Ann Packer to Rock Downtown Library

Ann Packer rocks.

She's a writer of fiction, but she rocks.

As a rock concert promoter, who dabbles in more refined things, I am excited to see, posted here at Palo Alto library, that the local author, Gunn and Yale graduate, and mom, will be appearing and reading Wednesday, April 18 at 7 p.m. at the (the one behind City Hall).

I don't know if any of her stories describe rock concerts but they probably still rock; my understanding is that they describe, in some cases, what it was like growing up in Palo Alto in the seventies.

She probably does this better than James Franco, with due respect for Mr. Pineapple Express (who also has movies about Allen Ginsberg and Hart Crane; I got it: next he should star in a biopic about Ann Packer; like a Mrs. Doubtfire meets "Dead Poets Society" kind of thing).

Before I get carried away (figuratively speaking), Ann Packer is no Wallace Stegner. But her mother, Nancy Packer, studied with Stegner and then succeeded him at the grad program for writers on The Farm. Ok, so she is Wallace Stegner, or pretty close, and probably looks better in a skirt than he ever did.

It seems she is also friends, according to Nancy Packer, who I see because she lives in the same building as my parents, with Syliva Brownrigg, my Gunn classmate and another rocking mom kind of author.

There's also a George Packer who writes for The New Yorker and by my standard rocks. George is Ann Packer's brother.

I admit I have not actually read much by Ann Packer but I've read a bunch about her. And I would definitely buy a book April 18, get it signed, and add it to my stack of readings. If I have any money left after I pay my taxes, that is.