#Drinking coffee elsewhere sparknotes series

The title story was in The New Yorker 's 2000 issue of debut fiction. Packer was given an advance for thousands of dollars and she promoted the book in a 13 city tour. In Brownies, a Brownie troop with only black girls want to attack a white Brownie troop while they are camping, but they find out that life can be cruel to anyone upon discovering that the troop is for girls with a learning disability. Īnother girl named Dina visits Tokyo, Japan, to become rich in Geese. In Our Lady of Peace, Lynnea teaches inner-city children after moving to Baltimore, Maryland, from Kentucky. The only male main character, Spurgeon, must deal with a father who bullies him and abandons him in a city in the story The Ant of the Self.

ĭoris Is Coming is based in 1961 in Louisville, Kentucky, in which segregation was ending. Ĭlareese discovers that the scriptures of her church are keeping her stuck in Every Tongue Shall Confess. After Tia has a sexual encounter with Dezi, Tia has a 'visionary feeling that she's been unable to achieve in church'. Tia fails to find her mother in Atlanta, Georgia, but she meets a prostitute named Marie and a hustler named Dezi. The story Speaking in Tongues is about a 14-year-old named Tia who runs away from her great-aunt to try to find her mother who abandoned her. She begins an affair with a white female student who also has no friends, but Dina stops their relationship when the white girl publicly states that she is a lesbian due to Dina never being true to herself. Dina insults others, lies to the psychiatrist, and stays away from students who are also black. Her answer transforms her from a 'honor roll student' into a 'dangerous outcast' to others. In a game where students have to answer what inanimate object they would like to be, Dina says a revolver which leads her to have meetings with university staff and a psychiatrist.

#Drinking coffee elsewhere sparknotes series

In the titular story, young black Yale University freshman Dina joins a series of orientation games that are meant to help students bond. The book deals with race, gender, identity, and the need for belonging. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is a 2003 collection of eight short stories by ZZ Packer.