Tag: Houston

  • Short Story Review: “Last Coffeehouse on Travis” by Bryan Washington

    (The short story “Last Coffeehouse on Travis” by Bryan Washington appeared in the September 16th, 2024 issue of The New Yorker.)

    Photograph by Delaney Allen for The New Yorker

    The only constant in life is change – nothing stays the same forever. The older I get, the more I think about this. There are things I wish would stay the same forever, but I also know how foolish of a wish that is. And then there were times in my life that I thought nothing would ever change, only for the ground to slowly shift under my feet. These were some of the thoughts I had as I was reading Bryan Washington’s “Last Coffeehouse on Travis.”

    The story is set in Houston in the very recent past. Specifically, in the Midtown neighborhood before gentrification changed the area. At the start of the story, the narrator is being politely kicked out of his aunt’s home and is going to live with Margo and her son Walter. In exchange for a free place to stay, the narrator will have to work at Margo’s coffeeshop not too far away. Margo is master coffee maker, and the majority clientele at the coffeehouse are recently arrived white gentrifiers. But there is to be a solid group of regulars, mainly black and latinx, who form the community of this story. As Washington lets his story develop, mainly through Margo’s coffee making and the narrator’s attempt to learn from her, we come to see people in states of change, both wanted and unwanted.

    Now that I have that very simplistic description out of the way…

    There were a couple of times that I felt that this story could fall off the rails and land in a pool of clichés; The narrator continually trying to make a cup of coffee that impresses Margo, or a character reveals some deep dark secret trauma from their past, or the climax being some explosion of a fight between two characters that should be working together. No, Bryan Washington was playing with me, because he crafts full, lived in characters that I could see myself running into on my block and having a conversation with. These are characters that want to learn from each other. Characters that have pain and mistakes in their past, but that pain doesn’t define them, nor stop them from going out and living and trying to make connections.

    Then there is the craftsmanship to Washington’s writing. The very subtle touches he uses to forward the story and develop characters. How Margo never asks, she tells people what to do. The very short but efficient descriptions of the neighborhood, to create the feel of this setting, as something that is slipping away, but at this moment, it was very alive. Another aspect that I thought was well written was how gentrification was this underlining menace to the story and its characters. Change maybe unavoidable, but it is not always good. We know from the beginning of the story that the neighborhood will change, and Margo and the coffeehouse won’t be there in the future. It’s touched on in the right way to amplify the theme without belaboring the point. This is good writing, where nothing felt wasted or superfluous. This story was made the way it needed to be.

    Which brings me to how well the climax of this story worked. Again, I go back to the fact that Washington was playing with our expectations by starting this section with, “The morning that it happened…” My mind went to dramatic ends of what could possibly be coming. In fact, the final paragraph of the section before, the narrator even acknowledges that no matter how well things are going, it can’t stay this way forever. (See, Bryan Washington is priming us.) But what follows are characters understanding that it is time for them to move on to whatever is next, because things are changing. There is a rise in action, a true climax, but it is treated in an honest way that I wasn’t expecting, and I am also trying not to ruin this story for people. Sorry that’s vague.

    I love reading Bryan Washington’s work. It moves in ways that feel familiar but also unexpected at the same time. I loved being with his characters, not at the most dramatic moment in their lives, but a very pivotal one. These are moments that take us to the next place, and Bryan Washington reminds us how valuable those moments are.

  • Baseball Reflection

    Sometimes, I can make the mistake of not thinking things through; Such as last night when I stayed up late watching the ALCS. (And that would make two nights in a row that I have stayed up late, and not gone to bed. Yes, I am suffering for it today, thank you.) The reason was simple – The Rangers were playing the Astros, it was game seven of the American League Championship, and I also knew a great number of friends and family were watching the game. See, I grew up in Arlington, TX where the Rangers play, and there is an amount of hometown loyalty to the team. I’m not as rabid as some of my friends, but I thought it best to check it out.

    It was a good game if you were a Rangers fan, as Texas pretty much blew out Houston – just stomped them as the final was 11 – 4. But being that I was partial to the Rangers, I had a good time following along. Truth be told, what sealed the Astro’s fate was Ted Cruz, and if there is one person who can ruin anything, it’s Ted Cruz…

    The baseball team that I follow, and pretty much my family does as well, are the Chicago Cubs. My family is from the Chicago area, so its baked into our identity. Also, my maternal grandfather was a diehard Cubs fan, and when we’d visit him in the summers, he’s watch afternoon games called by Harry Carry and Steve Stone on WGN. 2016 was one of the greatest years of my life because that’s when the Cubs broke the curse and won the whole thing. Yes, I had tears of joy on that night, and thought about so many family members who had passed on never having seen the Cubs win it all, including my grandfather.

    And to be honest, baseball has never felt the same to me after the Cubs won the World Series in ’16. I followed that team the whole year – Spring Training to game seven in Cleveland. I watched as many games as I could, followed the team on the MLB app, and even on their IG account. I was invested that year. I didn’t really believe they would win it, as I had my heart broken in ’84, and ’89, and ’98, and ’03 with “five more outs to go,” and ’04, and ’07 and ‘08… You get use to it after a while, you know. But I still had hope.

    So, it was fun last night, watching a baseball game again, with something big on the line. There were flashbacks of the pain that believing in a team can cause you. There also was the excitement of watching a team go out there and have fun.

    Maybe I’ll watch the World Series… I don’t know…

  • ODDS and ENDS: Taking Water, Princeton, and Distraction

    (Smokin’ and Drinkin’ on a Tuesday night…)

    The wife and I have been taking tours of other schools around NYC. The kid is in a good school, but we just wanted to see what else is out there – weighing options. On all of these tours, they offer the parents free water, which is normal. But having done a couple of these now, I noticed that there are two different types of people when it comes to free water; either you take the water because you are thirsty, or you take the water only because it’s free.

    Princeton is the only team left in the Men’s NCAA Basketball tournament that is a double digit ranked team. And as such, I have to keep rooting for them. And I am supporting FAU as they are #9. Also, I am really going out of my way to hope and pray that Alabama and Houston lose tonight. Even though I have a funny feeling Alabama could take the whole thing.

    I get distracted very easily. For the past half hour, I went down a rabbit hole of looking at information on the death of Horatio Nelson. Why? No real reason. I know that he was shot and killed at the Battle of Trafalgar, but I didn’t know much more that that. After he died, his body was placed in a cask of brandy mixed with camphor and myrrh. I am assuming that this was a normal way to preserve a body for a long voyage back home, but did that mean that the Royal Navy had casks of brandy on ships for this reason? Or was it that a cask of brandy was the only thing around that could be used? I couldn’t find any information to answer that question. See… I got distracted.