In the Devil's Territory

by Kyle Minor

Debut collection from highly regarded story and non-fiction author.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literary Fiction

220 pages, ebook

First published November 1, 2008

About the author

Kyle Minor is the author of two collections of short fiction: Praying Drunk (2014) and In the Devil's Territory (2008). He is the winner of the 2012 Iowa Review Prize for Short Fiction and the Tara M. Kroger Prize for Short Fiction, one of Random House’s Best New Voices of 2006, and a three-time honoree in the Atlantic Monthly contest. His work has appeared online at Esquire, The Atlantic, Salon, and Tin House, and in print in The New York Times Book Review, The Southern Review, The Iowa Review, Best American Mystery Stories 2008, Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers: Random House Presents the Best New Voices of 2006, Forty Stories: New Voices from Harper Perennial, and Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013.

http://www.kyleminor.com

Praise for Praying Drunk:

“The stories [in Praying Drunk] span decades as they move from Kentucky to Haiti and points between, but they work in concert to slowly reveal the landscape of an emotionally desolate quasi-America sinking under the weight of its own faith. Minor writes beautifully about these ruined lives.” - The New York Times Book Review

“The beauty of Praying Drunk is that it transcends suffering to evoke the sublime.” - Los Angeles Times

“Nothing here is contained, the way a hit single on a record stands alone—characters recur, themes and forms are deepened and visited again, moments glimpsed earlier come back with haunting force. ” - The Atlantic

“[Kyle] Minor mauls you with his vicious prose, and then takes your hand and asks you to join him in a form of prayer.” - Electric Literature

“When the characters residing in Kyle Minor’s engrossing and lively Praying Drunk find a toehold on the good life, I hope that it’s autobiographical. When the characters find themselves enveloped in desperate situations, irreversible circumstances, and despair, I pray that it’s solely out of the writer’s imagination. These fine stories–up there with the best works of Padgett Powell, Donald Barthelme, and Robert Coover–never straddle a milquetoast fence: they’re extreme in humor, extreme in sorrowfulness, and 100% individually-wrapped masterpieces. I am haunted and mesmerized by this collection.”
- George Singleton, author of Stray Decorum

“Praying Drunk gets the whole thing down: the cosmic muck and the local glory, the big questions and the tiny lives, the bullies and the saviors, the screaming at the sky and the lights by the side of the road late at night on a long drive. I finished this book with my heart pounding and grateful, my coffee cold and my smile wide and crying like a baby.”
- Daniel Handler, author of Adverbs and The Basic Eight

“Watch Praying Drunk’s lovely, lonely people wrestle with Minor’s dark God and remember when you too tried to reason with Him and unravel His mysterious commands. These passionate tales, full of longing and daring and honesty, will disturb and inspire you.”
- Deb Olin Unferth, author of Revolution

“Similar to a great magic trick, the 13 stories in Minor’s (In the Devil’s Territory) latest lure reader investment with strong visuals while simultaneously pulling the rug out from underfoot with clever, literary sleights–of-hand. Though not necessarily linked in the traditional sense, there is a sequential order to the collection—ideas, locations, incidents, and characters echo as the volume chugs forward—and the result is an often dazzling, emotional, funny, captivating puzzle.” – Publishers Weekly

Reviews

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

i have gotten out of the habit of reviewing, so forgive me if i do it all wrong.

this book was not what i was expecting at all, and this time, that is a good thing.

my recent foray into the short story has introduced me to collections like Crimes in Southern Indiana: Stories and Knockemstiff, and judging by the blurbs, i thought that this was going to be like those stories; brutal little pieces about people scraping by, turning to crime and living hardscrabble lives of desperation. but those stories, while i love them and they are wonderfully evocative pieces that bring those characters and locations to life and grab my readerly soul by the balls and shake me ruthlessly, seem lacking compared with minor's stories. these stories are longer, deeper, more impactful. they are like the wellspring from which those other storytellers draw their inspiration. these stories feel like they should have that "master of the short story" stamp upon them.

