Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ PackerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This collection of 8 short stories took me longer to read than a typical book of similar length. It isn’t a long book either, under 250 pages. I think it is the format. It feels like the older I get the less I like short stories. Maybe I would have liked these better when I first got the book, over twenty years ago.
These stories had a little length to each, so they didn't feel like they ended entirely too early. One good thing about short stories is that if you don't like the characters, well it's over soon enough.
My favorite in the group was the last one: Doris is Coming. Here a high school student, Doris is trying to come to terms with the differences of black and while people. She is black and this is the 60s with Martin Luther King giving speeches, sit-ins at lunch counters and other protests. Doris doesn’t understand why her skin color should dictate a different drinking fountain.
All of the stories are told from the point of view of an African American, usually a young woman or girl. They are complete enough, more than many other short stories are. Some feel like they could be the beginning of a longer story, a few feel like what was given was enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment