There Is No Long Distance Now

Starred review from August 15, 2011

Thirty-nine very short stories offer glimpses into the everyday lives of young people.

How much can a writer say in a five-page story? It turns out, everything; if the devil is in the details, so is the world. In "Stay True Hotel," Jane observes couples walking hand in hand, people with tattoos, old people with canes, parents pushing prams, burgundy peonies in buckets, ginger ale with an orange slice—the "clicking and humming of the planet." The best of the stories present "fringe observers" happy to be invisible, extracting themselves from the crowd to observe a world full of mysteries. The spirit of Thoreau suffuses some of the stories, and in "Thoreau Is My Partner," Andy notices a cardboard coaster in his hotel room that quotes Thoreau: "Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each." As she does in her poetry, Nye achieves a perfect marriage of theme and structure in stories that reflect the moments, glimpses and epiphanies of growing up. Readers can dip in and out with ease, and writing teachers will find it a boon in the classroom.

Though the stories aren't linked, there is an accumulation of experience and feeling, and by the end of this fine collection readers will sense what life is like—what life means—for these young people. (Short stories. 12 & up)

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Starred review from November 1, 2011

Gr 7 Up-These short, seemingly unconnected stories are set in the current moment but told by different adolescent characters from around the world. Two girls with a passion for cooking face the disappointment of their cooking teacher; another searches for her father in San Marcos, TX; another buys socks in Cairo; and a young man deals with depressed parents in Nebraska, to name but a few. And yet Nye's stories are indeed connected, some loosely and others in more abstract ways. Despite place, gender, and other superficial differences, they all weave together a perspective on what it means to come of age in the contemporary world. Rich thematic threads-dealing with loss, accepting the responsibilities of maturity, negotiating misunderstandings, for example-can be found throughout. Nye's stories are the beginning, middle or end of longer stories waiting to be written. With her characteristic strong, often quirky characters, and with much pathos, these vignettes invite readers to make meaning of the story fragments. They're a bit like Chris van Allsburg's The Chronicles of Harris Burdick (Houghton Harcourt, 2011), but for a teen audience.-Jennifer Miskec, Longwood University, Farmville, VA -

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2011
Grades 9-12 In 40 short stories, each 1,000 words or less, award-winning poet Nye introduces characters dealing with difficult life situations. There's Margo, whose parents' divorce feels as if it came out of the blue; Jane, whose father, reeling from the death of his wife, restlessly moves his daughter from one European city to the next; and Liyana, who learns over e-mail that her friend is in an Israeli jail. A few characters reappear intermittently, and careful readers will enjoy piecing together the connections. Nye sets her short stories in the U.S. and abroad, and her characters run the gamut from Texas natives to immigrants facing prejudice in this country. Current events are important to the narratives; news of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and protests in Jerusalem, for example, reach her characters via newspaper, e-mail, and TV. With prose that reads like poetry, Nye's powerful book can be savored story by story over time or devoured in one sitting. This offers a unique perspective on today's teenagers, who are growing up in an increasingly troubling, and increasingly small, world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)