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Small Apartments Paperback – May 16, 2001
| Chris Millis (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
- Print length128 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherAnvil Press
- Publication dateMay 16, 2001
- Dimensions5 x 0.4 x 8 inches
- ISBN-101895636353
- ISBN-13978-1895636352
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"The novel...is a quick and engaging two-hour read with pithy dialogue delivered at a thriller's page-turning pace." -- The Saratogian (Saratoga Springs, NY
"brisk and compact...surprisingly expansive thematic breadth, a thoughtful, silly yet serious life study in goofy pathos." -- The Globe and Mail, September 8, 2001
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About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Anvil Press; 1st edition (May 16, 2001)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 128 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1895636353
- ISBN-13 : 978-1895636352
- Item Weight : 5.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5 x 0.4 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #8,237,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #275,041 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Chris Millis is a prize-winning, bestselling writer, producer, and cartoonist. He adapted his first novel, Small Apartments (print: Anvil Press, 2001; digital: Thirteen Books Publishing, 2012), into a feature film directed by Jonas Akerlund that stars Billy Crystal, Matt Lucas, James Caan, Johnny Knoxville, Dolph Lundgren, Peter Stormare, Juno Temple, James Marsden, Amanda Plummer, Rosie Perez, Rebel Wilson, and many more. The film had it's World Premiere at the 2012 South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. It was an audience favorite as a dark, subversive cult hit, prompting The Hollywood Reporter in its review to call it "singularly weird."
As a screenwriter and producer, Millis has several original and rewrite projects in development. Some current projects include: "On Tilt," with director Goran Dukic ("Wristcutters: A Love Story"), "The Love Broker," with director Mark Piznarski ("Gossip Girl"), and the caper comedy, "Tackling Larry Csonka," starring Matt Lucas.
Millis's second novel, God & California, previously optioned by Lionsgate, is scheduled for publication in 2012.
As a celebrity collaborator, Millis's credited books include The Making of a Stand-Up Guy, with comedian Charlie Murphy (Simon & Schuster, 2009), and Here's the Situation, with Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, star of MTV's "Jersey Shore" (Penguin, 2010). Millis frequently writes and travels with actor-comedian Rob Schneider and is collaborating with Rob on several projects, including his memoir.
As a cartoonist, Millis has partnered with John McPherson since 1995 on the syndicated cartoon panel "Close To Home," distributed to over 700 newspapers worldwide by Universal Press Syndicate. He has illustrated political, humor, and children's books including An American Bestiary (Lone Oak Press, 2000) by the late presidential candidate, U.S. Senator, and poet-statesman Eugene J. McCarthy, and the popular New England children's book, A Clam Named Sam (Lone Oak Press, 2001) by conservationist Lee DeVitt. Millis has published thousands of his drawings in newspapers, magazines, on greeting cards and toys.
Millis began his career as an art director and sportswriter for daily newspapers in upstate New York. He holds a B.A. in Art from S.U.N.Y. Buffalo State College and a M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College, Vermont. He lives in New York and Los Angeles with his wife and twin sons. Learn more at chrismillis.com or follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisMillis.
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There's also not a spare word to be found; it manages to weave a lot of storytelling into a small space. And, best of all, it didn't do a single thing that I expected it to do. I love it when a book actually surprises me--especially when it does so accompanied by a firm fist to the gut.
The characters have also stayed with me, which is another mark of a good book. I'm surprised because, really, there isn't a lot of space devoted to description and whatnot and yet I still feel like I've a good grasp of who the characters are and what drives them. That's good writing, and I love good writing above all things.
In short: Small Apartments is worth the time it takes to read it, and then some.
Small Apartments, by Chris Millis, captures the reader with the dead landlord on the kitchen floor and Franklin in his underwear, and it only gets stranger from there. As we learn more about Franklin's life and how he has come to have a dead landlord in his kitchen, we are compelled to keep reading, wondering how in the world everything might work out fine. Millis projects a wistful sadness throughout the book, and even the funny parts seem like laughing through the pain. Far from making the reader want to put the book aside, however, the gloomy mood creates a sympathy for Franklin, and a hope that the book will end happy for him, in some degree, anyway. The direness of his situation generates real interest in how the author will bring this about, and the pages keep turning.
From a writer's perspective, Small Apartments could serve as a textbook for writing a novel in three days. Looking at it from a high level, it seems evident that Millis sketched the characters and developed the arc of scenes and chapters before starting the competition, then used his writing time to race through the text, allowing quirky tangents to come up when the muse moved him. The process resulted in a solid work that feels larger than it is, with interesting characters on a strange and unforgettable ride. It's the kind of book that makes a writer think a-ha, so that's how it's done.
Small Apartments won the 23rd International 3-Day Novel-Writing Contest, and deservedly so. It has unusual and interesting characters, a solid plot, clever twists, and a quirky goodness all the way through. I have yet to see a 3-Day Novel Contest winner that I did not like, and this is no exception. Don't miss it.

