From Publishers Weekly
This debut collection focuses on religion and doubt, and showcases the potential and inconsistency of its young writer. The San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl Party, which opens the collection, is Minor at his best—a powerful story about a man overcome with guilt, worry and resentment as the health of his wife and their unborn child hangs in the balance. It is followed by an unwieldy, 68-page tale of a squeamish minister undressing his senile mother for a bath (which is then followed by a story featuring another minister with many of the same life details). In general, the frequent recurrence of circumstance, setting and, sometimes, character, is more repetitive than progressive. Still, Minor has a knack for capturing melancholy and establishing empathy for his book’s many wayward characters, as in The Navy Man, which tells the story of a Christian school principal’s frustrated wife as she considers cheating (again) on her husband. Hopefully, the author’s talents will be better displayed in his next book. (Nov.)
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Review
"Minor performs magic with point of view, and he knows that if you describe a thing precisely enough you can make it not just real but tragic."
–Alice Mattison, The Yale Review
"These stories make you wonder what people need to confess but cannot–and if they did, could we bear to hear it?" –Jason Skipper, Third Coast
"The range is impressive. Even more impressive is the thoughtfulness with which Minor explores the limits of our understanding of ourselves and one another." –Margaret Quamme, The Columbus Dispatch
"Minor shows in fantastic, horrifying detail how buried truths can bubble up in strange, nightmarish ways." –Nina MacLaughlin, Boston Phoenix
"Minor’s voice lands somewhere between William Faulkner and Stephen King." –Sean Carman, New Pages