{"product_id":"the-minotaur-takes-his-own-sweet-time","title":"The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time","description":"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  Ms 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 Minotaurs life. As their paths overlap we find ourselves rooting for the old bull as he stumbles toward a real live human relationship. Steven Sherrill is a graduate of UNC Charlotte and holds an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers Workshop. The recipient of a NEA Fellowship for Fiction  he has published four novels and one book of poetry. His debut novel  The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break  was published in the UK and translated into eight languages. Neil Gaiman selected it as one of six audio books to launch Neil Gaiman Presents for Audible.com. A prolific painter and nascent musician  Sherrill is now a professor of English \u0026amp; Integrative Arts at Penn State Altoona. \"Sherrill gives his Minotaur a forlorn Buster Keaton dignity. M has a silent films starring role in the midst of a country-and-western talkie. Precisely by limiting the beast to deeds  not speech  the writer eventually createsagainst all oddsa living hybridized contradiction. M  if stuck in the quicksand of our ticky-tack present  somehow still participates in the silent scale of myth.\" The New York Times","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44647427801141,"sku":"ByrdShop_0895876736","price":225.89,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/ByrdShop_0895876736_9575cb5a-c314-485e-848e-12c3aec87948.jpg?v=1765636901","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-minotaur-takes-his-own-sweet-time","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}