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Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (Alex Awards (Awards)) (Hardcover)

by ZZ Packer (Author)

4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Product details

Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Riverhead Books; First Printing edition (Mar 2003)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1573222348
ISBN-13: 978-1573222341
Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 16 x 2.5 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,396,060 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#41 in Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Families & Parents > Raising Children > Social & Personal Issues > Alcohol

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This is item 11 in The Today Show Book Club Series.

Product Description

O: The Oprah Magazine

ZZ Packer is a writer whose voice sounds thrillingly new and different. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

The New York Times Book Review

Superb. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Average Customer Review

4.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Packer packs a punch, 7 Jun 2004

By	Is (Tokyo) - See all my reviews

It's no surprise that they have got a Zadie Smith quote at the back of this book - ZZ Packer (cool name or what!) hasn't just got zeds in her name, she's also a young, black woman who has graduated from an elite university. But that's about it when it comes to similarities between the two of them. ZZ Packer writes tense little stories about people on the outskirts, and she's got that gift of making you believe in everything she tells you. I caught myself thinking "this must be autobiographical" during most of the stories - which is of course impossible, unless ZZ has been reincarnated as a whole bunch of people.

Normally, I wouldn't read short stories, but this book has made me change my mind. The different stories form a whole - they transmit an atmosphere of run-down West Coast US cities that is so real, it almost plays like a film.

The language is mostly straight-forward - she doesn't do all those sorts of twists and gimmicks that Dave Eggers or Jonathan Safran Foer or Zadie Smith (sorry, her again) play around with. It's far from being boring though: every so often, the language is shot through with spot-on metaphors or vivid imagery. The mini-storylines don't have a really clear structure and still they keep your interest throughout, which I thought was brilliant. I mean, life doesn't really have a clear-cut structure, does it? So why should stories about life do? The fact that ZZ doesn't hammer in her point makes it only more effective - you know, understatement rather than hyperbole.

The first story, about a girl-scout camp, is probably the most conventional one in the book. Highlights for me were Our Lady of the Peace (a young woman trying to teach in a inner-city school), Geese (down and out in Tokyo), Speaking in Tongues (a religious small-town girl goes to Atlanta in search of her drug-addict mum) and... OK, better stop before I mention them all.

What can I say? Read this book, just do, it's a great experience. Oh, I almost forgot, here's my little joke: ZZ won't give you the zeds. Hehe.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars read this now!, 13 May 2004

By	Mr. S. N. Barton "Dirkfrangipan" (London UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (Paperback)

These are a collection of wonderful and unpretentious stories. They are so lucid, and don't ooze with metaphors and similes like other novels, but are embellished by them, seamlessly woven in by this fantastic energetic new writer. This is one of those few books that defies genre, not in its obtuseness but in its simplicity, it seems that writers are learning to just tell good, clever stories again

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sky-high expectations and it did not disappoint, 29 Nov 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (Paperback)

I had heard/read nothing but good things about this book and so, inevitably, expected to be let down. It would be too hard for it to match up to the glowing praise it had received.
But, no, it is superb. Brilliant. I read the first fifty pages after opening it to read the acknowledgements... didn't even notice I was turning pages. It sucked me in from the start. It is incredibly easy to read - not due to simplicity but due to the writer's unforced facility with language.
I hope ZZ writes more. Much more.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars brilliant
Brilliant collection of stories very interetsing and exciting, funny and insightful, each story is different and some better than others. Read more

Published 3 months ago by dreamer

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting stories
DRINKING COFFEE ELSEWHERE is one of my personal favorites. ItS exploration of the characters, fascinating plots and smooth flow make for an excellent read. Read more

Published on 9 Mar 2006 by Mikhail

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