The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
| Author | Steven Sherrill |
|---|---|
| Set in | Piedmont, North Carolina |
| Publisher | John F. Blair |
| Publication date | 2000 |
| Pages | 313 |
The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break is a 2000 novel by Steven Sherrill that imagines the Minotaur living and working in the modern Southern United States.
Plot
The is set in the North Carolina Piedmont region of the Southern United States. It follows the Minotaur, an immortal half-man half-bull creature from Greek mythology, who is now known as "M", who has been freed from his labyrinth. M, much diminished in power, works as a fry cook at a popular local restaurant and lives in a trailer park. Over the course of the novel, he finds himself grappling with a variety of human interactions, which range from fascination to fear. He falls in love with Kelly, a waitress working at the same restaurant.
Writing and publication
The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break was Steven Sherrill's first novel.[1] The novel began as a poem by the same title that he wrote at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Sherrill based it on his experiences growing up near Charlotte, North Carolina, visiting trailer parks, and working as a cook while attending Central Piedmont Community College.[2][3] Five chapters of The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break are poems.[4]
Sherrill submitted the novel to, and was rejected by, several major American publishers. It was published by John F. Blair, a small press based in North Carolina, in 2000. The first edition was 313 pages.[5][6]
Sequel
Sherrill wrote a sequel novel, The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time, which was also published by Blair, in 2016.[7]
Reception
The novel was one of Blair's most successful published works, and by 2004 had sold over 4,000 copies.[5] It was well received by reviewers, who praised Sherrill's prose,[4][8] considered the novel's premise inventive,[8][6] and felt it to be a vivid depiction of life in the Piedmont.[8][6][9][10] Several felt the Minotaur to be a sympathetic character; a reviewer writing in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution compared M to the Elephant Man,[1][6] and others described his understanding of human life as voyeurism.[4][10] A reviewer for The New York Times felt that Sherrill's depiction of the Minotaur to highlight humanity's "double nature" containing many "hybrids of the vulgar and the sublime".[10]
References
- 1 2 Man, George de (2000-03-05). "Half-man, half-bull in a myth-haunted landscape". The Atlanta Journal. p. 342. Retrieved 2026-07-08.
- ↑ Neufeld, Rob (2000-06-11). "Author of myth-in-plain-clothing novel coming to Pack Library". Asheville Citizen-Times. p. 21. Retrieved 2026-07-08.
- ↑ "William Torgerson interviews Steven Sherrill". 2011-07-11. Retrieved 2026-07-08.
- 1 2 3 "Animal magnetism". The Guardian. 2003-06-21. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-07-08.
- 1 2 Daniel, Fran (2004-02-26). "A Fountain of Ink: Local publisher has found that taking a chance can lead to success". Winston-Salem Journal. pp. D1, D2. Retrieved 2026-07-08.
- 1 2 3 4 Gossett, Polly Paddock (2000-03-12). "Minotaur navigates gruesome maze". The Free Lance-Star. p. 45. Retrieved 2026-07-08.
- ↑ Gurganus, Allan (2016-09-30). "A Minotaur's in Maintenance in a Tale of Rust Belt America". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-07-08.
- 1 2 3 Jacobs, Michael (2000-04-07). "An ancient myth dipped in barbecue". USA Today. p. 86. Retrieved 2026-07-08.
- ↑ Pitzer, Sara (2000-07-09). "Step into the endless life of the Minotaur". The Salisbury Post. p. 41. Retrieved 2026-07-08.
- 1 2 3 O'Grady, Megan (2002-12-08). "Dreaming of Hoofbeats". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-07-08.
Further reading
- Swift, Sondra F. (2006). "In and Out of the Labyrinth: Myth and Minotaur in MacDonald Harris's Bull Fire and Steven Sherrill's The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break". Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 17 (3 (67)): 255–265. ISSN 0897-0521.
- Griffith, Michael (2003). "Siblings of the genus erroneous": New fiction in review". The Southern Review. 39 (1): 209–218. ProQuest 206045929.
- Yousaf, Nahem (2016). "New Immigrants and the Southern Gothic". In Castillo Street, Susan; Crow, Charles L. (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of the Southern Gothic. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 121–133. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-47774-3_10. ISBN 978-1-137-47774-3.