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sarahkat13 's review for:
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
by Z.Z. Packer
The stories in this collection varied wildly. The first, "Brownies," is absolutely excellent. We're able to get to know and understand the characters very fast, and the plot progresses in ways that feel natural without being predictable. The ending is a gut-punch that manages to fit perfectly with what has come before while simultaneously casting everything into a new light. After this, I was excited to read on. It ended up being the only story I was really excited about (though "Doris is Coming" and "Every Tongue Shall Confess" were also thought-provoking).
While the quality of the prose remained undiminished, story after story told of passive characters falling into bad decisions and then continuing to be passive while experiencing the consequences. It may be that the stories just ended at a place that didn't give me a sense of completion--it was clear that the main characters had a new understanding of the world by the end of a story, but often, the narrative didn't stick around long enough to show how that had changed the characters. Overall, an unsatisfying read.
While the quality of the prose remained undiminished, story after story told of passive characters falling into bad decisions and then continuing to be passive while experiencing the consequences. It may be that the stories just ended at a place that didn't give me a sense of completion--it was clear that the main characters had a new understanding of the world by the end of a story, but often, the narrative didn't stick around long enough to show how that had changed the characters. Overall, an unsatisfying read.