Rating: 
Summary: An exceptional first novel
Review: A sweet, melancholy book in which the Minotaur, now some 5,000 years old, is working as a line chef in a steak place in some unnamed southern state. Now known only as ÔM,Õ his days are filled by a daily routine that Sherrill somehow manages to infuse with an overwhelming sense of longing. Once a savage, terrifying force, the Minotaur now spends his days repairing automobiles, his nights carving prime rib. M stands on the outside looking in, both attracted and terrified by the prospects of friendship and love. In clean, uncluttered prose, Sherrill lets us see the loneliness and longing of his character in sharp relief. It is remarkable that such an understated book should be so affecting.Perhaps the most impressive thing about this novel is that Sherrill is able to take such a strange premise and to turn it into something genuinely moving; to make us feel as if there is something important at stake in the MinotaurÕs search for love; that his fate will tell us something important about ourselves, about our own hopes and longings.
Rating:
Summary: An exceptional first novel
Review: A sweet, melancholy book in which the Minotaur, now some 5,000 years old, is working as a line chef in a steak place in some unnamed southern state. Now known only as ÔM,Õ his days are filled by a daily routine that Sherrill somehow manages to infuse with an overwhelming sense of longing. Once a savage, terrifying force, the Minotaur now spends his days repairing automobiles, his nights carving prime rib. M stands on the outside looking in, both attracted and terrified by the prospects of friendship and love. In clean, uncluttered prose, Sherrill lets us see the loneliness and longing of his character in sharp relief. It is remarkable that such an understated book should be so affecting. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this novel is that Sherrill is able to take such a strange premise and to turn it into something genuinely moving; to make us feel as if there is something important at stake in the MinotaurÕs search for love; that his fate will tell us something important about ourselves, about our own hopes and longings.
Rating:
Summary: Kudos to you, Mr Sherrill.
Review: Any book about Asterion is a good one, as far as I'm concerned.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Title
Review: Because the book had such a great title and a high amazon rating I bought and read this book. I was not impressed. We learn in the first 10 pages that the Minotaur is introspective, detached and emotionaly vacant, but over the next 300 pages this point is made again and again. I was looking for a little more of an internal discussion about immortality.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Debut Novel !
Review: How good is this imaginative,insightful debut novel ? While I was reading it I kept thinking it reminded me of Updike, at his fanciful best. It was that good. I look forward to the Authors next.
Rating:
Summary: Best 1st novel since "Ghostwritten"
Review: I didn't pick up this book the first time I saw it because I assumed it would have a one-joke plot; my wife read it first and persuaded me to give it a try. It turned out to be one of the finest contemporary novels I've read in years.
Sherrill never loses compassion for his protagonist despite his gleeful mastery of the Southern grotesque style--rather like Flannery O'Connor, come to think of it. The minotaur, known simply as "M" to his friends (shades of Kafka?), is more humane than some of the humans, good-natured, fallible, groping toward connection with the strange and numerous race of homo sapiens around him. His efforts, missteps, failures and yearnings echo those of every Outsider in literature and life.
Are we not all half-human, half-beast, struggling to make our thick tongues give voice to our deepest beliefs and longings?
I laughed, I cried, I passed it on to a friend.
Rating:
Summary: An Imaginative, Moving Book
Review: I echo what the previous reviewers have said about this essential, unique & terrific novel.
Rating:
Summary: Read this as soon as you can; it's SO fine
Review: I say often that I'm not big on magic realism but if it all could be as Sherrill's fabulous novel, I'd happily snuggle up with the category until kingdom come. In any case, this novel consumed me entirely on more levels than I can count. There really aren't any cardboard characters here, even the minor players are drawn well (maybe two exceptions). Required reading for those who enjoy mythology, have a restaurant fiction fetish or a southern novel fixation and just anyone at all loves a really good book. Finest kind of reading; miss this one and be so sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Stick with the myth
Review: I'm a sucker for a great premise. Any novel that comes up with the idea of sticking the mythical monster of the Cretan labyrinth in the Deep South, armed only with a sauté pan, and no Theseus in sight, is worthy of anyone's attention. For this, Steven Sherrill's "The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break" gets my respect (even though a similar theme was explored before in Douglas Adams' "The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul".) He works in a steakhouse, the world's only line cook who prepares kindred for consumption. Along the way the Minotaur interacts with his co-workers, the residents of the trailer park he inhabits, and his own disturbed thoughts. Removed five thousand years from his forelorn past, dark dreams rattle around in his head at night. Despite the beast of him, he has taught himself to speak and operate in a human world, having struck an unmentioned bargain with the hero who threatened to destroy him in his labyrinthine prison. Still, his bovine nature has relegated him to a sub-life as he struggles to rise to any level, time only diminishing the very traits that made him famous. Even the mundane holds promise for a creature that doesn't ask for much, and time has taught him at least one thing: when the opportunity arises, take it. And though the opportunity here may not seem like much, for a beastman who asks for little, it is all he needs. With his background in writing poetry, the author clearly has the wordsmithing skills. Deftly mixing short dialog and abrupt prose, "Minotaur" also has strains of long, metaphorical brilliance that would be the envy of any writer, particularly one debuting a novel. This makes two solid checks in the favor of the book, but despite the rave reviews here, two checks do not make for unconditional praise. There is no doubt that Sherrill has great promise, but a book cannot exist without a story - and there is no story here. Slice of life tales are one thing, based as they are on fabulous characterizations, but despite the three hundred plus pages of "Minotaur" there really are no characters here. When the story is over we actually know nothing about the swirl of people surrounding the Minotaur. No motivations, no real histories, no futures. They exist simply as fodder for interactions. Those interactions themselves, while well written, don't take us anywhere in the end, either. Our protagonist also exists in a vacuum. What of his life between the meatloaf and the maze? We know he is somewhat slow-witted, but if it took him five thousand years to get where he is - and that current existence is about as feeble as it gets - then he is not much of a compelling character. Why should we care? At its conclusion we are left only with a minor tale that has consumed our time and its own wonderful premise. I truly wanted to love "The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break" but there simply is not enough here to warrant more than a passing glance.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book I've read this year
Review: I'm currently on page 298 of THE MINOTAUR TAKES A CIGARETTE BREAK, and I'm depressed. I don't want this book to end! Steve Sherrill creates a more vivid, engaging, and human character than many books I've read whose main characters are, theoretically, 100% human. Sherrill's prose is poetry, yet he never sacrifices story for pure language (though, I imagine if he did, it, too, would be masterful). While the story is humorous, it never sacrifices insight and substance just for a laugh. Mythology weaves throughout this tale as unassumptuously, poignantly, powerfully, and--oddly--as "unnoticed" as it moves through our daily lives. I've read so many highly touted books this year and have been disappointed by them. I read _The Minotaur_ after reading and feeling let down by _Life of Pi_. Sherrill's book gives me new hope for the contemporary novel. I've heard from a reliable source that Mr. Sherrill has two books forthcoming from Random House. I'm already in line, waiting to make my purchase. I really love THE MINOTAUR TAKES A CIGARETTE BREAK.
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