there are only six stories in this 223-page collection, so several of them are practically novellas, some of which span over fifty years of events,and the characters will pop up in other stories to different degrees. that feat alone is worth the price of admission.

their thematic link seems to be the unknown past - the way our judgment of people is flawed because of all we cannot know. these stories reveal these hidden moments, and allow the reader a godlike understanding of the root causes of a character's behavior, and how these hidden moments come into play as one character confronts another or makes generalizations based on their incomplete understanding of other's and their own hidden moments. there is probably a more elegant way to describe this phenomenon, but i am out of practice.

these are stories to return to. they are stories to appreciate on several levels - psychologically and also just their sheer craftsmanship.

yeah, alan, only four stars. i wasn't feeling the full five here, but i await your review so i can be shamed by whatever it is i am not able to articulate right now.

this book deserves a better reviewer than i can be right now. but if you read the book, you might be able to understand what it is i am fumbling towards expressing.

come to my blog!

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to buy this when I read the Short Review's assessment:
Everyone who reads or writes short fiction should take a look at this debut collection. Missing out on it would be like missing out on Greene, Carver, Munro, the greats he cites as his influences whose talent he already matches. His writing makes one newly, keenly aware how rare such talent is. Award it – buy the book.

Already matches Greene, Carver & Munro, fuck me the man must be a God. I'll let you know...

yes some of the stories in this book do match Munro or Greene, similar depth and insight, although he's very different to Carver. I was enraptured by (most of) them. Proper review coming soon (I hope, another busy patch at the moment)..

..don't know if this is a proper review, as I'm still a bit pushed for time and will have to come back and add more:
Long, complex stories, very beautiful and still seeming, but full of action; contemplative, yet wounding. Most of them made me slow down and think, turned me away from what was around in a complete way. I had phases (usually around 5-6 pages at a time) when the sentences locked togtehr like little wheels and carried me away. Completely transported. Sometimes they felt like a laying on of hands, some power or feeling seemed to transfer from the page to me, Godless me. This is maybe appropriate because there are several that concern a Christian community, and one is about a preacher who is shocked to discover he is gay, and the tale is of the unravelling of this in his life and job.

Minor does things differently, he takes his time describing actions minutely, not usual in short stories (e.g. the preacher's triumph at the podium). Actions are slowed down and examined, but then 70 years can pass in a couple of paragraphs. His areas of concern are the emotional baggage of the past, the befuddling of memory, mistaken impulses, the deep motivations and triggers in people. He looks so young in his photograph (never mind his father, I could be his grandfather), and yet his writing is mature and deep. I am more than impressed, I'm changed from reading this. Thank you Mr Minor.

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blew me away. Seriously. I had not expected a book from a small publisher to compare favorably with the Andre Dubus or Alice Munro or Jhumpa Lahiri collections I love. But In the Devil's Territory does.

The first thing to notice about the book is the way the author is very, very bold about form. The opening story (San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl Party) is a first person, single motion story about a single character, and covers a very short span of time. The second story (A Day Meant to Do Less, also in Best American Mystery Stories 2008) is from two points of view and covers seventy years in overlapping accounts. The third story (A Love Story) is a thematically driven story about love that spans forty years. The fourth story (Goodbye Hills Hello Night) is a meditation on a single night of violence by a near-illiterate narrator. The fifth story (The Navy Man) is a reversal of Chekhov's The Lady and the Dog, with the Florida Keys as Yalta and Washington, D.C. as Moscow.

The final story (In the Devil's Territory) is something new altogether. It spans fifty years and is set in East Berlin and West Palm Beach, Florida. It ends with the most amazing closing line I think I've ever read. "We can't be held responsible, but we are very sorry." I think this line stands in not just for the story, and not just for the book, but also for a way of seeing the human condition. It is straightforward and sad how we fail each other.

