The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break: A Novel

By: Steven Sherrill

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Award-winning author, narrator, and screenwriter Neil Gaiman personally selected this book, and, using the tools of the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX), cast the narrator and produced this work for his audiobook label, Neil Gaiman Presents.

A few words from Neil on The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break: "When Steve and I talked about the ideal voice for M, he suggested Holter Graham….because 'Holter’s handling of the Minotaur’s grunt was PERFECT. Exactly what I heard in my head.'"

Five thousand years out of the Labyrinth, the Minotaur finds himself in the American South, living in a trailer park and working as a line cook at a steakhouse. No longer a devourer of human flesh, the Minotaur is a socially inept, lonely creature with very human needs. But over a two-week period, as his life dissolves into chaos, this broken and alienated immortal awakens to the possibility for happiness and to the capacity for love. "Sherrill also insinuates other mythological beasts - the Hermaphroditus, the Medusa - into the story, suggesting how the Southern landscape is shadowed by these myths. The plot centers around the Minotaur's feelings for Kelly, a waitress who is prone to epileptic fits. Does she reciprocate his affections? As the reader might expect, the course of interspecies love never does run smooth." (Publishers Weekly) Steven Sherrill created the artwork used for the audiobook edition of The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break.

To hear more from Neil Gaiman on The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break, click here, or listen to the introduction at the beginning of the book itself.

Learn more about Neil Gaiman Presents and Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX).

©2000 Steven Sherrill (P)2011 John F. Blair Publisher

Ovid by way of Faulkner

This fourteen-year-old book was "discovered" by Neil Gaiman, and thanks to his project of putting underread books on Audible, it has become available to a wider audience, which is how I came across it.

A minotaur - not just a minotaur, but The Minotaur - is now working as a line cook at a steakhouse in the South? What is this nonsense? Is it some deeply metaphorical new take on the Theseus myth - Ovid by way of Faulkner? Is it Southern magical realism? Is it literary bizarro fiction?

Maybe it's a little of all those things, but mostly it's a story about the human heart (even if that heart is half bull's) and loneliness. The yearning for human contact. The way small moments can register large for the poor and working class who have little in the way of luxury, recreational time, wide circles of associates, and opportunities to go on fun-filled vacations. They live in trailer parks, they work paycheck to paycheck, they make bad choices in life and love, often because their menu of choices is pretty damn limited, and so a little thing like a hand placed over yours can take on Homeric significance, and an investment in a corn dog trailer can represent the sailing of the Argo.

Okay, I am probably stretching my metaphors a little too far there.

The Minotaur (he has no other name, though his friends and coworkers call him "M") has wandered the Earth for five thousand years. This isn't your typical fantasy story about an immortal, mythological being, though - he's simply existed, in all that time, and acquired no great wealth or power or mad skills. If he's met any famous people since Theseus, it's not mentioned. And the "magical realism" is in the way his existence is simply accepted. People react to his bull-headed appearance, but only the way they might react to any unusual, freakish person - no one ever says "Dude, that guy has a bull's head!" or "Oh my God, minotaurs are real!" They just tell him to watch the horns (after five thousand years he still seems to have trouble maneuvering around spaces built for human heads) or, if they are of a mean and taunting disposition, moo at him while he's on a miniature golf date.

So, this story is about a minotaur (The Minotaur) who's settled, for the moment, in the South, living in a trailer park and working at a steakhouse. He is handy with engines and knives. And he's lonely. He's had lovers before, and he remembers, very dimly, the days when he dined once every seven years on virgin youths. But that ancient, immortal capacity for rage and evil is like an old Greek ruin, still visible, maybe possible to excavate if an archeologist were so inclined, but to all appearances it is a dead and ancient thing seen now only in outline.

"The architecture of the Minotaur’s heart is ancient. Rough hewn and many chambered, his heart is a plodding laborious thing, built for churning through the millennia. But the blood it pumps – the blood it has pumped for five thousand years, the blood it will pump for the rest of his life – is nearly human blood. It carries with it, through his monster’s veins, the weighty, necessary, terrible stuff of human existence: fear, wonder, hope, wickedness, love. But in the Minotaur’s world it is far easier to kill and devour seven virgins year after year, their rattling bones rising at his feet like a sea of cracked ice, than to accept tenderness and return it.”

The Minotaur has a bit of a crush on a waitress named Kelly. He wants a relationship, obviously, but does not know how to initiate one. (After five thousand years, this bull still has got no Game.) But things do indeed proceed towards the inevitable, well, you know you were wondering this, right? Is minotaur sex bestiality? It's actually, while certainly not the tenderest part of the book (in fact, things don't really go well), neither gratuitous nor lurid.

