How I Learned To Love You From So Far Away

by Kevin Fanning

21 stories about love & technology.

Available in print:
http://www.kevinfanning.com/store/how...

or for the Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Learned-Lov...

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

36 pages, chapbook

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

I woke up driving and screaming.

Reviews

[gwayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I downloaded the Kindle version of this book to my iPod on a whim the other day; a lady whose reviews I rather randomly started following on Goodreads (she's got good taste) spoke highly of it.

I finished the book, stared into space for about two minutes, fished out my laptop, and -click!- ordered hard copies of it for myself and for a friend, and -click!- downloaded this author's other four Kindle books. (See how far I've come from my Luddite days?!)

It's very short fiction about the internet and technology and how it affects love and life. The writing is smart and heartfelt, never trite or showy. Do yourself a favor and check this guy out: http://www.kevinfanning.com/.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could easily go on and on to write a review longer than most of the stories here, so I’ll do them justice and keep the praise succinct. Here’s the warning, though: to be careful, to not let the size fool you. These little stories pack a wallop of a punch; all muscle, all sinewy, juggernaut heart.

Even more improbably, importantly, they do the near-impossible: they get the internet just right.

[laaaaames · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to really think I hated short stories. Until I read Kevin Fanning I still thought that. Which is funny to me, in light of this book, hating a form until I met a friend on the internet and read his stories on the internet and today I give five stars to his book revolving so much around the internet. But wrapped up in that time also I read other short stories by people who passed away long before the internet was a glimmer in Al Gore's eye. I guess what I'm trying to say is that a new form helped me discover an old form and therefore this collection brings it all around full circle.

And that takes a really big gift, a way with words, an ability to capture emotions so accurately that right now I'm not sure I should turn away from the internet or hug it, figuratively, to my chest.

(read: 19)

[Morgan Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible.

[Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

FULL DISCLOSURE: My name is inside this chapbook somewhere.

So it seems like no one writing books really understands the Internet. Or prefers to ignore it. And no one on the Internet is really able to manage books. And very few fiction at all. And when they start making fiction, they start ignoring the Internet.

'Cept Kevin I guess. This area's pretty important/interesting to me. How we are living with this web. All these young people, all these connections. So many hours. Such a big chunk of peoples' lives that didn't exist ten, fifteen years ago. Five years ago for most. So a collection of stories by a good writer who thinks big-picture thoughts about living with the Internet (and who has been around long enough to see that picture) is an event on my calendar.

I love a lot of these. I'd read a fair few before. My fav is almost, almost I'm Worried The World Is Going To End because it's so applicable to me and written for me and comforting. I might put it on my wall. But my real fav is A Small Thing, Alive. What It Meant to the Universe is also excellent.

Taken as a collection, this is easily my favourite thing Kevin's ever done. It fills I hole I was acutely aware of before I ever heard about this chapbook. It will probably remain my favourite for some time. And yes! this includes recent releases soon to be added to my Goodreads.

[Trux · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think half of the point of this is to not sit online writing a review of it. But I have to mention that the title font ROCKS (and cover design in general).

A special treasure I'll put right next to the only other chapbook I own: written by a local harpist/poet and handed down to me by someone she gave it to who totally didn't want it, but I *love* it.

I realize I'm not commenting on the content at all really, but I guess that's because the medium is so intimate and powerful to me. The stories are also intimate but in a very solitary way that you don't discuss except in vague, veiled references. At least *I* would like to keep it that way except I feel like I'm shirking my duties leaving it at that.

*****

Loved "How to be the Good Son" . . . reminded me a little of "Synecdoche, New York" (movie).

The way the stories were chosen and put in order made a perfect whole. Transported me into a slow, grey, lonely twilight zone.

[Alex Bennetts · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Building The Perfect Lolcat
Just got back from Iraq. I was there to work with children whose parents had been killed in the war. They told me their stories, shared with me how they lived, and I taught them how to build lolcats. I know, I know. But to me there was never a more elegant marriage of form and function. A few simple elements, accessible to anyone, can result in such a wide variety of outcomes. At first I was worried the humor might not translate, but the children gathered around as I showed them how the C-4 and the detonators and the shrapnel all fit together. "The best lolcats are the ones you're still thinking about later," I said, and the children all smiled and nodded."

Fanning, Kevin (2009-11-30). How I Learned To Love You From So Far Away (Kindle Locations 58-60). Cold God Press. Kindle Edition.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this was rather curious. I was expecting something more straightforward and direct about the internet and how it affects the world and people's relationships. There are stories in here which tackle those topics, along with plenty of mentions of twitter, flickr and facebook, but on the whole it's more oblique and dreamlike than I thought it would be. Not that that's a bad thing. On the whole I think my favourite was the longest, How To Be The Good Son; a moving tale of how a man helps his mother recover from a stroke, but many of the others contained lines or images which really struck me. I'll probably go back and read some of these regularly, as there's a lot to chew over. For example, from Your Cell Phone Is Dying: "Keeping friends alive is harder than making new ones".

[lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

listen, i think i took so long to purchase/read this because i knew it would make me want to die inside from feeling so many feelings, and i was right! great!

i love the internet, and the internet loves me, but i never would have thought about most of the things in this book in the ways they are presented. it is beautiful.

also, i don't know what it is about the cover art/fonts, but it is immensely pleasing and i cannot stop looking at it.

[Mace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know why it took so long for me to finish reading this. I had one story left, and then my cat hid it under the bed. I finally unearthed it last night and actually re-read the whole thing because IT IS THAT GOOD, PEOPLE.
The stories are short, but you really need to take a minute after each one to let it settle in, and sort out what feelings are rising out of it. Seriously, I love this book.

[zan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to use words like "satisfying" and "relevant" to describe this tidy little collection, but I also didn't want to sound like a sidebar in Time Magazine. So instead: good stuff.

[allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really quite gorgeous.

[Phillip Guillory · Rating 5 out of 5]

My very first introduction to Kevin Fanning, and what a creative and interesting introduction it is! I love the stories and enjoy re-reading them from time to time as well.