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The Minotaur #2
The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time
"Sherrill gives his Minotaur a forlorn Buster Keaton dignity. M has a silent film’s starring role in the midst of a country-and-western talkie. Precisely by limiting the beast to deeds, not speech, the writer eventually creates—against all odds—a living hybridized contradiction. M, if stuck in the quicksand of our ticky-tack present, somehow still participates in the silent scale of myth." —New York Times The Minotaur of Greek mythology now lives in central PA in an old motel and works as Civil War re-enactor. Sixteen years have passed since Steven Sherrill first introduced us to “M,” the selfsame Minotaur from Greek mythology, transplanted to the modern American South, in the critically acclaimed The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break . M has moved north now, from a life of kitchens and trailer parks, to that of Civil War re-enactor at a run-down living history park in the dying blue-collar rustbelt of central Pennsylvania. Though he dies now, in uniform, on a regular basis, M's world, his daily struggles, remain unchanged. Isolation. Loneliness. Other-ness. Shepherded, cared for by the Guptas (the immigrant family who runs the motel where he lives, outsiders in their own right) and tolerated by his neighbors, by most of his coworkers at Old Scald Village, but tormented by a few, M wants only to find love and understanding. The serendipitous arrival of Holly and her damaged brother, halted on their own journey of loss, stirs hope in the Minotaur’s life. As their paths overlap we find ourselves rooting for the old bull as he stumbles toward a real live human relationship.
262 pages, Paperback
First published September 6, 2016
19 people are currently reading
699 people want to read
About the author
Steven Sherrill
11 books122 followersSteven Sherrill has been making trouble with words since 8th grade, when he was suspended from school for two weeks for a story he wrote. He dropped out of school in the 10th grade, ricocheted around for years, eventually earning a Welding Diploma from Mitchell Community College, which circuitously to an MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Now, Steven is an Associate Professor of English and Integrative Arts at Penn State University, Altoona, where he teaches, paints, and captains the Allegheny Bilge Rats Shanty Choir. He has three novels and a book of poems in the world. He has written several articles on contemporary artists for Modern Painters and for TATE Magazine. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Fiction in 2002. His first novel, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break, is translated into 8 languages and was recently released as an audio book by Neil Gaiman Productions. His second novel, Visits From the Drowned Girl, published by Random House (and nominated by them for the Pulitzer Prize), US and Canongate, UK was released in June of 2004. The Locktender's House, novel #3, was released by Random House in Spring 2008. And in November 2010, CW Books released the poetry collection, Ersatz Anatomy. Most recently, Louisiana State University Press: Yellow Shoe Fiction Series has accepted the novel JOY, PA for publication in the spring of 2015.
There are other books in the works, paintings always underway, much musical silliness underway, and seventeen ukuleles in the house, and 750 vintage wooden crutches in his basement.
Now, Steven is an Associate Professor of English and Integrative Arts at Penn State University, Altoona, where he teaches, paints, and captains the Allegheny Bilge Rats Shanty Choir. He has three novels and a book of poems in the world. He has written several articles on contemporary artists for Modern Painters and for TATE Magazine. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Fiction in 2002. His first novel, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break, is translated into 8 languages and was recently released as an audio book by Neil Gaiman Productions. His second novel, Visits From the Drowned Girl, published by Random House (and nominated by them for the Pulitzer Prize), US and Canongate, UK was released in June of 2004. The Locktender's House, novel #3, was released by Random House in Spring 2008. And in November 2010, CW Books released the poetry collection, Ersatz Anatomy. Most recently, Louisiana State University Press: Yellow Shoe Fiction Series has accepted the novel JOY, PA for publication in the spring of 2015.
There are other books in the works, paintings always underway, much musical silliness underway, and seventeen ukuleles in the house, and 750 vintage wooden crutches in his basement.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
February 15, 2021
2.5 / First off I want to say that I love the Minotaur. Reading The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break was one of the best reading experiences I’ve probably ever had. Steven Sherrill is a master with words. That being said I had a couple of problems with this novel.
For one thing, I realize now that I have a problem with the way that Steven portrays women. I kind of caught a little bit of a glimpse of this while reading cigarette break but kind of overlooked it just because of the overall beauty of the story and how much I loved the Minotaur character. But now reading my second novel by Sherrill it’s a little bit harder for me to overlook the specific way that women are talked about in his stories. My opinion is based upon only the two books I’ve read by him but I feel like that’s enough to get a sense of what I’m talking about. Plainly said, the women are overly sexualized. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a scene with a woman present in it where her entire character is not built on her sexuality or what part of her body is exposed or showing through her clothing or the scene is mixed in a with fantasy another male character is having about her or a crude comment.
I got over it really quickly. It would be nice for the women to have a little bit more identity than being the object of the Minotaurs desires/need for love or whatever. I just feel like there was this running sexual undertone during the whole book that kind of dampened the entire story for me.
