Voices: 'Drinking Coffee Elsewhere' Satisfies

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, the debut book of cub writer ZZ Packer, is heavily lauded. Novelist John Updike recommended the collection of short stories for "The Today Show" Book Club Pick; The New York Times named it one its Notable Books; newspapers like USA Today, The Baltimore Sun and The Seattle Times all heaped heavy one-worders on the prose: honest, poignant, and provocative among them.

But even as highly recommended as the eight stories in Coffee came, they still exceeded my expectations.

One reviewer called Packer’s characters, all of whom are African-Americans flirting, kissing or full-on sexing social annexation, “smart people surrounded by fools.” I am not sure if I agree that everyone else in the stories is unintelligent, but she certainly seems to have a knack for articulating society’s hypocrisies with above-it-all, other-worldy heroes.

Like Squirt, the Atlanta elementary school nerd who goes to stay-away camp with her Girl Scout troop in “Brownies.” Between the group’s queen bees, a grieving mother-chaperone, a special-needs rival white troop, and a reflective bus ride, Squirt matures and recognizes ugly realities before the story’s end.

In “Every Tongue Shall Confess,” “Speaking in Tongues,” and “Doris is Coming,” Packer takes on the morality of the Black church, pitting willful girls against the patriarchal leaders of the pulpit. But even treading those would-be stormy waters, the writer is careful not to pass judgment on the institution itself, but manages to show a particular opinion or practice as impractical, irrational or plain stupid.

“The Ant of the Self” explores a turbulent father-son relationship while “Geese,” one of the single most odd and magnificent stories ever, shows a woman in Japan that falls on hard times.

Most compelling is Packer’s ability to profile the maligned, misunderstood, sometimes downright pathetic without being overly sentimental or with pity. As suggested by the title, the people in the stories all seem to be passively wishing that they were going about life’s mundane tasks in another time or place.


--Whitney Teal