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introvertinterrupted 's review for:
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
by Z.Z. Packer
A lot of these stories just petered off and seem to either over shoot the medium the author used or are just underwhelming over all. Out of the collection of stories, I only really enjoyed “Brownies,” “Our Lady of Peace,” and “The Ant of the Self.”
“Brownies” tells the story of an elementary aged group of Black girls who are on their annual Brownie Scouts retreat and have a run in with an all-white Brownie Scout group. The story worked due to Z. Z. Packer’s skilled use of slowly etching out characters and revealing just enough to the readers as needed until the “big reveal.” This allows Packer’s simple story about peer pressure to turn into a grander story that’s multifacted and tackles a myriad of topics that include racism, losing your parents as “heroes,” and even on to the traditional message of trusting your own voice in a crowd. While simple, this story felt like a good opener to the collection. Sadly, Packer doesn’t deliver on the promise this story offers throughout the collection.
“Our Lady of Peace” was a somber, but laughable tale of a woman who leaves her small town to go to Baltimore and teach inner city kids on a whim. Simple clean cut story, but the way Packer handles the tale felt almost like a detailed character story in less than ten pages. Unlike the other eight stories, this story felt like it had a clear beginning, middle, and an end along with an actual purpose to being told by the author. This was a standout story for this reason because a lot of the stories in the collection felt like a waste because they lacked a clear intent for me as a reason. Packer managed to make me care about this character in the short story in a small amount of time I knew the woman and I was legit mad she chose to give another character a follow up story opposed to the main character in this story since her story was so compelling.
Lastly, “The Ant of the Self” did a good job catching emotions similar to the way the “Our Lady of Peace” story did. Yet, unlike the aforementioned story, the ending wasn’t as tidy, but it was understandable in this case since the chaos of the ending adds to the tumultuous narrative of an estranged father and son who find themselves selling birds at the Million Man March to make some quick cash. This story displays the rage that a child could possibly feel at being left behind by their parent who flits in and out their lives and only brings chaos when they reappear. I enjoyed the way Packer uses this story to provide commentary about the Black man and his role in the community and the Black family and the irony she lends to this topic through her characters.
If you want to read a better and more cohesive collection of short stories by an African-American auhor, is suggest J. California Cooper’s [b: Homemade Love|188238|Homemade Love|J. California Cooper|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388362306s/188238.jpg|181952], which is a collection of stories that does character study extremely well and balance morality, pop culture topics, and humor evenly.
“Brownies” tells the story of an elementary aged group of Black girls who are on their annual Brownie Scouts retreat and have a run in with an all-white Brownie Scout group. The story worked due to Z. Z. Packer’s skilled use of slowly etching out characters and revealing just enough to the readers as needed until the “big reveal.” This allows Packer’s simple story about peer pressure to turn into a grander story that’s multifacted and tackles a myriad of topics that include racism, losing your parents as “heroes,” and even on to the traditional message of trusting your own voice in a crowd. While simple, this story felt like a good opener to the collection. Sadly, Packer doesn’t deliver on the promise this story offers throughout the collection.
“Our Lady of Peace” was a somber, but laughable tale of a woman who leaves her small town to go to Baltimore and teach inner city kids on a whim. Simple clean cut story, but the way Packer handles the tale felt almost like a detailed character story in less than ten pages. Unlike the other eight stories, this story felt like it had a clear beginning, middle, and an end along with an actual purpose to being told by the author. This was a standout story for this reason because a lot of the stories in the collection felt like a waste because they lacked a clear intent for me as a reason. Packer managed to make me care about this character in the short story in a small amount of time I knew the woman and I was legit mad she chose to give another character a follow up story opposed to the main character in this story since her story was so compelling.
Lastly, “The Ant of the Self” did a good job catching emotions similar to the way the “Our Lady of Peace” story did. Yet, unlike the aforementioned story, the ending wasn’t as tidy, but it was understandable in this case since the chaos of the ending adds to the tumultuous narrative of an estranged father and son who find themselves selling birds at the Million Man March to make some quick cash. This story displays the rage that a child could possibly feel at being left behind by their parent who flits in and out their lives and only brings chaos when they reappear. I enjoyed the way Packer uses this story to provide commentary about the Black man and his role in the community and the Black family and the irony she lends to this topic through her characters.
If you want to read a better and more cohesive collection of short stories by an African-American auhor, is suggest J. California Cooper’s [b: Homemade Love|188238|Homemade Love|J. California Cooper|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388362306s/188238.jpg|181952], which is a collection of stories that does character study extremely well and balance morality, pop culture topics, and humor evenly.