I Also don’t know if I really learned anything new about the Minotaur from this book that I didn’t already know from the cigarette break book. In a lot of ways he’s very much the same person that he was while he was at the trailer park and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, I just don’t know if it constituted this whole other narrative of his life needing to be told.
I will say that there are so many beautiful passages in this book that I marked because I just absolutely love the way Steven Sherrill writes and I still really love this whole mythical creature and identity that he created with the Minotaur. The part with the hunter and the buck comes to mind. I thought that was an amazing section and just added so much to the story. I honestly almost bumped it up to three stars based on that part of the book.
If you’re part of the whole little cult following that the Minotaur has amassed since cigarette break was published and you’re a diehard fan of him I think there is merit in picking up this book just to get a little more of that character and what’s going on in his life but just as a standalone this didn’t work for me and if I hadn’t read cigarette break I don’t really think this would have much meaning for me at all. I’m pretty disappointed with this novel but I will love the Minotaur forever.
For one thing, I realize now that I have a problem with the way that Steven portrays women. I kind of caught a little bit of a glimpse of this while reading cigarette break but kind of overlooked it just because of the overall beauty of the story and how much I loved the Minotaur character. But now reading my second novel by Sherrill it’s a little bit harder for me to overlook the specific way that women are talked about in his stories. My opinion is based upon only the two books I’ve read by him but I feel like that’s enough to get a sense of what I’m talking about. Plainly said, the women are overly sexualized. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a scene with a woman present in it where her entire character is not built on her sexuality or what part of her body is exposed or showing through her clothing or the scene is mixed in a with fantasy another male character is having about her or a crude comment.
I got over it really quickly. It would be nice for the women to have a little bit more identity than being the object of the Minotaurs desires/need for love or whatever. I just feel like there was this running sexual undertone during the whole book that kind of dampened the entire story for me.
I Also don’t know if I really learned anything new about the Minotaur from this book that I didn’t already know from the cigarette break book. In a lot of ways he’s very much the same person that he was while he was at the trailer park and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, I just don’t know if it constituted this whole other narrative of his life needing to be told.
I will say that there are so many beautiful passages in this book that I marked because I just absolutely love the way Steven Sherrill writes and I still really love this whole mythical creature and identity that he created with the Minotaur. The part with the hunter and the buck comes to mind. I thought that was an amazing section and just added so much to the story. I honestly almost bumped it up to three stars based on that part of the book.
If you’re part of the whole little cult following that the Minotaur has amassed since cigarette break was published and you’re a diehard fan of him I think there is merit in picking up this book just to get a little more of that character and what’s going on in his life but just as a standalone this didn’t work for me and if I hadn’t read cigarette break I don’t really think this would have much meaning for me at all. I’m pretty disappointed with this novel but I will love the Minotaur forever.
August 5, 2016
Sherrill's sequel to "The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break" finds the Minotaur in a small Pennsylvania town supporting himself by dying over and over as a Confederate soldier in Civil War reenactments. He is living in a small motel run by a kind family who trade homemade food for odd jobs. His life is not exciting, but it is comfortable and predictable. Everything changes when Holly and Tookus enter his life. Holly is young and uninhibited, Tookus is her younger brother whose brain injury has left him more than Holly can handle. Can "Mr. M" find happiness with this ragtag family, or will he be left behind once again?
The genius of Sherrill's Minotaur books is the mundane way in which his Minotaur lives his life. He is no longer the fierce, dangerous creature of myth, but someone who will never fit in but has no choice but to keep on living. In this latest novel, Sherill deftly places the Minotaur into situations that are at once humorous and heartbreaking such as the corn maze that he must enter even as he cannot escape his memories of the labyrinth that kept him captive for so long. The Minotaur is at once every man and a creature set apart.
The genius of Sherrill's Minotaur books is the mundane way in which his Minotaur lives his life. He is no longer the fierce, dangerous creature of myth, but someone who will never fit in but has no choice but to keep on living. In this latest novel, Sherill deftly places the Minotaur into situations that are at once humorous and heartbreaking such as the corn maze that he must enter even as he cannot escape his memories of the labyrinth that kept him captive for so long. The Minotaur is at once every man and a creature set apart.
May 13, 2017
I read The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time, by Steven Sherrill, because I'm kind of fascinated with minotaurs. I'm a double bill--Taurus and born in the Chinese Year of the Ox--so I suppose that my spirit animal is a bull. I think I'd look good with horns.
So this novel supposes that The Minotaur--it's not clear if it's the Minotaur from the Labyrinth, which would be unlikely because he was killed by Theseus--is in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, working as a civil war re-enactor (one weekend he's Confederate, another Union, and usually dies early). He has no name except The Minotaur, although friends call him Mr. M. He does not say much, usually just "Mmmnnn" or "Unnngh." He, of course, has the head of bull and the body of a man, and lives in a motel room on Business 220 in exchange for work.
