Customer Reviews

In the Devil's Territory

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There are six stories in Kyle Minor's debut collection, and each story reveals his wide-ranging talent in new ways. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of IN THE DEVIL'S TERRITORY is how Minor easily slips into the private lives of a diverse cast of characters -- he knows our human secrets and isn't afraid to dig deep.

If you've read Minor's essay in Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers, you know he can flat-out write: fiction, nonfiction, it doesn't matter. Minor is a talent to watch in years to come.

The title of this collection echoes a classic Sufjan Stevens' song, and like Stevens, the stories here come to the reader with a surprisingly eclectic combination of tenderness, inventiveness, and force. Minor is unafraid of taking on the big subjects: love and sex, death and decay, faith and transgression and the slow erosion of belief. But he doesn't simply recycle old plots and approaches, nor do the stories feel like veiled autobiographies. In fact, one of the most impressive things about this fine collection is the author's courage in taking on the sensibilities of a range of people: a young man with a wife on bed rest over Christmas; an aging teaching who, years ago, helped her family escape East Berlin; a minister bathing his senile mother. Minor has that all-too-rare combination of a large heart, a sharp eye, and big-canvas ambition. The sentences shimmer with precision. The emotional reach touches the sublime. Read these stories and bells will seem to chime in the background.

A superb collection. The stories read like telescoped or condensed novels--like many of Chekhov's stories--spanning lifetimes and juxtaposing eras and generations. If I have to choose a favorite I'll probably go with the title story, where Minor does such a fine job of evoking, through deep third person, the cramped, paranoid atmosphere of postwar East Berlin and his protagonist's wet and dangerous escape to freedom across a black river. The first story--The San Diego County Credit Union--shocked me as it was meant to; I read it in spite of a resistance to sexual violence because it was so well-done and because I trusted that the violence would serve a higher purpose, and wasn't disappointed. I was pleased, too, to see the author move so deftly from present to past tense, from first to third person; too many story collections are locked into a single technique. I hope In The Devil's Territory gets at least some of the attention it richly deserves.

I don't often read...which is saddening. My brother told me his friend read "In the Devil's Territory" and thought everyone should read it, so I bought it. Best decision for a young (23) reader. I think I have found a new writer for all my reading needs. SO enjoyable.

It's fitting that Minor drew the title of his collection from Flannery O'Connor (the line I quoted above can be found in the essay, "On Her Own Work") because he descends from her tradition, concerned, as he is, with the messy stuff of our hearts. But whereas O'Connor might pull the rug out from under her characters, confronting them with a glimpse at the sublime reality of their wickedness or misdirection, Minor is more generous, more empathetic. That's not to say he doesn't show his characters' failings or misgivings; he does; his men and women are so well observed you get the impression they were created beneath a jeweler's eye-piece. But whereas O'Connor seems to work toward an exposure, a moment, like at the end of "Greenleaf," where her characters are seized on the horns of their failings, Minor often seems to be working toward our connecting with his characters on a deeper level, so we can understand their plight and see them as something more than what we might on first glance in our everyday lives: the uncaring old woman, the closeted priest, etc., I'd go into more detail -- on how he handles religion and religious characters in a way I see too few contemporary writers do -- but I'm separated from my copy of the collection at the moment, so I can only recommend you buy this book. A debut collection should make you want to see more, and that's what this one does, especially with its longer stories ("A Day Meant to Do Less," "A Love Story"), where Minor's novelistic talents have more room to be displayed. Highly recommended.

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 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 protagonists include men of the cloth (one conflicted by his faith and suppressed homosexuality) and other deeply religious characters who are often torn between 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.

Kyle Minor was my english teacher at The Ohio State University. He taught me so much about literature, writing styles, and how to improve my own that I immediately went out and bought his book. His writing style is elegant, and this novel is an excellent read. I have already suggested this book to many of my friends.

Kyle, wherever you are now, good luck. And thank you ^_^

Dzanc Books has brought out another winner. This is a collection by a writer we'll be talking about a lot in the future--dark mysteries, strong characters, wise observations, and unnerving surprises.

Throughout the book, IN THE DEVIL'S TERRITORY, Kyle Minor introduces complex characters. These characters, including a gay minister, and girl who escaped from East Berlin, are typically not what most writers would write about. In each of his six short stories in this book, Minor delves into characters which appear normal on the outside, but undergo turmoil on the inside because of their past experiences.
One of these six short stories is "A Love Story." This story is about a Baptist minister that knows he has feelings for the same sex. He first realizes this in Bible colleges and thinks he has a problem. Due to advice from a friend, he decided it was a fluke in his personality and marries a girl who is crazy about him. Years into their marriage, the pastor acts on his feelings about the same sex with his old college roommate. This is shown in a quote show his true feelings, "...what I was thinking was will I tell Marianne? (his wife) and what I found myself doing was letting him lean into me and kiss me." This is ironic because with this roommate; the minister first experienced feelings towards the same sex. People generally do not think of pastors as having these feelings, let alone act on the feelings.
Another one of the stories is "In the Devil's Territory." This story is about a girl who helps her family escape from East Berlin in the middle of the night. She loses her mom in the escape and the family moves to Florida. Else, the girl, becomes a strict teacher that does not put up with anything that is not normal. Else has trouble with one student in particular, who has a special relationship with the principle and sees him almost every day. Else has her qualms about teaching and she pays for it. This character goes against the stereotype that teachers are loving and want to their students to excel. It was clear that this job was something that Else had no patience for and did it to pay the bills. This is especially clear in this quote when Else is yelling at that student, "...You are a very stupid boy. You are a very week boy. And never will you be anything, Ronald Adams. Never, ever." Else's character is strong but severely cracked. As a girl she single handedly carried her family to safety, but as a grown up she is unwilling to let her guard down and accept people that threaten her.
Minor creates these characters because they are memorable. These characters stick in the minds of the reader long after one has finished the book. In all, this book was decent read. It was very good at understanding the psyche of people that have conflict in their lives. While the characters were personable and relatable, for me, the overall book did not strike me as a must read or something that I would like to read again.

Kyle writes in a manner that is bold and soul-wrenching and true. He is not afraid to plunge into the darkness of our humanity, and he does so in a way that is not sensationalized but is simply honest, authentic, and believable. While some stories resonated more with me than others, all were strong examples of quality writing. Each story stands alone beautifully, yet each is connected by the commonality of vulnerable, authentic storytelling. Before bed, I would keep reading until my eyes were no longer able to be propped open. The stories still haunt me and cause me to wrestle a bit with my own darkness, just as tends to happen after reading Camus or other existential works. This is writing that will stick to your ribs!