Very Far Away from Anywhere Else Author:Ursula K. Le Guin His name was Owen Thomas Griffiths. He was seventeen, short for his age, and as he says, "a bright little jerk." He was the youngest person in his family (being an only child), and the youngest person in his class. All of which is just by way of introduction. It is the outside. — What is really important is the inside. It is Owen Thomas... more » Griffiths as he knows himself -- or does not know himself. It is his wanting to be a great scientist -- to go to MIT and not to the state university, where he can't get the courses he wants. Is is his not really wanting the car his father gives him for his seventeenth birthday, his not really wanting to be the answer to the great American dream. Most of all, it is his wanting to have someone with whom he can share his ideas. who won't care that he is an intellectual.
That person is Natalie Field. She too has a dream -- only hers is to be a musician, more than a musician, a composer. And she is working toward it in such a determined way, Owen can hardly believe it. Yet he is caught up and begins to see, through her, how he can reach his own goals. But more than that, he is caught up with Natalie Field.
How do intellectual dreams fit into the dreams and pressures that are common to all young people. Owen sees it one way, and Natalie another. It is enough to shake the lives of each.« less
In many ways this was a classic coming of age story. But within these few pages, very mature questions about life are asked by Owen and Natalie and there's really quite a lot to think about.