The gimmick, if one can call it that, is that no one really notices that he's a minotaur. Well, some do, and shrink away from him, but if we really saw a minotaur in the supermarket I think our reaction would be to call the local news. He goes about his day simply, relishing the butterscotch pie of a woman who works at the Old Scald Village (one of those historical villages where people act out parts) of The Widow Fisk. When he gets his horns caught in the broom-makers skirt, he is misunderstood and banished.
Then he meets a free-spirited woman, Holly, and her mentally challenged son, Tookus, when they're van breaks down across the street from the motel. That's where an obnoxious man, Danny, runs a wood-carving business: "In his heyday, in his glory days, the Minotaur would have trampled, then eaten such a human as Danny Tanneyhill. These are not those days."
He is touched by Holly, perhaps in love, and there is a sort of competition between Danny and he for her attention. They visit a closed-down farm maze, and The Minotaur only realizes that he will do anything for her.
The book is aptly titled, as The Minotaur and Sherrill are in no hurry to get anywhere. Here is the first paragraph: "The Minotaur lingers, there at the end of this day’s death. The Minotaur dawdles. The Minotaur takes his own sweet time. He finds himself in a moment of stasis, of relative calm. But moment itself is a relative word. The Minotaur’s time is endless, and as such potentially meaningless, empty at its ticking core." The story also takes its own sweet time, as there seems to be no rush to get to a point, if there is one. We don't know much about The Minotaur, only that he is ancient and has lived many places: "The Minotaur is nomadic by default. An intuitive vagabond. He may have been drawn, he may have been compelled, or he may have simply stepped over the chain and wandered up the dirt path for no good reason at all."
It's not a bad book by any means, but requires some patience. If one chooses to, one could see The Minotaur as a metaphor, but I'm not sure for what. Those that have no fixed place in the universe? Those who are shunned as monsters when they are in fact rather sweet, or even boring? There's a touching and erotic scene when The Minotaur pulls a splinter from Holly's butt cheek, and though they never consummate their feelings there is passion between them. Can even a man with the head of a bull find love?
Sherrill, some years ago, wrote a book called The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break, which was the first sighting of The Minotaur. The excerpt on Sherrill's Web site suggests it is of a similar style. I may check it out, because I can't resist minotaurs. If you can't either, pick one of them up and stick with it.
So this novel supposes that The Minotaur--it's not clear if it's the Minotaur from the Labyrinth, which would be unlikely because he was killed by Theseus--is in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, working as a civil war re-enactor (one weekend he's Confederate, another Union, and usually dies early). He has no name except The Minotaur, although friends call him Mr. M. He does not say much, usually just "Mmmnnn" or "Unnngh." He, of course, has the head of bull and the body of a man, and lives in a motel room on Business 220 in exchange for work.
The gimmick, if one can call it that, is that no one really notices that he's a minotaur. Well, some do, and shrink away from him, but if we really saw a minotaur in the supermarket I think our reaction would be to call the local news. He goes about his day simply, relishing the butterscotch pie of a woman who works at the Old Scald Village (one of those historical villages where people act out parts) of The Widow Fisk. When he gets his horns caught in the broom-makers skirt, he is misunderstood and banished.
Then he meets a free-spirited woman, Holly, and her mentally challenged son, Tookus, when they're van breaks down across the street from the motel. That's where an obnoxious man, Danny, runs a wood-carving business: "In his heyday, in his glory days, the Minotaur would have trampled, then eaten such a human as Danny Tanneyhill. These are not those days."
He is touched by Holly, perhaps in love, and there is a sort of competition between Danny and he for her attention. They visit a closed-down farm maze, and The Minotaur only realizes that he will do anything for her.
The book is aptly titled, as The Minotaur and Sherrill are in no hurry to get anywhere. Here is the first paragraph: "The Minotaur lingers, there at the end of this day’s death. The Minotaur dawdles. The Minotaur takes his own sweet time. He finds himself in a moment of stasis, of relative calm. But moment itself is a relative word. The Minotaur’s time is endless, and as such potentially meaningless, empty at its ticking core." The story also takes its own sweet time, as there seems to be no rush to get to a point, if there is one. We don't know much about The Minotaur, only that he is ancient and has lived many places: "The Minotaur is nomadic by default. An intuitive vagabond. He may have been drawn, he may have been compelled, or he may have simply stepped over the chain and wandered up the dirt path for no good reason at all."
It's not a bad book by any means, but requires some patience. If one chooses to, one could see The Minotaur as a metaphor, but I'm not sure for what. Those that have no fixed place in the universe? Those who are shunned as monsters when they are in fact rather sweet, or even boring? There's a touching and erotic scene when The Minotaur pulls a splinter from Holly's butt cheek, and though they never consummate their feelings there is passion between them. Can even a man with the head of a bull find love?
