“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
“The beauty of Praying Drunk is that it transcends suffering to evoke the sublime.” – Los Angeles Times
“Before the clock strikes midnight to close the book on 2013, we’re going to make the prediction that 2014 will be the year when literary folk won’t be able to stop talking about Kyle Minor’s masterfully written collection of stories.” – Flavorwire
“[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
“Reading a Kyle Minor story feels like watching a Coen Brothers film: you have no idea where you’re being led, but you know it’s going to be good.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
“[Minor] aims his flashlight in the dark places we make extraordinary efforts to avoid.”– Bookslut
“Kyle Minor’s new collection, Praying Drunk, has already made its claim for being one of the year’s best books. The stories contained within it recount wrenching stories of families in turmoil, faith challenged, and nations in upheaval. Structurally inventive and equally adept at realism and the surreal, Minor’s new book is a stunning work of literature.”
– Vol. 1 Brooklyn
“Minor’s book is one of the most thought-provoking, intelligently designed story collections I’ve seen in some time, and the discussions he starts—about life, about art, about the boundaries and limitations of genre—are ones scholars and writers alike will be discussing for quite some time, and with good reason.” – Barnes & Noble Book Blog
“Darkly funny, fiercely energetic, and unapologetically sincere.” – Harvard Crimson
“Sad, soulful stories.” – Daily Beast
“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
“Terrific collection.” – Boston Globe
“Remarkable writing which maintains the illusion of moving forward, even as it shows us the chasm below.” – Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Sublime.” – The Rumpus
“Brilliant.” – Kirkus Reviews
“A dark collection of intelligent stories that will break your heart over and over again.” – Buzzfeed
“Ranges from cheeky observational comedy to frightening surrealism.” – Time Out New York
“Even though Praying Drunk might be classified as experimental, it is also a page turner. I read it quickly, in an almost hallucinatory daze, which is also why the title seems so apt.” – Fiction Writers’ Review
“Praying Drunk is set in the immediate aftermath of the death of God, when each of us is forced to take responsibility for our own actions and thoughts and ways of being in this world. I can’t think of a tougher challenge a writer could give himself or another book since the Duino Elegies that succeeds so spectacularly in excavating the terror of personal freedom. Kyle Minor’s characters carry the unenviable but glorious burden, one we all share, of being all too human.” – Andrew Ervin, author of Extraordinary Renditions
“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
Interviews
Hobart: A Conversation with Douglas Watson
Tin House: A Conversation with Andrew Ervin
The Believer: A Conversation with Matt Bell
Fiction Writers Review: A Conversation with Ben Stroud
VICE Magazine: A Conversation with Amie Barrodale
Barnes & Noble Books Blog: A Conversation with Amy Butcher
Best of Lists, Etc.
RUMPUS Book Club Selection
American Booksellers Association Winter Institute Selection
Kirkus Starred Review
Flavorwire Most Anticipated Books of 2014 Selection
Flavorwire 10 Must-Read Books for February 2014
BUZZFEED 15 Highly Anticipated Books
Guest of a Guest Winter Reading List 2014 Selection
Daily Beast Hot Read
Miscellaneous
Largehearted Boy Book Notes: Praying Drunk and The Land Beyond
Huffington Post: 15 Hottest Affairs in Literature
Excerpt (“The Question of Where We Begin”) at The Center for Fiction
Excerpt (“Suspended”) at Gotham Writers’ Workshop
Poets & Writers Online Excerpt, Podcast, & Page One Magazine Feature
Full-Page Praying Drunk ad in Harper’s Magazine, February 2014
Where to Find a Copy
Praying Drunk is available at your local bookstore, and from Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, Powell’s,Indiebound, and Target. It is also available for adding to your Goodreads library. It is also the November 2013 selection of the Rumpus Book Club, whose members received a special pre-release limited edition copy.
kyle minor - stories, photographs, films 