There There: A novel

I just finished "There There", by Tommy Orange and I’m so glad to have read it - though sometimes it was difficult:This book will make you sad - read it anyway.This book will make you mad - read it anyway.This book will remind you of the lies we were taught as children - read it to remember.This book will remind you not to tell those lies anymore - read it to know the truth.This book will make you smile – know hope.This book will ruin Thanksgiving for you - read it so you can re-think your future Thanksgivings."There There", (the title referring to an out-of-context quote by Gertrude Stein about Oakland, CA) is fascinating, heartbreaking, frustrating and ultimately hopeful. The novel is comprised of individual, but interconnected/interrelated stories by a dozen characters; their stories and actions will culminate at the “Big Oakland Powwow”. (There are some major coincidences – but just suspend your disbelief and let it go!) The section on Dene Oxendene, somewhat mirrors the premise: Dene wants to make a documentary film of various Native Americans talking about their life experiences of living in Oakland, and that is pretty much the description of this novel – plus some mysteries and some shocking action.Summing it up best, Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield’s Mother tells her that the world is made up of stories and that they honor their people by telling their stories. And that’s how Tommy Orange honors his people, and his readers, with these transforming and redemptive stories.

This Canterbury Tales-style novel, in which a series of characters (all Native people) are introduced, and ultimately brought together at a modern Powwow, was strangely unsatisfying. Attempts to keep the characters straight made me feel as if I were suffering from attention deficit disorder; just as I gained any sense of a newly-introduced player (and any investment in his survival) the narrative switched to someone new. (Loother, we hardly knew ye.) Everyone ends up at the Powwow. There is a lot of random gunfire. Many of our new-found friends end up shot, some fatally, but we don't get to know who survives. ???However, if one steps outside the plot and listens to the voices of these wounded people, all trying to find some place to stand and build their lives, time spent with this book is not wasted.

When I first saw the title of this book, I read it as soothing words of comfort, but I had it totally wrong. Taking the famous Gertrude Stein quote "There is no there there," Tommy Orange explains that this seeming indictment of Oakland, California as a featureless hole in the landscape is not what Stein meant. Further reading of the quote proves she found her hometown unrecognizable as the place of her memory. The entirety of the United States could be classified as such, given the effects of progress perpetuated on native Americans by colonizers. Late in the book, the broken promises, actual crimes and genocide are related metaphorically through a story written by one of the characters.And what characters populate these pages. There are approximately 12 main ones, each embodying a fact of urban Native American identity. These complex relationships form a patchwork that make the outcome inevitable. There is search for family, identity and place, many feeling marginalized and invisible in the urban setting they find themselves. Earlier chapters provide character studies that present the players, their histories and motivations, so clearly the prose flows and pages fly by, followed by an almost cinematic speedup as the climax approaches.Full disclosure - I began this book several days ago employing the audible edition, but found it was too rich and full to continue that way and had to begin all over again with a print version.

When was the last time a Native author not named Alexie or Erdrich was on the NYT Bestseller list? Tommy Orange? A debut novel? I cannot figure out what is provoking all the hoopla surrounding this mediocre first try from Mr. Orange. He is a writer of some talent, most of it unrealized here - he has potential. There are just too many characters to be given anything but a superficial treatment in the 300 pages or so allotted to them. Personality development is very shallow, and they're all messed up of course. There is such a thing as an Indian who is emotionally healthy, economically stable, and secure in his or her identity. Too boring for a novel?This shallowness is also found in the notion that this book is a great account of the "urban Indian." Nope, it isn't. Although it's true that most Native Americans live in cities and not Reservations, so many still have strong connections to the Rez: relatives are still there, growing up happened there, Reservation landscapes are essential to spirituality and identity. None of this is present in "There There." It's as though these people sprang into existence ex nihilo. They have little or no backstory. For an excellent "urban Indian" novel from a much, much better writer, read "The Hiawatha" by David Treuer.Finally, the ending of "There There" is simply bizarre, even ridiculous (spoiler alert). Some of the characters try to rob a Powwow, and for no apparent reason one of them starts shooting another, who returns fire, and in the shootout nearly all of the characters are hit. Mr. Orange prefers coyness to closure and does not indicate who lives and who dies. What's the point?

This is a very impressive first novel. Tommy Orange has about a dozen narrators for his story which culminates at a pow wow in Oakland. It is not an easy read but there are great passages like the two non fictional essays in the beginning and in the middle and some of the narratives of American first nations people. We see Indians often as people connected to nature, but the people in Orange's book are city people and they struggle with their ancestry and they struggle with their present and their often damaged family relationships with stories of alcohol, drugs and abuse. Soon, Mr Orange will come to my town and I am looking forward to see him in person.

A tale of the urban Indian told with wit and inside knowledge. The characters are the fictional descendants of a factual race destroyed by genocide, their own history mostly unknown to them who are making their way to a traditional pow wow where money can be made and events both comic and tragic await. A great modern novel.

A really interesting format and concept for a book. I enjoyed how the pieces fell into place and the story ramped up as we approached the day of the Powwow. The different characters really felt like different characters, Tommy Orange has worked hard to make them each so distinct and engaging. Looking forward to reading more from him.Support Native writers.

This is a novel dealing with the problems facing a group of Native Americans in an urban setting. While the ending is somewhat predictable, that is offset by drawing attention to the addiction (both alcohol and drugs), lack of education and petty crime associated with the set of people in Oakland, California. I wonder if the group may be regarded as representative of what is certainly a very disadvantaged race of people.

I heard a review of this book on the radio wit the author reading from it which got me buying it - however I did not find it a great read and not up to what I was expecting.