Sherrill, some years ago, wrote a book called The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break, which was the first sighting of The Minotaur. The excerpt on Sherrill's Web site suggests it is of a similar style. I may check it out, because I can't resist minotaurs. If you can't either, pick one of them up and stick with it.
June 29, 2022
“The Minotaur likes plans. Even flawed plans. It’s one of his more human traits. He likes process and order. These things help him to navigate his eternity, to break down forever into tolerable bits. Tolerable.”
November 30, 2023
I had high hopes for this book.
Sherrill's earlier work The Minotaur takes a cigarette break is one of my favourite novels. It's an amazing book, with a truly unique protaganist- the Minotaur of Theseus' myth, still alive thousands of years after his time in the labyrinth, and working as a short order chef in the American South.
This great idea, combined with Sherrill's lyrical writing, made for a hell of a novel, a hardcopy of which is on the shelf where I keep the books I love most.
Naturally, I was super excited to continue with the Minotaur's adventures and as soon as I heard about this book I got a copy.
It's well-written, pathos ridden and beautifully described novel, but on a narrative level... well, it just doesn't hang together as well as its predecessor.
Our hero the Minotaur, known to his friends as 'M', is now working as a confederate re-enactor at an historical village in Pennsylvania. He's still clumsy, tongue tied, and tormented by the horrors of his distant past, as he pretends to die in battle every day, falling to the grass in his dixie greys for a paycheck.
He has wandered to this podunk town as part of the endless wandering he seems condemned to, always on the outer of human society, and always pining for the companionship and inclusion that seems impossible for him to grasp.
With the arrival of a young woman in his life a chance seems to beckon though - could the Minotaur find love and a life that is more than endless existing?
That's not a terrible setup for a story, but I found that not a huge amount happens in this novel, or at least not enough for me. The writing is beautiful. It's sad, poignant and at times hopeful. Sherrill's prose is always top-notch, but as the novel neared the end I found myself skimming sections, racing through the lenghtly descriptions as my patience for the pace of the story grew thin.
It felt as though a little (in terms of plot and story) was being described with a lot. To be fair, this is something I often feel when reading literary novels, so it may be less a problem with this book than
a case of capital-L literary books not really being my bag.
I finished the story - and overall I enjoyed it - but it was slow in parts, and ended on what to me, is a bum note, unworthy of the millennia the title character has endured. Your mileage may vary, but
The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time isn't quite the sequel I had been hoping for.
Three half-bull, half-men out of five.
Sherrill's earlier work The Minotaur takes a cigarette break is one of my favourite novels. It's an amazing book, with a truly unique protaganist- the Minotaur of Theseus' myth, still alive thousands of years after his time in the labyrinth, and working as a short order chef in the American South.
This great idea, combined with Sherrill's lyrical writing, made for a hell of a novel, a hardcopy of which is on the shelf where I keep the books I love most.
Naturally, I was super excited to continue with the Minotaur's adventures and as soon as I heard about this book I got a copy.
It's well-written, pathos ridden and beautifully described novel, but on a narrative level... well, it just doesn't hang together as well as its predecessor.
Our hero the Minotaur, known to his friends as 'M', is now working as a confederate re-enactor at an historical village in Pennsylvania. He's still clumsy, tongue tied, and tormented by the horrors of his distant past, as he pretends to die in battle every day, falling to the grass in his dixie greys for a paycheck.
He has wandered to this podunk town as part of the endless wandering he seems condemned to, always on the outer of human society, and always pining for the companionship and inclusion that seems impossible for him to grasp.
With the arrival of a young woman in his life a chance seems to beckon though - could the Minotaur find love and a life that is more than endless existing?
That's not a terrible setup for a story, but I found that not a huge amount happens in this novel, or at least not enough for me. The writing is beautiful. It's sad, poignant and at times hopeful. Sherrill's prose is always top-notch, but as the novel neared the end I found myself skimming sections, racing through the lenghtly descriptions as my patience for the pace of the story grew thin.
It felt as though a little (in terms of plot and story) was being described with a lot. To be fair, this is something I often feel when reading literary novels, so it may be less a problem with this book than
a case of capital-L literary books not really being my bag.
I finished the story - and overall I enjoyed it - but it was slow in parts, and ended on what to me, is a bum note, unworthy of the millennia the title character has endured. Your mileage may vary, but
The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time isn't quite the sequel I had been hoping for.
Three half-bull, half-men out of five.
December 7, 2016
Loved it. My only complaint is it took sixteen years for the follow up but worth the wait.
September 4, 2024
For a character so taciturn, the Minotaur of this novel (and the last) is a joy of a creation with an endlessly fascinating inner life that doesn’t conform in any of the ways you might expect. That’s helped a great deal by the sheer quality of Sherrill’s writing, which — despite taking the occasional swerve into too lyrical for my tastes — constantly sparks with energy, even when the plotting slows down to a crawl.
