MASTERCLASS
Coffee and cake
Helen M Walters uses a layered story by ZZ Packer to explore combining successful ingredients in your fiction
Helen M Walters
READ THE STORY AT:
http://writ.rs/elsewhere
This month’s story features a character who is struggling with her identity on a number of levels. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer follows Dina who has moved from Baltimore to take up a place at Yale. She isn’t always a straightforwardly likeable character, but she is intriguing. Be aware that it has some strong themes and language.
The story explores Dina’s identity, the issues she has with her identity and her relationships with other people. Before we look at the story, I just want to draw your attention to the title. It is quite a long way through the story before we realise the significance of the title, (spoiler: it’s not really about coffee) but it does in many ways sum up Dina. There is a pivotal point in the story where Dina’s psychiatrist tells her that she is ‘pretending’. This links into the idea that she is always wanting to be elsewhere. To be something that she’s not.
The opening paragraphs introduce us to one of the identities that is important to Dina. She is one of only two black students in a group that is otherwise white. We learn how Dina feels about the white students, but also about the only other black person. She doesn’t really identify with either. Notice how she describes the way the only other black person in the group is smiling and enthusiastic about the exercises she has already decided are frustrating and less enjoyable than playing Russian roulette.
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May 2021
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