Z.Z. PACKER

ZZ Packer is an amazing writer. It doesn't take long once you've started to read her works that you are thoroughly enjoying yourself, and don't plan on stopping reading anytime soon. She does what only good writers can do for you; she transports you. Using detail, emotion and odd but seemingly fit correlations, she makes you feel as if you were in the story, as if you were right there witnessing the whole thing. A good writer doesn't TELL you, they SHOW you. I am not a 8 year old little black girl in Brownies trying to make sense of all the hatred my troop feels toward "Caucasians", nor am I an African American male college student struggling to come to terms with my decrepit father's idiotic rmabling's and arrogant attitude...but she brings you there.

One part I really liked in her story,The Ant of the Self, was the description of his father and his general personality that seemed to be summed up all in one sentence. "He used to be this way with Mama. Never hitting, but always grabbing, groping, his halitosis forever in her face." Describing this young man's feelings towards his father and his all-encompassing, though non-physical barrage of unpleasantness was done quite nicely here. ZZ uses some descriptions of the seat the father is sitting in that was also really great, "His arm falls away of it's own accord as he settles deeper into his car seat with this knowledge, the leather sighing and complaining under him."

Packer does a wonderful job of creating parallels between ideas that paint fantastic background information and really draw the reader in. I received her novel, "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere," as a sort of welcome to San Jose State University. Since that time, I have neither picked up nor thought of that book. Tucked away on a shelf in my room, I never knew what a interesting read was waiting for me, not 5 feet away. This blog post has prompted me to finish the book, and seek any other literature Packer may have published.

The feeling you get from a good book is one of those inexplicably amazing feelings that require a whole mess of verbs. However true this may be I must say J.D. Salingers, Holden Caulfield may have said it best.."What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.."