June 23, 2024
"Unngh," the Minotaur says. What he means is that every past is littered and scarred. What he means is that the present moment is the only moment that pulses, that breathes. What he means is that he himself is capable of great tenderness but has also done great harm. The Minotaur knows that sometimes mercy requires expedience. Haste. Sometimes it can't be about much a thing hurts.
I really enjoyed this book’s predecessor The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break so I was excited to return to Steven Sherrill’s rendition of the Minotaur to see where he is at now. I think it is a great continuation. I loved the story and thought the concise cast of characters were used really well. It did feel like some of the characters were abandoned or forgot about, but I believe that is part of the book’s wider theme of change. If I’m not mistaken, Steven Sherrill also does a lot of work with poetry, and you can see where this is woven into his writing style to paint pictures of scenery and feelings. I think it works well but sometimes comes across as a bit detached from the context.
It was great rejoining the Minotaur, and there were some nice callbacks to the first book. I really like the Minotaur as a character. He embodies dislocation, difference, and otherness perfectly. My understanding is that he represents the sort of individual who has been through a lot but tends to keep it inside. He is highly capable and competent but struggles to articulate his feelings into words. He is someone who has accepted change is simply a part of life, not something to fear or to try to prepare for, but by simply experiencing change his whole life he has grown used to standing on the cusp of new ends and new beginnings. The seam on his body that separates him into part-human and part-Minotaur is an excellent symbol of showing us that while he does belong in the human world, there are things about him that set him apart that he can never change.
This book has a different air to it than its predecessor but not by much. However, a lot of readers have noticed it and don’t seem to like it which is fair. I think this is because there are sixteen years between the first book and The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time which I was shocked to learn. This is likely why it feels like there is a disconnect between the writing styles and tone of the two books. Despite this, I feel like Sherrill has stayed true to the Minotaurs character even if things felt different elsewhere. Overall, I would highly recommend both of Steven Sherrill’s Minotaur books to anyone, they are organic and great reads. I would absolutely pick up a third Minotaur book if Steven Sherrill has another in development, but with a sixteen year gap between the first two, that might be unlikely sadly.
I really enjoyed this book’s predecessor The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break so I was excited to return to Steven Sherrill’s rendition of the Minotaur to see where he is at now. I think it is a great continuation. I loved the story and thought the concise cast of characters were used really well. It did feel like some of the characters were abandoned or forgot about, but I believe that is part of the book’s wider theme of change. If I’m not mistaken, Steven Sherrill also does a lot of work with poetry, and you can see where this is woven into his writing style to paint pictures of scenery and feelings. I think it works well but sometimes comes across as a bit detached from the context.
It was great rejoining the Minotaur, and there were some nice callbacks to the first book. I really like the Minotaur as a character. He embodies dislocation, difference, and otherness perfectly. My understanding is that he represents the sort of individual who has been through a lot but tends to keep it inside. He is highly capable and competent but struggles to articulate his feelings into words. He is someone who has accepted change is simply a part of life, not something to fear or to try to prepare for, but by simply experiencing change his whole life he has grown used to standing on the cusp of new ends and new beginnings. The seam on his body that separates him into part-human and part-Minotaur is an excellent symbol of showing us that while he does belong in the human world, there are things about him that set him apart that he can never change.
This book has a different air to it than its predecessor but not by much. However, a lot of readers have noticed it and don’t seem to like it which is fair. I think this is because there are sixteen years between the first book and The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time which I was shocked to learn. This is likely why it feels like there is a disconnect between the writing styles and tone of the two books. Despite this, I feel like Sherrill has stayed true to the Minotaurs character even if things felt different elsewhere. Overall, I would highly recommend both of Steven Sherrill’s Minotaur books to anyone, they are organic and great reads. I would absolutely pick up a third Minotaur book if Steven Sherrill has another in development, but with a sixteen year gap between the first two, that might be unlikely sadly.
June 13, 2025
Really enjoyed this book, just not as much as the original. I felt like there wasn’t anything new about the Minotaur that I didn’t already get taught in the first book, and I sometimes find it hard to stomach the over sexualisation of the female characters (which is arguably due to the nature of the Minotaur’s desire for love than, hopefully, anything else). Still great prose and an interesting ride (and very dramatic ending).
February 23, 2021
Oh no. I have such fond memories of “The Minotaur takes a Cigarette Break”. I finally got around to reading this sequel and I am enjoying it...all the way up to the end...or whatever you call it. It’s like watching a movie and the movie just stops, doesn’t give you an ending. I understand what the author was going for, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
I heard a movie commentator say that some movies don’t end well because the goals of the protagonist isn’t clearly defined. I think this suffers from that disease. I LOVE the Minotaur as a character! I guess he just wants happiness and so does the reader for him. Does he get it? Does the reader? What do I know? Maybe it’s just a case of “leave ‘em wanting more”. Could be. For me, at this moment, I do want more. And unfortunately that means non-satisfaction.
