DRINKING COFFEE ELSEWHERE

ZZ Packer takes chic-lit, shakes out the nonsense, and fills her stories up with beautiful prose and fresh new talent.

At a distant glimpse the characters in Packer's "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" could be chic-lit stars in the making - they're mostly young, tenacious women who have more than a few tough decisions to make or lessons to learn. But the comparison stops there. Packer's characters, who are mostly female, are tough ladies. They're willing to run away from home, take a stand in a segregated restaurant and start a life in a new and foreign country.

But somehow these characters doing fantastic things still a have a grip on reality so strong the reader can't help but feel like they've felt that way once.

Packer isn't new to the literary world, but she's just recently taken residence at bookstores - with "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere," her short story collection published by Penguin Putnam. One of the most touching stories, whose title is the book's namesake, is "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere."

In this story a character, Dina, remembers a moment when she ran away from a boy who offered to carry her bags home from the store. Instead of accepting the offer, she remembers running off in fright, dropping everything in her hasty flight because she was afraid he'd see the shabby neighborhood she lived in. As a college student, she is a similar woman, though she uses dark humor and sarcasm to separate herself from her classmates at Yale instead of physically running away. Dina lives in a fantasyland, where she needs no one. But in reality she has no one.

Dina is an extreme, but reminds the reader - where might we be if we abandoned each opportunity and ran away from each potential friend. In Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, it seems like there is hope for our Dina - that maybe she'll finally open up to a female friend who offers her more than just simple companionship.

In a story called "Brownies" Packer takes us back to pre-teen angst with the tale of a brownie troop away at camp. But in a twist, the story revolves around an all-black troop of girls who want to face off with a group of white girls who they think insulted them. "Brownies" has some fantastic elements - it begins with the girls getting off the bus, and ends with them riding the bus home, coming full circle. It's so artfully written the reader can't help but appreciate it.

"Usually people were quiet after Arnetta spoke," she wrote about one girl. "Her tone had an upholstered confidence that was somehow both regal and vulgar at once. It demanded a few moments of silence in its wake, like the ringing of a church bell or the playing of the taps."

But what makes it great, is that it's just a good story. "Brownies" has all the immature charm of those girls that always have to be on top, and the ones that are "quiet."

In "Our Lady of Peace" a character named Lynnea struggles to find her way as a teacher in inner-city Baltimore. She fails at keeping control of her class until a strong-willed girl named Sheba joins her classroom. Later on Lynnea snaps - in a suprising way.

In "Doris is Coming" a young woman struggles against the complacency of her community, and longs to join civil rights rallies in the effort to improve the lives of African-Americans. The reader follows her through a struggle between being a good girl in the smart class and doing what she thinks might be important.

In "Speaking in Tongues" a young girl runs away to Atlanta to find her mother, who may or may not be a prostitute or druggie. But when she gets to the foreign city by bus and reaches her mother on the phone, her mother doesn't seem to recognize her. The teenage girl's misadventures in Atlanta are a little frightening, but at the heart of the story is her desire to be independent.

Packer's stories are engaging and have more than a little artistic talent.

ZZ Packer's artfully written short stories revolve around black, female characters from the brink of adolescence to post-collegiate. They are sassy, intelligent characters with issues of love, friendship, messy families, religion and success. The message we get from their stories is so simple, so raw, that even the casual reader will take away a feeling of content when they set down this book.

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Laura Schneider is a writer and reporter in Ohio. She is an avid reader and was known to give up elementary school recesses in favor of a good book. She has a degree in English and journalism and plans to pursue graduate study in the future. Laura also is a big fan of good poetry and kayaking, and considers herself an amateur travel agent.

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