There Is No Long Distance Now

by Naomi Shihab Nye

In these forty life-altering, life-affirming, and extremely short short stories, the award-winning poet Naomi Shihab Nye proposes that no matter how great the divide between friends, siblings, life and death, classmates, enemies, happiness and misery, war and peace, breakfast and lunch, parent and child, country and city, there is, in fact, no long distance. Not anymore.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Poetry, Teen, Contemporary

201 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 2011

About the author

Naomi Shihab Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother. During her high school years, she lived in Ramallah in Jordan, the Old City in Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas, where she later received her B.A. in English and world religions from Trinity University. She is a novelist, poet and songwriter.

She currently lives in San Antonio, Texas. She was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2010.

Reviews

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poet and young adult novelist Naomi Shihab Nye has written a collection of literary short stories for teens, all of which are 1000 words or less. Each story focuses on a pivotal or significant moment in the life of its main character, which serves to somehow uplift that character. Death, war, love, loss, and history are just some of the themes touched upon by these beautiful poetic stories. Some of the stories are interconnected, either because they focus on the same characters, or because the characters in one story are somehow related to the characters in another. Other stories stand all on their own. Different races, cultures, family structures and belief systems are represented, and as in Nye's other works, political and environmental issues turn up again and again.

This is a book for older teens who are used to reading more complicated prose. The stories remind me a lot of the things my fellow creative writing students used to write in college - thoughtful, deep, and filled with idealism and hope for a better future. High school kids interested in activism will eat up this collection, as will those kids who aspire to write fiction. Many of the pieces in this collection are open-ended and difficult to understand at first glance, or even after just one reading, so there is lots to think about, and lots to discuss.

My only criticism of this book is that after a while, the tone became monotonous. Every story has the same strong intellectual outlook, which can be somewhat draining to read all at once. I read this book in one sitting, but I wish I'd given myself more time to let each story settle before moving onto the next one.

[Dionisia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such a sweet little book. I received it as part of the Goodreads First Reads program. Forty very short stories all exploring the many ways that people communicate with each other. Some showed that no matter our proximity to others, we can create vast distances between ourselves and the people around us by simply remaining silent. Other stories exhibited how simple it can be to create connections with people. We live in a time where information can travel across the world in a matter of seconds. Like the title alludes to, great distances aren't the impediments to communication they once were. The ability to draw closer to someone, or to merely reinforce the distances that lie between two people, may ultimately depend on the way we choose to interact with others and how we express ourselves.

The stories had an easy flow and covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. Death, growing up, displacement, fear, love, and the myriad of connections that people make in their daily lives. I enjoyed seeing some of the characters pop up again in later stories. Out of the forty stories, "Mailbox" and "Freshen Up" were the two that stuck out the most and became my favorites of the bunch.

[Kyra]

I suddenly feel 201 pages lighter? all my problems have been solved, I’m as happy as a clam, and am finally free from the clutches of Naomi’s Shihab Nye. Don’t hmu, I’m having a moment.

[E. Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sometimes wonder if we're forgetting the art of the short story. While I love a good short story collection, I certainly don't read enough of them. But I'm beyond glad that I picked up the latest collection from Naomi Shihab Nye, whose lyric prose and sharp wit highlight every very short story in this collection.

THERE IS NO LONG DISTANCE NOW is a collection of 40 pieces of flash fiction -- each story is under or around 1,000 words. Each one captures a moment in time -- a sliver of a life that tells a whole story. The collection is brilliant, and Nye's background as a poet is apparent in the way she uses brevity to evoke the spirit of all of these characters -- some of which overlap throughout the book. This is a must-have for anyone who enjoys reading or writing flash, and is sure to be a staple in many creative writing classrooms.

[Laura W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok this was fascinating to me — I’m not sure I’ve read a short story since school. It seems like an such an extraordinary gift to create such characters and worlds with so few words! I’m looking forward to reading more by this author

[Ellice · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems like a trend in the 21st century that every author who writes short stories has to write a book of very short short stories. This is Nye’s entry into that genre, with 40 short stories crammed into a 201-page volume. I can see why they might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and some of the stories did feel incomplete or unresolved to me. But I really liked most of them—thanks to poet Nye’s careful use of language, I got a sense of each of the characters and the things each cares about. There were also really trenchant philosophical ruminations in many of the stories that added to their impact. If you’ve enjoyed very short short stories in the past, or like writing that is a bit more poetic/philosophical, give this one a try.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read little vignettes like this but overall they didn't grab me much. A few had some good lines or weird twists. Love this author's poetry much more but we all gotta try things!

[Stephen Kiernan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short stories, as in this book, seem to be their own art form. Distillations, a narrative version of haiku, they aim like arrows to fly swiftly and hit a small and specific spot.
The stories in this book succeed far more often than they miss, in part due to the author's enormous skill and heart as a poet. A few strike right in the bull's eye.
I'd recommend this collection for people who don't mind picking a book up now and then, as opposed to reading straight through. Each story deserves to stand on its own, and many of them do so admirably.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very frustrating to read, for although each short story was well written, each one was extremely short so they started to blur into one another. So at first I thought I would take it slow and only read a few at a time to savor each story. But then when I discovered a few characters were repeated throughout the book, I found that it had been days since I last "met" that character, so it was hard to remember the details of that character's past story. So I started to read big chunks of the book, so I could find the connecting stories, but that made it all run together again. The author has talent, but the format of this short story collection didn't work for me as a reader.

[WizardKitten · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5 rounded up to 3. Read this because it was the assigned book for students I coach in competitive speech.

This collection of short stories follows multiple teenagers and young adults as they try to grapple with the big ideas of life that are just beginning to come into their consciousness. It covers many of the big ideas that plague us: death; mourning, loss, and grief; mental health; religion; war; prejudice and racism; dating; divorce; family, particularly parents; friendships; and feeling misunderstood or out of place in a world with billions of people.

