Z.Z. Parker’s book of short stories is very black. Strong stories written by a young black woman, about black people, mostly in black communities, with very black humor. It is not a cheerful, light book, but very strong and insightful. How people wish they were doing something other than what is happening, that they were living their life elsewhere, how they do something different than they thought they would do. Unfortunately I had to leave Los Angeles, and the book, before I had read the last story, but the ones I did read had a definite point where the life story, goals, behavior of the protagonist shifted, became the opposite of what had been, often in a startling, unexpected way.
Other than that I am not black and have no idea what it must feel like to be a black person, the people, the communities, the landscapes Parker writes about are very real, palpable, familiar to me. This twist in the road is very believable to me. My own life took such a dramatic turn, with no warning, when one day I suddenly realized I could no longer be in that marriage. The seeds for such major decisions, events may have been planted when we were unaware. And there is no going back.
These stories still haunt me. I want to read them more carefully, see if I can feel when, how the decisions happen. These stories raise the perennial question of will: do the events change us or do we change the events. How important is circumstance, when were the seeds planted, how long did they take to root, to sprout. I long to read the last story, to read Parker’s next story.
Posted by leya at January 3, 2004 11:14 AM