures not just Silber with this method, but the entire family. Silber's brother is somewhat of a doppelganger of Silber. Silber's hated sister is petty and cruel, but the way she turns out is the most lifelike portrayal of how a real human being would probably react to the torments of growing up with a bunch of self-absorbed loons.
Afflicted with a phobia against all noise, eventually this leads the composer Simon Silber to remove the strings from one of his best pianos and replace them with rubber. He writes a piece for piano pedals. He spends an hour performing Chopin's Minute Waltz. In short, Silber appears to be the bastard son of John Cage.
The story of Silber is told by a hired biographer, Norman Fayrewether Jr. If anything, I'm more annoyed with the literary pretensions of Fayrewether than I am with the musical pretensions of Silber. Silber is a victim of a childhood he couldn't control; Fayrewether is just a bitter failed writer of bad aphorisms.
There are two clear antecedents to this novel: John Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces" and Nabakov's "Pale Fire." The loony farce is descendant from Toole, the structure of the novel from Nabakov. "Pale Fire" is a novel told in footnotes to an epic poem. "Simon Silber" is a novel told as liner notes to a CD collection. It's taken a lot of decades for someone to come up with something as inventive as the structure of "Pale Fire", and, this is another plus in the column for "Simon Silber."
Rating: 5
Summary: great read
Comment: 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!
Rating: 5
Summary: nothing wrong with this read
Comment: Funny and entertaining. Clever and well crafted. Poignant and profound. As the dust jacket says, it's reminiscent of "Pale Fire" and "Edwin Mullhouse : The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954 by Jeffrey Cartwright" But not only was the book shorter than both "Pale Fire" and "Edwin Mullhouse : The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954 by Jeffrey Cartwright", it was shorter than the both of them combined. Plus I think there were more references to Beethoven. Well worth the time and effort.
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Title: Champagne Kisses, Cyanide Dreams by Ralph Graves ISBN: 1567921795 Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues: The Uses of Philosophy in Everyday Life by Andre Comte-Sponville ISBN: 0805045562 Publisher: Owl Books (NY) Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Amateur Marriage: A Novel by ANNE TYLER ISBN: 1400042070 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 06 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Life of Pi by Yann Martel ISBN: 0156027321 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown ISBN: 0385504209 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 18 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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