Very far away from everywhere else

This is one of my favorite books of all time. I initially picked it up because of its interesting title, wondering what it could possibly be about, but I was grabbed by the first few lines. I fell in love with the opening paragraph, and it was all uphill from there. It is a story that any young

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person can relate to (and you can define "young" however you'd like) because it is mostly a commentary about adolesence itself, and not really a story about any particular events. This is the book that I find myself re-reading whenever I have a spare hour, (it's a very short novel and a quick read) quoting, recommending to and sharing with friends. A few details give the book away as a bit dated (first published in 1976) but the issues and pressures the characters face are still prevalent today. When I looked into more works by the author, I was surprised that all of her other novels are science fiction: I would have never known that sci-fi was her specialty/background by reading this book. I would definitely recommend this book to any individual interested in a witty read with some depth.

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This book changed my life as a late teenager. The clarity (typical for UKLeG) with which the author portrays the compulsion, fear, joy, and paralysis of both human love and human striving for excellence allowed me to see myself in new ways. I can't think of another book involving a romance where I

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identified with *both* people in the relationship.

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A YA book that I would recommend for any kid. Not Sci Fi or Fantasy, but a great book about how kids feel about life and loss.

Young adults have to deal with a lot of peer pressure and often seek to become part of the group, but these two young people find strength in each other and their own unique gifts. Owen wants to become a brilliant scientist and Natalie wants to become a famous composer. I highly recommend this book

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to all teens!!

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I didn't think of Very Far Away from Anywhere Else as a YA (young adult) novel when I was reading it. Perhaps that's because Le Guin would never patronize her readers, so that even if some of the issues that the protagonist faces are no longer a problem for me, her portrayal of them still

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resonates. How did a grown woman manage to so perfectly describe what it feels like to be a teenage boy? And others are no less problems for me now then they've ever been: not two months ago, I made the same damn mistake that Owen does. Maybe I wouldn't have if I had read this first.

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Ursula K. Le Guin’s sweet, honest novella Very Far Away from Anywhere Else was originally published in 1977 but thankfully received a reprint in 2004. With luck this will hopefully mean that a new audience of young adults will have the chance to meet Le Guin’s Owen, a teenage misfit edging ever

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closer to high school graduation, unsure of how to balance his parents' wishes for his life with his own or how to even identify what it is that he wants for himself.
Owen meets Natalie on the bus, which Owen is riding in silent protest of the car his father bought him that he never wanted. He sees her as someone with a very serious life in need of laughter, so he quickly adopts an “ape act” to make her smile. They connect, and their friendship builds as they explore what it means to be true to themselves. Owen often struggles with what to do now that he has become tired of being different; is it time to go with the prescribed flow or forge ahead on his own?
Very Far Away from Anywhere Else has barely aged because the building blocks of the story--the emotional truths of friendship as one comes of age--are timeless. Readers familiar with Le Guin may be surprised at the lack of science fiction or fantasy elements from her story (save for Thorn, a country from Owen’s imagination), but fans will doubtlessly identify this as another well-written, albeit lesser known, work from her cannon.

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This book had great details and wording, but all the actions made by the guys in this book were unrealistically dramatic and seemed overly feminine than normal to me. I wouldn't recommend this book. 2Q2P The cover art is okay and I'd recommend this book to high school students. I chose to read this

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book because I love romance books and that's what it looked like. WrenA

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A very slim book that tells a love story. LeGuin is best known as an SF writer but this book shows her ability with words and dialogue.

I knew nothing about this book when I picked it up in a used bookstore, but it was tiny and by LeGuin, so what could go wrong?

I didn't really expect this lovely gem of a book. Short, but deep, it is a moving meditation on how the people around us can affect our dreams and aspirations, as well as

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how we can get carried away by thoughts of what we "should" want. Like all good YA, this book isn't just for teens, but could be appreciated by anyone struggling with "the practicality" of their dreams, and whether it's worth the work, the discomfort, the inconvenience to others to achieve them.

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An absolutely wonderful story told with such insight and by someone who so obviously knew the meaning and power of love. It's a short read with no extra filler that kept me glued to it. I highly recommend it to anyone.

This is a delightful, short novella, and very clever. The language is aimed at a young adult readership, and some of the phrasing (“neat”) may not have aged as well as it could, which is inevitable, but it would still appeal to the same readers, i think, as well as to adults. Like much of Le

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Guin, parts are deceptively simple. The book follows just after The Dispossessed, and many of the same themes run across here, just in a less overt form (the same could be said of the Earthsea series as well). For instance, our young narrator is thinking about musical form for his friend while also saying his interests are in psychology and the nature of consciousness, but of course the book itself is quasi-stream of consciousness, so she’s really pointing the reader to the text itself here. Likewise, the protagonist’s imaginary world is so much like Le Guin’s own Orsinia, and she gives a very firm backhand to toxic forms of masculinity and against Robert Graves’ The White Goddess that influenced so much of the fantasy genre that her own novels try to change. I suppose that I mean to say, this is perfectly charming novel about growing up and becoming more and more oneself even as that self is forever changing, which is to say it’s about the same things Le Guin is always about: power, identity, selfhood, freedom, and subjectivity. Yet, beautifully, the reader never needs to think of the book those terms either.

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Another short one I picked up on a whim at a book store for $1.

This is an incredible story. It will leaving you feeling both empty and full. I can't explain it better than that. Just read it.

A wonderful book about friendship and love.