Every once in a while we are able to indulge ourselves in an entire collection of short stories where our feet seem to fit perfectly in a character's shoes and we become lost in the story's words.
ZZ Packer's "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" urges the reader to take a part of the story and feel empathy toward each character in the amazing eight-short story depiction of the African American experience. Get ready to jump into a world of stories in which your eyes will read in-depth about drugs, prostitution, starvation, lesbianism and troubled inner-city school kids - all from the perspective of an outcast mentality.
In the novel's exceptional first story, "Brownies," we have a group of black Girl Scouts who are preparing to confront the white girls of Brownie Troop 909 over a racial slur comment.
Packer sets the tone for the rest of her tales with a colorful, bright description of Troop 909:
"Troop 909 was doomed from the first day of camp; they were white girls, their complexions a blend of ice cream: strawberry, vanilla. They turtled out from their bus in pairs, their rolled-up sleeping bags chromatized with Disney characters: Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Mickey Mouse; or the generic ones cheap parents bought: washed-out rainbows, unicorns, curly-eyelashed frogs. Some clutched Igloo coolers and still others held on to stuffed toys like pacifiers, looking all around them like tourists determined to be dazzled..."
The story-telling continues with "The Ant of the Self," in which an out-of-place debate champion and his father, freshly bailed out of jail, journey to the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. The enormity of the march is the scene for boy and father to reconcile a private relationship that hardly existed in the first place. The message of the Million Man March only complicates the issue, enveloping an insecure character in the context of a greater cause.
In "Our Lady of Peace," a new teacher in Baltimore has trouble taming a nonstop rowdy class and is pushed to the limit with the last words, "Come on, make me," haunting her. The character's good intentions are tested, her motivation to nurture called into question by the most unlikely of people - her students.
To explain that outcasts aren't the result of social tendency, "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" - the short story which the collection is named - details a self-made loner content with her niche at Yale University as an introvert.
Set some time aside and read these inspiring stories of real life and seemingly real people. They are not only influential, but their actions and decisions lead to imagining what direction our lives are capable of turning.
