Rating: 
Summary: Beauty and the beast
Review: The frightening Minotaur of Greek myth, who once terrorized men and devoured virgins, has managed to survive the centuries and has now acclimated himself to life as a steak house cook in North Carolina in the 1990s. Because he is half man and half bull, M, as the Minotaur is now called, is understandably shy and lonely, desperate to be accepted by others while at the same time baffled by them. He longs for love. He is caught between the ancient world of his dreams and the realities and limitations of his current situation. With his bull head and sharp horns, he brings out both the best and worst from the people he encounters; their reactions range from fear to ridicule to curiosity to kindness. Steven Sherrill has done a superb job in this unique and touching story. Not only is he easily able to make the reader imagine the Minotaur living and working in the contemporary South, but his lyrical prose evokes the scents and bustle in a restaurant kitchen, the atmosphere of a run-down trailer park, and the comforts of the humdrum rituals in M's daily life. The story comes alive with touches of humor. Through a skillful interweaving of imagery from the ancient and contemporary worlds, Sherrill gives glimpses of both the primitive beast and the gentle man within a single body. Suspend your belief and enjoy this book. As the story progresses, you will find yourself identifying with M in many ways. And by the time you finish it, you will recognize the fragments of monster and human that are within all of us.
Rating:
Summary: Slow-paced yet moving story on the edge of fantasy.
Review: The Minotaur has been set free, and he finds himself struggling with a dismal life in the American South with the body of a black man and the head of a bull. His puzzle over human interactions and the meaning of life makes for a slow-paced yet moving story on the edge of fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: A Delightful Debut Novel
Review: The premise, that this beast with the head of a bull earns his living as a cook in the modern South, is truly odd, yet within pages it all makes sense. Sherrill brings his Minotaur to life and made this reader, at least, yearn for the poor guy's happiness. This is serious writing, and fun; every page I turned, I found myself smiling.
Rating: 
Summary: New voice in fiction serves up superb starter!
Review: The startling collocation of the mythic "Minotaur" and the banal "Takes A Cigarette Break" in the arresting title, hints at the unusual premise set up by Sherill in his sad, funny, original debut novel locating a mythical creature - trying to jettison his gory past - in present day America's Deep South where he longs to fulfil his life and put his savage past behind him. Then: the Minotaur lived in a labyrinth and ate virgins. Now: five thousand years on, the Minotaur, M, bull-headed but man-bodied, lives in a trailer in the Lucky-U Park. The novel, written in an understated style from M's alienated perspective, is essentially a slice of M's humdrum daily existence: in the rundown trailer park where he lives an orderly life observing the ordinary, everyday comings and goings, and goings-on, in the adjacent trailers, repairing cars in his spare time; and in the Grub's Rib diner where he works as a line chef. What primarily made this novel so enjoyable for this reader - where there's no real story as such, no real incident or surface activity to speak of and little character development - is Sherrill's excellence in evoking the atmosphere of ordinary everyday life in both M's domestic and working habitats, the trailer park and the diner. An accomplished cook, skilled in car maintenance, M finds greater difficulty interacting with people. Slow-witted and clumsy with his sharp horns, thick-tongued and inarticulate, socially awkward, emotional turmoil burning within, M deperately seeks an outlet for his human needs, a longing for love in a world that seems to barely tolerate "outsiders" like himself, try as he may to leave his bloodthirsty past behind him. If there is a plot, it revolves around M's awakening feelings for Kelly, the epileptic waitress at the Grub's Rib diner but the novel is more about what it means to be human, what it means to be lonely, what it means to be on the outside. Recommended!
Rating:
Summary: New voice in fiction serves up superb starter!
Review: The startling collocation of the mythic "Minotaur" and the banal "Takes A Cigarette Break" in the arresting title, prepares us for the unusual premise set up by Sherill in his sad, funny, original debut novel locating a mythical creature - trying to jettison his gory past - in present day America's Deep South where he longs to fulfil his life and put his savage past behind him. Then: the Minotaur lived in a labyrinth and ate virgins. Now: five thousand years on, the Minotaur, M, bull-headed but man-bodied, lives in a trailer in the Lucky-U Park. The novel is essentially a slice of M's humdrum daily existence: in the rundown trailer park where he lives an orderly life observing the ordinary, everyday comings and goings, and goings-on, in the adjacent trailers, repairing cars in his spare time; and in the Grub's Rib diner where he works as a line chef. What primarily made this novel so enjoyable for this reader - where there's no real story as such, no real incident to speak of and little character development - is Sherrill's excellence in evoking the atmosphere and describing the daily routines of both M's domestic and working habitats, the trailer park and the diner. An accomplished cook, skilled in car maintenance, M finds greater difficulty interacting with people. Slow-witted and clumsy with his sharp horns, thick-tongued and inarticulate, socially awkward, emotional turmoil burning within, M deperately seeks an outlet for his human needs, a longing for love in a world that seems to barely tolerate "outsiders" like himself, try as he may to leave his bloodthirsty past behind him. If there is a plot, it revolves around M's awakening feelings for Kelly, the epileptic waitress at the Grub's Rib diner but the novel is more about what it means to be human, what it means to be lonely, what it means to be on the outside. Recommended!
Rating:
Summary: New voice in fiction serves up superb starter!