I heard a movie commentator say that some movies don’t end well because the goals of the protagonist isn’t clearly defined. I think this suffers from that disease. I LOVE the Minotaur as a character! I guess he just wants happiness and so does the reader for him. Does he get it? Does the reader? What do I know? Maybe it’s just a case of “leave ‘em wanting more”. Could be. For me, at this moment, I do want more. And unfortunately that means non-satisfaction.
May 29, 2017
I really enjoyed "The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break" but this one did not captivate me as much. I can't really say why - it might just be that the concept is no longer new.
August 29, 2019
Another good Minotaur book, but I didn't love it like the first one. It was almost like it was written by a new author.
August 8, 2020
The pendulum swings, and the Minotaur, M, is again confronted with the unenviable task of witnessing the terrifying inertia of an eternal life, unfulfilled, smashed ever so messily against the arrogant, bigoted, and uncertain proclivities of another human century. M is in no rush. He has been in this position before -- living and dying smaller and smaller lives and deaths in expectation of some momentous change. But as readers find in THE MINOTAUR TAKES HIS OWN SWEET TIME, for one to be waiting -- taking one's time -- then one is invariably waiting, or taking one's time, in anticipation of . . . what?
M is several years, or maybe only a decade or two, apart or beyond the last time readers encountered him. He is still a lumbering and uncoordinated, top-heavy fellow. He is still handy with a needle and thread, still capable in the kitchen. He is still lonely and aching for a connection through that egotistical and ersatz conflagration of bespoke humanity known only as hope. M, in short, is still M.
Now he resides in the semi-rural reaches of Pennsylvania, a towering and foggy mountain on one side and a bramble of humans, from the old and Amish to the newly immigrated, on the other. M ekes out his days as a pathetic Civil War reenactor among a slew of other, often comically pathetic creatures: a fake smithy who takes his job way too seriously, a licentious barrel-maker, and a woman running the gift shop who may or may not have an eye for the bull-man.
Portents abound. M encounters a red-headed woman, Holly, who is brash and uncertain and impetuous and beautiful -- each breath a brushstroke of controlled chaos. Is the woman's kindhearted teasing a prelude to something more or is she testing the boundaries of her own curiosities? The shirtless man across the street, who carves oddities out of blocks of wood for a living, could pose some stiff competition. Interesting, then, how M contorts around his humility in an effort to stave off appearing better than he truly is. Interesting more so, how this novel's female characters have far more agency than before.
Portents abound. M resides in a simple hotel on the tired side of a wayward route. The owners, Rambabu and Ramneek Gupta, are kind and comely, caring for their grandchild whose single mother may or may not be coming home from Allegheny Community College (Bavishya answers only to Becky, apparently). But their gentle smiles, good food, and even-tempered reconciliations feel less like the calming waves of an attentive ocean than the patient raking of coals ever on the cusp of going out.
Portents abound. A cocksure crow hurls insults from the mouth of broken statues. A minivan named for an ancient poem about a man out of time and place, breaks down at the feet of the bull-man. A big-game hunter, a predator of gentler species, bearing one eye, seeks destruction wherever he may go. A troublesome woman named Destiny screws things up. Portents abound.
THE MINOTAUR TAKES HIS OWN SWEET TIME is more sour than sweet. THE MINOTAUR TAKES HIS OWN SWEET TIME is more beast than man, compared to its predecessor, which undoubtedly was more human than mythical creature. The current novel stokes all the brashness and vulgarity the previous tome provided a mere taste of, while yet still interrogating those smoother, evanescent tides of M's humanity. Here, thoughts linger on the sweaty rump of a woman who doesn't wear undergarments, characters agonizingly chime on the need to defecate, the lead female's small breasts are never in question, there is great talk of death and dismemberment and disembowelment, and there is also the heartbreaking acknowledgment of the uselessness of the cognitively deficient. There's also a masturbation scene.
The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break was an anxiety-filled pustule of human civilization, evident and incisive, sadly competitive in its hope for something more, or better, out of its faithless actors. A good novel. Brilliantly written and featuring exquisite execution.
THE MINOTAUR TAKES HIS OWN SWEET TIME is a squirrely huff of breath, weirdly patient with its unabashed impiety, as it corners and queries each portent. An odious effigy of a good novel. Cleverly written but only in service of what it hopes to become instead of what it actually is.
M is several years, or maybe only a decade or two, apart or beyond the last time readers encountered him. He is still a lumbering and uncoordinated, top-heavy fellow. He is still handy with a needle and thread, still capable in the kitchen. He is still lonely and aching for a connection through that egotistical and ersatz conflagration of bespoke humanity known only as hope. M, in short, is still M.
Now he resides in the semi-rural reaches of Pennsylvania, a towering and foggy mountain on one side and a bramble of humans, from the old and Amish to the newly immigrated, on the other. M ekes out his days as a pathetic Civil War reenactor among a slew of other, often comically pathetic creatures: a fake smithy who takes his job way too seriously, a licentious barrel-maker, and a woman running the gift shop who may or may not have an eye for the bull-man.
