The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
May 30th, 2003by Steven Sherrill
ISBN: 0312308922
The labyrinth thousands of years in his mythical past, the Minotaur is now known as M and works as a cook. Everyone arounds him realizes that he is half-bull, and he encounters everything from quiet acceptance to fear-based harassment because of who he is.
I like stories where the outrageous, magical, or mythical is a part the characters’ everyday lives, so I was drawn to this book. M the Minotaur worries; he can have trouble controlling his anger, and generally expressing how he feels; trusting people and being intimate in any way are serious challenges to him. In other words, he’s an interesting, shy guy trying to do his best to get along in the world. He also has a hard time speaking:
The problems lie in articulation and enunciation. No matter how sweetly worded or wise the Minotaur’s ideas may be, when he puts them to tongue, terrible things happen. In the clear field of his mind, things are precise. But when filtered through the deep resonating chamber of his nostrils, pushed up the cavernous expanse of his throat and across the thick bovine tongue, his words come out tortured and mutilated–deep, nasal, almost whining. The Minotaur is painfully self-conscious of how he speaks. Over the years he’s come to depend on contextual grunts, which suffice most of the time.
He lives in Lucky-U Mobile Estates, befriends a Civil War reenactor, falls for a waitress, gets nervous going to his boss’s house for dinner, and is as good with cars as he is in the kitchen. His story rolls along, a good read. Recommended.