Review: The startling collocation of the mythic "Minotaur" and the banal "Takes A Cigarette Break" in the arresting title, hints at the unusual premise set up by Sherill in his sad, funny, original debut novel locating a mythical creature - trying to jettison his gory past - in present day America's Deep South where he longs to fulfil his life and put his savage past behind him. Then: the Minotaur lived in a labyrinth and ate virgins. Now: five thousand years on, the Minotaur, M, bull-headed but man-bodied, lives in a trailer in the Lucky-U Park. The novel, written in an understated style from M's alienated perspective, is essentially a slice of M's humdrum daily existence: in the rundown trailer park where he lives an orderly life observing the ordinary, everyday comings and goings, and goings-on, in the adjacent trailers, repairing cars in his spare time; and in the Grub's Rib diner where he works as a line chef. What primarily made this novel so enjoyable for this reader - where there's no real story as such, no real incident or surface activity to speak of and little character development - is Sherrill's excellence in evoking the atmosphere of ordinary everyday life in both M's domestic and working habitats, the trailer park and the diner. An accomplished cook, skilled in car maintenance, M finds greater difficulty interacting with people. Slow-witted and clumsy with his sharp horns, thick-tongued and inarticulate, socially awkward, emotional turmoil burning within, M deperately seeks an outlet for his human needs, a longing for love in a world that seems to barely tolerate "outsiders" like himself, try as he may to leave his bloodthirsty past behind him. If there is a plot, it revolves around M's awakening feelings for Kelly, the epileptic waitress at the Grub's Rib diner but the novel is more about what it means to be human, what it means to be lonely, what it means to be on the outside. Recommended!
Rating:
Summary: a surprising pleasure
Review: The surprise pleasure of this book is not because it was a pleasure--the premise/title alone promised that. The surprise is how that pleasure is attained--in the hands of probably almost any other author, the story would have been more about the trials and tribulations of eternal life, would have given us the easy set pieces--memories of Theseus, of Daedalus, scenes of being weary with living so long, etc. Instead, Sherrill gives us a work that could not be more mundanely human. It is an illuminating and quiet work of character and community. Eschewing the easy tricks he could have used means he has to work even harder to make us care, which we do. There is just enough reference to the main character's strangeness to never let you forget it; it adds a patina of sadness, humor, weariness to the basic slice-of-life scenes, embellishing them without overwhelming them, like a perfectly-spiced dish. The low-income, communal worlds of both the restaurant and the trailer park are sharply and beautifully created, the conflicts firmly rooted in human relationships. The fear the Minotaur has that his life is spiraling toward one of his perpetual downward cycles is palpable throughout and transfers itself to the reader, so that you turn the pages hoping he is wrong, rooting for him in all his desires and ambitions. The pace is slow but appropriately so. The characters, except for the main one, mundane but lovingly so. And the minotaur, half-human, inarticulate, clumsy, is all of that and the opposite. It may not be what you expect, but it's all the better for that.
Rating:
Summary: a surprising pleasure
Review: The surprise pleasure of this book is not because it was a pleasure--the premise/title alone promised that. The surprise is how that pleasure is attained--in the hands of probably almost any other author, the story would have been more about the trials and tribulations of eternal life, would have given us the easy set pieces--memories of Theseus, of Daedalus, scenes of being weary with living so long, etc. Instead, Sherrill gives us a work that could not be more mundanely human. It is an illuminating and quiet work of character and community. Eschewing the easy tricks he could have used means he has to work even harder to make us care, which we do. There is just enough reference to the main character's strangeness to never let you forget it; it adds a patina of sadness, humor, weariness to the basic slice-of-life scenes, embellishing them without overwhelming them, like a perfectly-spiced dish. The low-income, communal worlds of both the restaurant and the trailer park are sharply and beautifully created, the conflicts firmly rooted in human relationships. The fear the Minotaur has that his life is spiraling toward one of his perpetual downward cycles is palpable throughout and transfers itself to the reader, so that you turn the pages hoping he is wrong, rooting for him in all his desires and ambitions. The pace is slow but appropriately so. The characters, except for the main one, mundane but lovingly so. And the minotaur, half-human, inarticulate, clumsy, is all of that and the opposite. It may not be what you expect, but it's all the better for that.
Rating:
Summary: As Good as the Title
Review: There are some really insightful reviews on this book, and from its virtually unanimous praise you can tell that it's being enjoyed at many different levels. The only comment I can add is that, as a reader who rarely picks up a fiction book and is pretty rusty in greek mythology, I thoroughly enjoyed this story and felt like it was time well spent. Sherrill's writing is finely crafted and his story carefully constructed. This is the kind of book that entertains you through the first pass, but then sticks in your mind and continues to ferment. If you buy this book, better get something else too; you'll cruise through this cigarette break in no time.
Rating: 
Summary: Unnh Hunnh
Review: This is an understated story about a quest for acceptance. I found the book both dull and yet captivating in a strange way. First, however, there is the issue of suspending disbelief that the Minotaur, several thousand years away from a more glorious life in Crete, has found himself living in an a trashy little trailer park hardly able to make ends meet with the salary he draws as a cook. Then there is the slight annoyance that he only ever says "Unnh" and he says it perhaps a bit too much.
The Minotaur is an outsider both because of his looks and his limited ability to communicate ("Unnh"). He lives a simple life day to day and is basically lonely. Nothing much happens in the days we follow the Minotaur though every movement is considered and somehow seems important. He is waiting to find love, to find friendship, to find a connection. Meanwhile the reader is waiting to find out if the story goes anywhere. It does and the story is complete but it's not going to blow you away and make you run out and tell all your friends to read it. It has simply been a pleasant way to pass some time.
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