Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

Z Z Packer sounds (and to an Englishman, it's seen as "Zed Zed Packer") a bit of a tough male name, bit of rock motorcycle hard man from the industrial states of the US;  in fact, she is black and female, born in Atlanta in 1973, and it's pronounced "zizi", a nickname to replace her real one, which is Zuwena.  Having got that lot off my chest, I can tell you that I have been reading Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, as recommended by Dark Puss.

It's a collection of eight short stories, set in America, and with a distinctive tone.  There's an feeling of realism - mainly realism about being black, but mixed in with the difficulties of teaching in a tough inner city school, or having a small time criminal for a father - but it's not painful, rub your nose in it realism.  There's also a corresponding sense of unreality, which illuminates the gloom sporadically.  A boy and his father trying to sell macaws at a a black rally in Washington (because they'll remind them of the jungle!  No white writer would dare put that in the mouth of a character), or two girls who hose each other down when they should be cleaning the canteen kitchens, rather than go home and have a shower.

The writing is unusual, very much with its own voice;  it's calm and closely observed, facing up to unpleasant realities toughly but without bravado.  That makes one or two passages a bit hard to take - in Speaking in Tongues, there are fairly graphic passages about a young girl running away to the city being pressured to have sex with a man who has picked her up, drug dealer, pimp, or just a bastard?  But some of the stories - most of them - are without this uncomfortable element, and are well worth reading: I particularly liked Brownies, about a group of hard black Brownies who decide to beat up a white group for racially abusing them (they hadn't), and then finding out that they are "delayed learners".  The group's reaction to this - defiance, shame, ignoral, is a fine backdrop to two of the girls, oppressed by the bullying leadership of the gang, finding their own, warmer, more tolerant voices on the bus back home.

Altogether, these stories give an unattractive picture of black, poor America, keeping poverty, violence and crime at bay with some hard work and prayer.  In most of the stories, there are shafts of light - like the pimp's partner in Speaking in Tongues, who makes sure the runaway girl isn't trapped in drugs and prostitution, and gets away home.  I don't think I share Dark Puss' very positive view, but if you're interested in edgy short stories about contemporary America, they're certainly interesting.  You could read ZZ because she's black and female, but to judge from one interview I read, she'd be pretty annoyed if that was your only reason!

Comments

[glo]

To Dark Puss:

Dark Puss, this is absolutely amazing, thank you for sharing! I see where its common name derives from but it reminds me also of a flower as well, and more precisely of a poppy, probably due to its shape and colour too.
I spend almost an hour reading, and browsing, and clicking on the links of this website. It's very interesting and I now understand... My - non scientific - conclusion then is that Dark Puss decides to take the dark lane when he doesn't want to take the Milky Way. That's why he sometimes drinks coffee.
For those who want to see a dark lane, it's here:
http://www.delphes.net/messier/m/ngc5866.html
And why isn't a cat free to skip from a spiral galaxy to a lenticular galaxy?

[Peter the flautist]

Do Lindsay and Glo know of NGC 6543? It is looking down on you! See http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/1995/01/images/a/formats/web_print.jpg and http://www.delphes.net/messier/xtra/ngc/n6543.html for more explanation (Including its "common" name).

Dark Puss

[glo]

Oh! Dark Puss liked Drinking coffee elsewhere? It was probably the day he couldn't find the Milky Way.

Z Z Packer sounds more like a rap music singer name to me.

Speaking of short stories, I read recently "Cross Channel" by Julian Barnes and liked most of the stories. Much more conventionnal though.

[Peter the Flautist]

"Brownies" is a wonderful start to this book, I'm glad you liked it. I felt I was reading an important new young writer whose voice, to me, was quite different and refreshing from almost everything else I have read in the last few years. I hope your other readers will also feel motivated to pick this one up and read it. I borrowed it from my local public library which is also an encouraging sign.