Portents abound. M encounters a red-headed woman, Holly, who is brash and uncertain and impetuous and beautiful -- each breath a brushstroke of controlled chaos. Is the woman's kindhearted teasing a prelude to something more or is she testing the boundaries of her own curiosities? The shirtless man across the street, who carves oddities out of blocks of wood for a living, could pose some stiff competition. Interesting, then, how M contorts around his humility in an effort to stave off appearing better than he truly is. Interesting more so, how this novel's female characters have far more agency than before.
Portents abound. M resides in a simple hotel on the tired side of a wayward route. The owners, Rambabu and Ramneek Gupta, are kind and comely, caring for their grandchild whose single mother may or may not be coming home from Allegheny Community College (Bavishya answers only to Becky, apparently). But their gentle smiles, good food, and even-tempered reconciliations feel less like the calming waves of an attentive ocean than the patient raking of coals ever on the cusp of going out.
Portents abound. A cocksure crow hurls insults from the mouth of broken statues. A minivan named for an ancient poem about a man out of time and place, breaks down at the feet of the bull-man. A big-game hunter, a predator of gentler species, bearing one eye, seeks destruction wherever he may go. A troublesome woman named Destiny screws things up. Portents abound.
THE MINOTAUR TAKES HIS OWN SWEET TIME is more sour than sweet. THE MINOTAUR TAKES HIS OWN SWEET TIME is more beast than man, compared to its predecessor, which undoubtedly was more human than mythical creature. The current novel stokes all the brashness and vulgarity the previous tome provided a mere taste of, while yet still interrogating those smoother, evanescent tides of M's humanity. Here, thoughts linger on the sweaty rump of a woman who doesn't wear undergarments, characters agonizingly chime on the need to defecate, the lead female's small breasts are never in question, there is great talk of death and dismemberment and disembowelment, and there is also the heartbreaking acknowledgment of the uselessness of the cognitively deficient. There's also a masturbation scene.
The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break was an anxiety-filled pustule of human civilization, evident and incisive, sadly competitive in its hope for something more, or better, out of its faithless actors. A good novel. Brilliantly written and featuring exquisite execution.
THE MINOTAUR TAKES HIS OWN SWEET TIME is a squirrely huff of breath, weirdly patient with its unabashed impiety, as it corners and queries each portent. An odious effigy of a good novel. Cleverly written but only in service of what it hopes to become instead of what it actually is.
August 15, 2019
So, it’s like this. There’s this minotaur, centuries old, half man and half bull, with a rather ragged scar on his chest where the parts join, who ends up living on a trailer park in small-town America. And the story of his life there is in the first book, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break.
And sixteen years later, the author gets around to a sequel, called The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time by which time the minotaur has progressed to living in a small motel, next to another small town, where he earns his living dying everyday as a soldier for a Civil War re-enactment show. Then a young woman, Holly, and her mentally damaged brother, Tookus, come along. And the Minotaur falls in love with Holly. And this book is about what happens.
I don’t know how it turns out yet, because I’m reading it as slowly as I can, trying to eke the pleasure out. But like the first book, it’s about being different, and dealing with intolerance, and all the compromises and insults you have to accept if you’re going to get along and survive, and how hard it is then to keep your self-respect and hopes alive.
None of that does the book any justice at all. But then the book is different, so maybe it’s the same for the book; there isn’t much justice. Yet as someone who normally has absolutely zero interest in fantasy stories or sci-fi or anything that isn’t based in real life, all I can say is that I gladly, enthusiastically, absolutely totally willingly suspended all my disbelief from the moment I started on the Cigarette Break sixteen years ago. So I was over the moon when the sequel came out. And it's four in the afternoon and I can't wait until bedtime to get back to reading a bit more. (Not too much, because it might be another sixteen years until another sequel comes out . . .)
Both the Cigarette Break and His Own Sweet Time are well in my top ten books ever. Do read them. Read them both. Unless there's another sequel, you’ll probably never read another book like them.
And sixteen years later, the author gets around to a sequel, called The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time by which time the minotaur has progressed to living in a small motel, next to another small town, where he earns his living dying everyday as a soldier for a Civil War re-enactment show. Then a young woman, Holly, and her mentally damaged brother, Tookus, come along. And the Minotaur falls in love with Holly. And this book is about what happens.
I don’t know how it turns out yet, because I’m reading it as slowly as I can, trying to eke the pleasure out. But like the first book, it’s about being different, and dealing with intolerance, and all the compromises and insults you have to accept if you’re going to get along and survive, and how hard it is then to keep your self-respect and hopes alive.