I think the concept and the intention overall is solid. I think that the stories do have a common theme that ultimately tie them all together and send a clear message to the reader, though the message honestly feels pretty depressing, nihilistic, and pessimistic by the end. The majority of the book reads as angsty, which is perhaps an attempt to connect with the intended audience. It didn't work that well for me and I can't honestly say that it connected all that much with the students that I coached either, but there are nuggets that aren't horrible.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give this a 3.5 star rating, if I could.

I have enjoyed much of Naomi Shihab Nye's poetry, but this is my first exposure (that I know of) of her short stories, and I really enjoyed them. Like in her poetry, her ability to zone in on a moment, a feeling, a setting, a tableau is wonderful. I'm transported and it takes no time at all. I thought the stories were not related to each other, with different settings and characters, but the last few stories did reuse character names, somewhat continuing our relationship with those few characters, kind of like the vignettes in The House on Mango Street. Of course, there were some I liked better than others, but it was truly a lovely collection all around.

[Niffer]

I've never been a huge fan of short stories, but recently I have read a few collections that I found interesting and enjoyable. This one had words like "life-altering" and "life-affirming" and "no matter how great the divide...there is, in fact, no long distance" which all sounded pretty good to me. But I read 8 or 10 of the stories (they are quite short) and mostly found them really depressing. One of the reasons I have traditionally disliked short stories is they seem to trend towards being depressing. I have enough depressing stuff in my life. I don't need to add more by reading dozens of depressing vignettes.

[Grabill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a collection of short stories by Naomi Shihab Nye. The reason I enjoyed it so much was because of its variation in voice. As an Arab-American writer, Nye presents stories that are diverse in perspective, new intersections that I have yet to experience. It is a window to part of my world, and therefore valuable.

"Ali sometimes wished he had no imagination. It seemed a terrible, depraved thing to wish…Ali had read only yesterday that military handbooks of the United States said, 'Empathy will become a weapon'" (Enough).

[Penney Peirce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories, all under 1000 words. It's a great discipline and the author came up with some truly imaginative vignettes into a variety of people's lives. She is a lovely, poetic writer and made me imagine myself taking on the same challenge. She often ends the stories in a sudden, unexpected way. I liked that it was fairly fast reading and easy to tune in to the craft of what she was doing. I only gave it 3 stars because, oddly, I can't remember any of the stories now that I'm finished! But it was fun as I went along.

[Evie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes we need a gentle reminder that we're all much more connected to one another than separate. These short stories give just enough insight into these character's lives, just enough of a glimpse, to make you think "Oh! Well that's me as well, isn't it?" Naomi Shihab Nye has also managed to capture the teen voice fairly well, so I would recommend this for someone looking for that slice-of-life, grounded storytelling.

[Sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the short stories were so powerful and well written, but honestly a 50/50 on if I enjoyed a short story or not. There were just so many of them that they blurred together, and then I feel like some characters made a comeback but they were so spread out that I couldn't really make the connection.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The problem with reading a collection of short stories is that, well, some of them are too short! There are quite a few stories in There is No Long Distance Now that I would have enjoyed for dozens of more pages than they received. Four stars for the writing. Three stars for the brevity. Recommended.

[Tandava Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the idea of having all these stories be so very short and bite-sized, but most of them didn’t actually end up feeling complete. Many had intriguing beginnings, though these came at the end rather frustratingly often. The few I did like were “Break,” “Are We Friends?,” “My Gospel,” and “Mary Alvarez Is Ninety Today.”

[Allie Fullerton (thelightfilledreader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of short stories compiled into one book that are deep and though provoking. This compilation did feel off. Many of the stories ended ambiguously. I normally love that, but many of the stories ended abruptly in ways that did not feel intentional or that caused me to consider anything from a different angle.

[Ninaninanina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book as it was a quick rea, but the writing was beautiful. I sometimes wished that they were not all short stories because in a few of them i just go so wrapped up in them and was a little disappointed when it ended. I was surprised to see that past characters met new ones so in a way it was not the end of their story.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

YA books are a favorite genre of mine. Because the authors don’t usually speak down to the readers and seem to understand the glory and the angst of that stage of life, a YA book can make for compelling reading. I don’t think I’ve ever read a collection of such compact stories. The book would be a great resource for a writing workshop.

[bumblethunderbeast · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of short stories these days, but I am a fan of Naomi Shihab Nye so I thought I would give this a try. It isn't poetry or even poetic, but it has the same winsome flavor as some of her poems with slightly shifted perspectives to make the ordinary sing.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I understand that the point of the book is SHORT stories, but they just all seemed too short. Too short to gain any amount of substance. I finished each one and was glad...none of them left me wanting any more of the story at all. :(

[Sheena · Rating 4 out of 5]

These little stories are really excellent. I felt attached to each of the characters, even though I only had a few pages with them. I had wished each story was a book in themselves. She even gives you a couple of bonus stories of the same characters, but only a few, so they feel extra special.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book offers a very different reading experience, since it only contains short stories. It was strange but in a good way. Sometimes its nice to take a break with a shorter book.

[Ian Tymms · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simple style that covers layers of depth.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are short short stories that I've been savoring. Some are interconnected and all are great little snippets of life



Book with a bird on the cover prompt
#popsugarreadingchallenge

[MaryBeth Long · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stories so short as to be disorienting; about the time you get engaged and track the characters, the story is done.

[Armon Kauffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book of short stories that would be better suited for high school rather than middle school students. Some stories are suited for middle school but some are not.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories reflected life altering things that made people very aware of something important in their life. Every individual has their own experiences and reactions.