Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54600 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
Five thousand years on ...and the Minotaur, or M as he is known to his colleagues, is working as a line chef at Grub's Rib in Carolina, keeping to himself, keeping his horns down, trying in vain to put his past behind him. He leads an ordered lifestyle in a shabby trailer park where he tinkers with cars, writes and re-writes to-do lists and observes the haphazard goings on around him. Outwardly controlled, M tries to hide his emotional turmoil as he is transported deeper into the human world of deceit, confusion and need.

Customer Reviews

A Beautiful Examination of Loneliness
Everyone knows what its like to feel alone to some degree. Everyone's been in a room full of strangers and felt out of place and awkward. Most people have balanced, full lives with friends and family to even those moments out. Some people dont. This book is an incredibly moving story about what its like to feel alone and like you'll never fit in.

Its superbly written with humour and insight. I've lent it to a few couple and a couple couldnt finish it as it was "...too sad..." if you are the sort of person who insists on a happy ending and story to every book you read or film you see then dont buy this book. If you want an amazing read full of emotion, wit and pathos then buy this book. I cant recommend it highly enough.

Excellent read
A very enjoyable book. An affirmative account of life and peer support in the bottom half of society's heap. It treads a carefully-crafted knife edge between optimism and melancholy, and the reader is kept guessing until the final page as to which way it will fall.

Enjoyable read. The original idea would have deserved more ambition
This is a novel I bought for the title. The mixture between the banality of the action described and the mythological figure involved makes for a powerful combination, suggesting a unique voice and imagination. At first, I was completely awed by the potential of the allegory (the Minotaur is alive, working as a cook in North Carolina), reminiscent of Kafka's Metamorphosis. Besides the obvious, how we see and treat the "Other", this offers the opportunity to bring a new perspective on several interesting questions. What does a creature half man half animal tell us about our humanity? What does the fact that a creature, once feared and descending from a god, is now the object of jokes and pity tell us about our sense of wonder and our view of the magical and supernatural world? How are the ephemeral passions of our contemporaries viewed by somebody who has lived for thousands of years? What can you expect from life if you cannot die? All these questions appeared to me as I was progressing through the novel, but it became clear with almost equal speed that none would be addressed other than through the most tangential remark. In my view, this may be explained by two of the crucial choices made by Steven Sherrill. 1) Being half bull half human, the Minotaur's intellect is halfway between the one you typically associate with a cow (eating grass, watching trains pass, etc.) and the one of a human being. Although as worthy a choice as any other, this effectively closes the door to any deep reflection. 2) The story spans a few weeks of the life of the Minotaur, significantly reducing the wide perspective offered by such a character.

All this is not to say that this book is not a pleasant read, it is, but it leaves the impression that such a wonderful idea has been developed at a far lower potential than it deserves and that some more ambition would have been welcomed.