None of that does the book any justice at all. But then the book is different, so maybe it’s the same for the book; there isn’t much justice. Yet as someone who normally has absolutely zero interest in fantasy stories or sci-fi or anything that isn’t based in real life, all I can say is that I gladly, enthusiastically, absolutely totally willingly suspended all my disbelief from the moment I started on the Cigarette Break sixteen years ago. So I was over the moon when the sequel came out. And it's four in the afternoon and I can't wait until bedtime to get back to reading a bit more. (Not too much, because it might be another sixteen years until another sequel comes out . . .)
Both the Cigarette Break and His Own Sweet Time are well in my top ten books ever. Do read them. Read them both. Unless there's another sequel, you’ll probably never read another book like them.
October 25, 2018
He's wandered the earth for eons. He's seen mountains form from nothing and erode to nothing again. He's the Minotaur and currently, he's a casualty on the South side of a Civil War reenactment at a historical village. Yea, it's a weird book with a weird premise, but I just find the character of the Minotaur captivating. This is Sherrill's second book about the Minotaur and even though he took 16 years between books, it was worth the wait. He captures this character in a very specific light and while this is not a tale filled with excitement, you find you can't stop reading. He never specifically tells the origins of this beastly creature, but just writes him into the every day life in a small town in the Midwest. Few people react to him as you would expect, but there are always a couple who do. M the Minotaur is very cerebral and calculated and he owes this to his eons of experience walking the earth. His inner thoughts are what makes him such an engrossing character and keeps you wondering what comes next.
January 29, 2020
I loved The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break and was delighted to learn Steven Sherrill had written a second Minotaur novel. Once again the writing is almost poetic, often focusing in on particular words and phrases, using repetition frequently. This style may not be to everyone's tastes but the character of The Minotaur is so unique that you can't help be drawn in. The Minotaur is an ancient creature, half man half bull with all the woes of all humanity weighing heavily on his shoulders (and horns), and all he wants is to find love and to be loved. It also reflects the lives of the American poor, those living in trailer parks and on the edge of society because they don't fit in. The tone is melancholic and to be honest there is hardly any plot to drive it forward, but I still didn't want it to end. For me this was a slow read, taking one chapter at a time and now I feel bereft that The Minotaur is no longer in my life.
November 2, 2020
This book calms me existentially.
Our lives are weird and scary and unexpected and ugly but also beautiful in their flaws.
I find myself in Minotaur shoes many times, a creature that feels so much but can't process it and express it because of his bovine tongue and brain. An ancient creature thrown into the American folklore - motels, scrapyards, folk museums, agriculture festivals, the biggest cucumber contests. And it... works.
And the language, man, mmm, the beautiful difficult words put together by the author. It's like poetry in a prose form.
How do you write about dreams? With metaphors, tongue twisters, and jumbled words. There’s no other way.
Our lives are weird and scary and unexpected and ugly but also beautiful in their flaws.
I find myself in Minotaur shoes many times, a creature that feels so much but can't process it and express it because of his bovine tongue and brain. An ancient creature thrown into the American folklore - motels, scrapyards, folk museums, agriculture festivals, the biggest cucumber contests. And it... works.
And the language, man, mmm, the beautiful difficult words put together by the author. It's like poetry in a prose form.
How do you write about dreams? With metaphors, tongue twisters, and jumbled words. There’s no other way.
October 4, 2025
It was good to reconnect with this character, who is just as endearing as in the first novel about him. And I liked the slow moving plot, though not the uncertain ending. Like others who have commented on it, this novel does not have the momentum of the first one. And, as a consequence, I took my “sweet time” getting through it.
August 12, 2022
There's no denying that so much of this book is beautifully written, but it's hard to shake the feeling that Sherrill sees women in an unhealthy light. Like I get that it's mainly M's perspective, but even still it feels off
June 17, 2019
The writing is odd and playful in this sequel. Our old friend the Minotaur 'dies well' on a Pennsylvania Civil War reenactment battlefield twice a day on Spring weekends. It's like he's practicing.
September 2, 2025
Very much a continuation of Sherrill's original Minotaur novel, though this one ends on much less hopeful note. Eternity is a very long time to be the Minotaur.
September 27, 2025
I really love The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break. And although it's great to read more Minotaur, this book did not do as much for me. And that ending?
May 27, 2019
I love spending time with the Minotaur. This was a good sequel, but its lost some of its specialness along the way and I’m not sure why. I’m a pretty generous reviewer and I almost gave this 4 stars. The character the Minotaur in this representation will never get old. I could probably read only books about the Minotaur and it would never get stale. However, some days I just want his life to be easier. Maybe it’s my fondness for horned creatures, but it just never seemed to get easier for him. I hope and hope and hope but yet he fumbles into one trouble or another. Maybe it’s just the way the world works, but I always hope for something new to occur...maybe in book #3.
September 22, 2016
I never read the original book but this was an enjoyable read. Interesting characters and it was well written.
June 9, 2018
I lost interest with the introduction of Helen and Tookus.
The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time by Steven Sherrill
The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time by Steven Sherrill
October 13, 2017
As it turns out April really is the cruelest month. Ungh.
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