A lot of the short story collections I read seem kind of slight to me. They don't aspire to very much. They are sort of navel gazing. This is a book that is very outward looking even when it looks inward. It feels big, like a novel. All the pieces weirdly fit together to make something bigger than the stories. The stories themselves are pretty big.

It has been a long time since a book has affected me so much like this one has. I can't get it out of my head. I hope it can find the large audience it deserves. I can't recommend it enough.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me cry at least six times. In the opening story where the women go upstairs and leave the men alone, at the end of the second story where the woman is dying and the son doesn't know it's because she thinks he is the boy who hurt her in the tobacco field, in the third story where the man realizes he doesn't know if he will leave his wife, in the fourth story where the boy and his father paint over the words onthe interstate, in the fifth story where the woman looks at her body in the mirror and likes it, in the last story where the boy looks for the old woman and can't find her and gets the news from the Indian woman instead.

[Téa Jones-Yelvington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy shit wow, this was one of the most incredible things I've read in a long time. I couldn't put it down, I was completely absorbed, it caused me to feel things deeply, and I feel that I will at some future point recall reading this collection and summon residual bits of those feelings, like the book will leave an imprint. I was really struck by the empathy Minor feels for his characters, all of them, and these stories are about the real shit in their lives, real trauma, miscommunication and disconnection across generations and cultural divides. Many things impressed me about this collection, but I think one thing that especially impressed me was Minor's sympathetic but not uncritical exploration of conservative Christian faith. Minor's Christian characters (generally Southern Baptist, I believe) experience the expected oppression and repression as a result of their faith, but they also find meaning and relationship and maybe even a kind of freedom, and I feel this tension gives the stories real depth and profundity. The reader is reminded that religious faith is more than just a set of dogmatic prinicples, it shapes characters' identities and worldviews, how they process information, how they draw meaning from their experiences. Highly, highly, highly recommended.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was reminded when reading these stories of the old trick where a magician keeps pulling and pulling a handkerchief from his/her sleeve, but the handkerchief never seems to end and the magician just keeps on pulling. These stories just seemed like that. They just kept going and going, the weaving just getting thicker as I went further in. Minor takes the reader so far into the mind's of so many different characters. It really is an experience, and a hell of a collection.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost finished it straight through in one sitting - looking forward to the next book!

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book broke me in half.

[David Bridges · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Devils Territory is a rich cavalcade of brutally emotional tales. Kyle Minor has a knack for writing stories that hit me deep in the gut. I still get shudders thinking about his story "The Trust And All Its Ugly" from his phenomenal collection Praying Drunk. Minor comes just as strong with these 6 stories and novellas that make up In The Devils Territory. All six stories are really good but three really stuck with me. A Love Story which is about the life of a pastor who until middle age struggles to acknowledge his homosexuality. When this pastor has a chance encounter with an old college roommate he shared an intimate experience with, he forces himself to face up to who he is at the risk of losing a wife and a successful church he has been building for years. It is an heart wrenching story that Minor tells powerfully. Another great story is "A Day Meant To Do Less" which is about a son caring for his stroke ridden mother who in her incapacitated and demented state thinks she is being attacked by a man who traumatized her at a young age. There is so much more to the story if you read it though. Its about family, childhood, and how certain life events haunt you forever. The last story I want to acknowledge is "goodbye Hills, hello night", which is about some kids out partying and causing a ruckus that leads to the death of a homeless man. At times the stories in this book remind me a little of a Richard Lange and Hubert Selby Jr mixture. Minor writes stories about humanity and and how it copes with the way life can slap it in the face. This book comes highly recommended from me. I will definitely be reading more Kyle Minor in the future.

[Roland · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his debut collection, Kyle Minor displays serious writing chops and a real talent for developing strong stories with memorable themes and characters that resonate beyond their reading.

“In the Devil’s Territory” is composed of four traditional-length shorts and two novella-length stories. Like the stories of William Gay, there’s a dark grittiness common to several, particularly “A Day Meant to Do Less” and “goodbye Hills, hello night,” which include the recounting of violent scenes in past and present, and the debilitating undertones that come with simply the threat of violence. Minor’s character includes men of the cloth (one conflicted by his faith and suppressed homosexuality) and other deeply religious characters who are often conflicted by their faith and their own actions and instincts.