It remains hard to describe this book, because it really is just a bit of close-up human drama, with a main character you will find it easy to root for, so earnest and ancient and sad is he. Who'd have thought someone could write a Southern literary novel about a minotaur who just needs a hug? So read this for the excellent writing and the characterization (and I should note that part of the characterization is of the food the minotaur prepares and serves — seriously, you will be able to smell the onions and have a hankering for a nice juicy steak, which is kind of ironic considering who/what the protagonist is...). But be aware there isn't a big plot here — it's a slow story about a guy with horns. Don't expect Heracles to show up for a climactic mythological wrestling match. You might spot a few other myths here and there (blink and you'll miss them), but this is not an adult Percy Jackson novel.

I also have to say that having listened to this as an audiobook, I never thought you could put so much expressiveness into a grunt — grunts making up about 90% of the Minotaur's dialog. 4 stars for the story, but 5 stars for the narration — I suspect you might actually be missing out if you read it in print.

Minotaur as Everyman

Good book on so many levels. It's an interesting world, sympathetic characters, true art, plus great laughs.

Modern Day Fable

I was about half way into the audiobook and wondering what the story was all about. But I decided to persevere to the end. I was already planning my review, "I missed the point". But, the point was made very succinctly at the end of the story. And then I understood -

This is a modern day fable, complete with a moral at the end of the story. It's about being different and how people fear that which doesn't fit into the norm.

One of the problems for me was the narrator, Holter Graham. He did great mooing sounds as the minotaur and distinguished well between voices. However, his performance was quite perfunctory and bland on everything that wasn't conversation.

Loved the idea, but

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Ummm....yes, but only marginally so. I loved the *idea* of the novel, but the execution just didn't live up to my expectation. (And, yes, maybe the juxtaposition of the powerful mythical beast with the mundanities of modern life was the point. I get it. Just didn't enjoy it.)

Would you be willing to try another book from Steven Sherrill? Why or why not?

Yes -- the writing was strong, and he didn't (as do many writers) desperately need an editor. Maybe I caught him on an off day.

Fun

The book is surreal and quirky. People that have never had the outsider experience may not appreciate the humor or reflections.

awesome!

Neil! Thank you for giving me a chance to enjoy Sherrill's book. It's awesome to get this earlier incarnation of a genre that's hard to describe but that I really love. Sherrill is funny in a great dead pan way and also really rather profound and touching...that's not easily done.

mmmMMMgh. I loved it.

I think I may have gone to high school with the Minotaur. The voicing of the grunt was priceless and you really get to know this unfortunate character. He reminded me of a Slingblade with horns. Plus, if you've ever worked at a restaurant - particularly in a kitchen, you'll recognize a few of these situations and like me, find a bit of nostalgia in being burned by fryer grease.

Excellent, very odd, and very sad

If you could sum up The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break: A Novel in three words, what would they be?

Sadness, lonliness, isolation

Who was your favorite character and why?

The Minotaur.

Have you listened to any of Holter Graham???s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I have not

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No

Any additional comments?

This was a very good book, although the thing that really stays with you after both during and after finishing the book is the unrelenting sense of loneliness and sadness that the author imbues in the Minotaur. At times I found the book difficult to listen to because of this. The author did an amazing job of making the Minotaur feel like a real character that exists in the real world. He does such a good job at this that you sometimes forget that he is a mythical creature. This in and of itself can actually feel like a detriment, as the book loses some of the 'magic' that comes from writing about mythical creates.
Ultimately, I think that this is definitely worth listening to, but just remember that it is not about mythology, it is about the lonliness, sadness and isolation that comes from being different from everyone around you.

Most Satisfactory

What did you love best about The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break: A Novel?

I think that the best part of the book was the narration. I don't think I would have liked the book in print and would have just put it down, never to finish. The narration kept me interested.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I don't think I had a favorite character. The Minotaur is the obvious choice for a favorite, but I found his indecisiveness off-putting.

What does Holter Graham bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Holter Graham brought the Minotaur to life. I think that I might have gotten bored reading the actual print, as there were slow patches. Mr. Graham eased me through them with alacrity.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. While I did enjoy the book, it wasn't something that stirred excitement or curiosity. It was a diverting listen, but one that went best when I was doing something else, like cooking, and just wanted something to listen to.

Unexpected joy!

I wasn't sure what to expect with this story. I enjoy Neil Gaiman, so I bought this on his recommendation. The story is told from an unusual perspective, the Minotaur's. It should seem odd or forced, but it just works so very well. The narrator does an outstanding job of bringing the animal-man to life. Listening was enjoyably addictive, well worth the credit.