Very Far Away from Anywhere Else

Very Far Away from Anywhere Else

Hardcover - USA - 1st edition.

Author Ursula K. Le Guin Published 1976-??-?? Type Fiction Genre Drama Themes Coming of age, Friendship, Drama, Romance, Teen Age Group Teen

Very Far Away from Anywhere Else is a coming-of-age teen novella written by Ursula K. Le Guin and published in 1976. Unlike most of Le Guin's work, this story has nothing to do with fantasy or science fiction, and instead uses a contemporary setting and theme.

The story is told from the perspective of Owen, a 17-year-old intellectual who eagerly anticipates leaving the town where nobody understands him in order attend a prestigious university. In his final year of high school, he befriends Natalie, a gifted and driven 18-year-old musician who dreams of becoming the world's first important female composer. Both are extremely introverted, but they compliment each other extremely well.

Personal

Own?	Library binding - USA - Bantam.
Read?	Library binding - USA - Bantam.
Finished	Late 2000s.

My friend Jackie had a stack of books she intended to sell to a used book store, but first asked if I wanted any of them. Although I had never read anything from Le Guin, I knew of her from her more famous works, so this was one I took from the stack. I read at the end of the 2000s and really liked it, but, when I tried to remember what it was about, I couldn't, so I re-read it in 2024 and loved it again.

Review

Overall:

Good

• The book is well-written. Le Guin is a skilled writer, her characters are well-developed, and the story stays interesting through the entire book. The relationship that grows between Owen and Natalie is both simple and complex.
• Le Guin expertly presents the inner mind of a bright teenage boy.
• I love that Le Guin doesn't wimp out and write her characters a sappy ending. It's a happy ending, to be sure, but not sappy.

Bad

• Nothing.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Covers

• 

  Hardcover - USA - 1976 - Atheneum.
  
  A drawing of Natalie and Owen mixed in with music and the ocean. They look sufficiently unhappy and distant.

• 

  Mass market - USA - 1978 - Bantam.
  
  A painting of Owen and Natalie at the beach in winter. The solitude is fitting.

• 

  Paperback - UK - 1978 - Peacock.
  
  A photo of two average British teens. Not bad.

• 

  Paperback - USA - 2004 - Clarion Books.
  
  A photo of two models sitting on a warm beach. Completely wrong.

Representation

Strong female character?	Pass	Natalie is a strong woman who grows throughout the story.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There are a couple other women, but they never talk to each other.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	I don't remember any people of color.
Queer character?	Fail	There aren't any queer characters.

Quotes

— This section contains spoilers! —

• The hair is curly, and whether I wear it short or long it sticks out all over my head. I fight it with a hairbrush every morning, and lose. I like my hair. It has a lot of willpower.
• Little kids are just dumb, the smart ones and the slow ones. They do dumb things. They say what they think. They haven't learned enough yet to say what they don't really think. That comes later, when kids begin to turn into people and find out that they are alone.
• Sometimes I wonder if introverts have a particular smell, which only extraverts are aware of.
• ...this was the first person I had ever met who just took it for granted you were interested in ideas.
• She said it seemed like the only choices offered were to want to be what other people were, or to be what other people wanted you to be. Either to conform, or obey.
• The trouble is, women have to be absolutely first class to get where third-class men get.
• Mr. Field was a very religious man. No, I withdraw that. Mr. Field was a very churchgoing man. I don't know if he was a religious man or not.
• I worked myself up good and proper. I resented her for being so friendly and matter of fact, and I deliberately thought about the way her hair looked when she'd just washed it and it was all sleek and soft, and the texture of her skin was white and very fine. And pretty soon I had managed to develop her into the real thing, the mysterious female, the cruel beauty, the untouchable desirable goddess, you name it. So that instead of being my first and best and only real friend, she was something that I wanted and hated. Hated because I wanted it, wanted because I hated it.
• I didn't know what would happen to me, that it would be like when you're in deep and a big breaker hits you and pulls you over and down and you can't swim and you can't breathe, and there is nothing you can do, nothing.
• She didn't mean morally right. She meant right the way the music or the thought comes right, comes clear, is true. Maybe that's the same thing as moral rightness. I don't know.
• You can't just tell sex to go away and come back in two years because I'm busy just now!
• "I'm an ape," I said. "Trying to do the human act."
• The entire world is like school, only bigger.
• I did not do the ape act. I stood there and did the human act as well as possible.

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