Minor knows his characters well and lets the reader get deep inside their heads, often through first-person narratives. Readers who appreciate stories with strong psychological components that analyze and dig deep into the motivations and yearnings of its characters will find much to like in the collection.

[Tuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

blurbed by donald ray pollock, benjamin percy, erin mcgraw, and edward falco, all great and gritty novelists/short story writers. reviewed by karen and given tres estrellas, and seems hand made just for mariel and her strange, sad florida. so one story got in the "best american mystery stories 2008" which is nice, and published by dzanc books, which is nice. but what can i say, compelling stories of fucked up southern baptists, evangelicals, marital cheaters, family dealers, wife beaters, racist meaters, sanctified cheaters, scared little liars, bold liars, malicious liars, liars lying to themselves, cocksuckers (but not cunt lickers), no hopers, saved sinners, two dentists, and a hero who gets screwed. so lots of things to think about in 6 short stories and the above is just a taste of all that is in between the covers. southern culture told as real perhaps as you can stand, and you wonder why the southern strategy has worked so well?

[Shaindel · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the spirit of full disclosure, I'll admit that Kyle Minor is an online writing friend. That being said, this book thoroughly deserves five stars. Kyle Minor is one of those young writers you keep hearing about--and he's worth all the hype. One of the longer stories in this book, actually a novella, called "A Day Meant to Do Less" was a selection for Best American Mystery Stories in 2008. What I found most beautiful were the intertwining stories with recurring characters. I absolutely loved the story "The Navy Man," but all of these stories are must-reads.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. I really can't say anything beyond that. It's one you MUST read. Each story is compelling and leaves you feeling raw as you come to terms with the emotions conjured.

I had the privilege of hearing Kyle read in Fayetteville at Nightbird Books last winter. It was a rare experience. All 3 authors hit the perfect notes on a cold winter night.

[Roy Kesey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minor's picked a remit—life lived within certain strains of fundamentally American religion, with particular attention to the movement from faith to doubt—that no one else is working with all that much in literary fiction. Powerful plot and character-work. The title story is magnificent.

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me feel very sad. I could not put the stories out of my mind when it was done. It must be the work of a genius.

[Al Riske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really well-done stories. Fascinating characters. Great use of dialect. I'll be on the lookout for more from Kyle Minor, a major new talent.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection was different than I expected, but not at all in a bad way. Minor's writing certainly lives up to all I'd heard and read about it. I look forward to reading whatever he does next.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh wow did this book trip me up crying for days

[Stan Lanier · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful writer.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

The rare indie book that is as good as the big books. I will remember this one for a long time.

[Kathy Cowie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been a good year for me with short story collections. In the Devil’s Territory felt more like a novel, with some of the characters weaving in and out of the different stories. I love when the author does this because you have this sort of “aha” moment when you realize that the relatively minor character in the last story has now come to the forefront to tell his side of things. In this way, it reminded me of Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge. The beauty of this is seeing the story from many different points of view, and being able to see sides to what is usually a much more complex event than it may have first appeared. For instance, one person could be an undeniable angel to someone, and an unendurable devil to someone else.

It is honestly a testament to the very fine writing in this book that I continued to read despite the fact that one of the stories early on had me almost throwing up — the details were so gruesome and graphically related. The story itself was disturbing, but the writer’s skill was in keeping me just on this side of that fine line (that Allan Gurganus crossed in Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells…way more than I wanted to hear). The devils of the book’s title are not obvious here; they come in the guise of ordinary men and women. They are preachers and children and cold-war heroes, air conditioner repairmen and lonely women. At some point, I think, we are all in the devil’s territory.

