![]() She wanted to attend the company Christmas party, but did not want to bring her husband, who succumbed to alcoholism after a long period of unemployment. We used to have lunch together and go out for drinks after work. Karen and I worked at the same company and knew each other for four years. As much as she loved the clean air and open spaces, and despite the kindness of friends and neighbors, being one of a few African-American families in town always made them feel like outsiders. Tired of the increase in crime and rising rents, she and her family eventually settled in a small New Hampshire town. Karen moved from Alabama to Boston in the 80’s. Packer captures that feeling of being an outsider so perfectly, that I couldn’t help thinking about my friend, Karen. I loved how these stories explored race and class in a provocative way and through an African-American lens. The characters’ voices and life experiences are so authentic that I was able to forget about my own life and problems for a few days. This collection of stories is brimming with energy, hardship, sadness, humor, and compassion. “We had all been taught that adulthood was full of sorrow and pain, taxes and bills, dreaded work and dealings with whites, sickness and death.” ![]() It introduces us to an arresting and unforgettable new voice. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is a striking performance-fresh, versatile, and captivating. With penetrating insight that belies her youth-she was only nineteen years old when Seventeen magazine printed her first published story-ZZ Packer helps us see the world with a clearer vision. We meet a Brownie troop of black girls who are confronted with a troop of white girls a young man who goes with his father to the Million Man March and must decides where his allegiance lies an international group of drifters in Japan, who are starving, unable to find work a girl in a Baltimore ghetto who has dreams of the larger world she has seen only on the screens in the television store nearby, where the Lithuanian shopkeeper holds out hope for attaining his own American Dream. Her impressive range and talent are abundantly evident: Packer dazzles with her command of language, surprising and delighting us with unexpected turns and indelible images, as she takes us into the lives of characters on the periphery, unsure of where they belong. Already an award-winning writer, ZZ Packer now shares with us her debut, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. Chosen by John Updike as a Today Show Book Club Pick.
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