The only criticism I had at all was that I wanted more. The book was short, only 220 pages, with some novella length stories. For some of the characters, I would have liked a follow-up, say five years after we left them. They were vividly drawn, and their stories were so compelling that even when the characters were in conflict with each other you were able to empathize with them, even (especially?) the devils among them.

[Susan Rukeyser · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the Devil’s Territory is a collection of stories by an original and gutsy writer who explores the darkest corners of the human mind but doesn’t feel obligated to comfort the reader with resolution. It’s as if he means to say, Life is fragile, there is tragedy and injustice and banality. Those who know us best may not know much.

Minor’s stories do not end with an hopeful lessons learned. Some endings are so abrupt they feel like falling off a cliff. But in the descent the reader understands she was childish for counting on the author to make it all okay. This is life.

In “A Day Meant to Do Less” & “In the Devil’s Territory,” Minor shifts from the mind of one character into another’s, revealing vastly different perspectives on the experiences that connect them. He seems to want us to see that even those closest to us can’t truly share our perspective. Maybe it’s our fault, for keeping secrets. Maybe it’s just life.

Immensely readable and beautifully written, In the Devil’s Territory is thoughtful and generous with detail but reserved in drawing conclusions. It feels like a challenge to the reader—sometimes dissatisfying, but ultimately rewarding in its honesty: Look, this is life. Don’t ask me to explain what it means.

[Caleb Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kyle Minor's In the Devil's Territory is rural family noir at its best, with lots of back-woods religion overtones, and family dynamics rooted in harsh sexism where women are taught to be subservient to men and men are trained to exploit that subservience.

(click the image below to watch the video review)

[Daniel Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure you could ask for much more from a debut short story collection. I sensed shades of Richard Yates' early stories, along with the dark contemporary edge of a Russell Banks and an uncompromising religious vision akin to none other than Flannery O'Connor.

The voice I hear most, though, is simply Kyle Minor's. I had realistic expectations, first book expectations, but the stories almost always exceeded them, made me forget myself, in fact, and instead plunged me into the vivid and continuous dream, to the rhythms of a new American voice I hope will be around for a very long time.

I'm starting PRAYING DRUNK today, and I'm excited. Truth be told, though, I'm a lover of novels. From what I understand, Kyle's got one on the way, and I will be first in line for it. Buzz (and there's been lots of it) aside, this is a writer who could drop a masterpiece on us.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one hurt me bad. The stories sneak up on you. The people are trying so hard & terrible things are keeping them from getting what they want. A dying baby, a rape in a tobacco field, a woman with visions of her attacker as she is dying, a murderer and his father trying to clean up the memorial to the victim, a married gay preacher choosing to stay in the closet, and most of all a true force of evil in an East German teacher who escapes communism to terrorize boys in Florida. I keep thinking about these stories all the time.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best collections I've ever read. Minor is a uniquely gifted writer who has a knack for invading his characters and gutting them on the page. All the wonder and despair of real life is on display, written in some of the most insightful and elegant prose I've ever encountered.

Next up... Praying Drunk.

Review swiped from my alter-ego, Hank Early.

[Hank Early · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best collections I've ever read. Minor is a uniquely gifted writer who has a knack for invading his characters and gutting them on the page. All the wonder and despair of real life is on display, written in some of the most insightful and elegant prose I've ever encountered.

Next up... Praying Drunk.

[Tim Hennessy · Rating 5 out of 5]

These six short stories, including Best American Mystery Short Story 2008 selection “A Day Meant to Do Less”, are sure fire ways to ruin a productive day, because starting this collection will consume you. Minor’s stories range skillfully in technique and point of view as he empathetically shows us the inner lives of a diverse group of characters thrown into conflict.

[Julie Copp · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a page-turner

The snappy title grabbed my interest and I found myself reading it every chance I had until it was finished. it is a quick read and just the thing for the beach or a weekend away. Loved the first person delivery and the conflict resolutions did not disappoint.

[Jay C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains several very good stories. I hope to have time to post in detail about more of them on my blog. The one post I wrote earlier is at: http://bibliophilica.wordpress.com/20...