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There There
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Tommy Orange's wondrous and shattering novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. Among them is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle's death and w ...more
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"Don't ever let anyone tell you what being Indian means. Too many of us died to get just a little bit of us here, right now, right in this kitchen."
Orange's ambitious debut captures the experience of modern "urban Indians" through constantly shifting third person perspectives, ultimately showing that Native Americans are not a monolith, not a stereotype, not united under a single identity.
The author takes a number of risks, and yet they all work to create a book of such extreme power that i ...more
This is an ambitious novel told in stories about different Indians in Oakland whose lives converge at a Pow Wow. It took me a long time to get into the novel. When the threads start to come together the novel picks up. There is some great writing throughout. But still... something is missing here. Something isn’t quite working for me. But the ambition and the last lines do a lot to elevate this. Look forward to seeing more from the author.
Update: I’m very happy to learn that Tommy Orange won the PEN/Hemingway award!!!
Congrats!!!n”There There” is an outstanding novel.
Update: Terrific pick!!!! 2018 National Book Award Longlist.... Fiction!!
5+++++ stars!!!!! Absolutely phenomenal!!!!!
“There There” is a non-stop pace story... COULD NOT PUT THIS DOWN....
The stories in here are gut wrenching *intimate* about dislocation-identify-violence -loss-hope-and power.
“We have been defined by everyone else and continue to be slandered despite ...more
Congrats!!!n”There There” is an outstanding novel.
Update: Terrific pick!!!! 2018 National Book Award Longlist.... Fiction!!
5+++++ stars!!!!! Absolutely phenomenal!!!!!
“There There” is a non-stop pace story... COULD NOT PUT THIS DOWN....
The stories in here are gut wrenching *intimate* about dislocation-identify-violence -loss-hope-and power.
“We have been defined by everyone else and continue to be slandered despite ...more
I have no idea how to rate this book. Things about it enthralled me and other parts just fell flat. This book started off so strong. The writing in the prologue just grabbed me. I was convinced I was going to love the book. But once the chapters begin, I started to have problems.
You are introduced to 12 characters, each given their own chapter, and initially, I thought the book was a series of short stories. I think the sheer number of “main characters” and all their various stories and viewpoin ...more
Tommy Orange's debut novel is already getting a lot of love, but I have to chime in with my praise, too. For one thing, There, There is set in Oakland, where I lived for most of the 90s, and reading it brought back a lot of memories. The author hits us with a buckshot blast of wonderful characters, self-described "Urban Indians," each with his/her own short, interwoven chapters. We follow their interconnected lives as they prepare for the first Big Oakland Pow Wow. They are drawn there for many ...more
Before I even finished reading this, I began hoping that Tommy Orange was already working on his next book. Beautifully written, creatively and skillfully structured with the stories of multiple characters, each one important and affecting on their own, but when meshed with connections that unfold I was blown away. For a short time these narratives seem like individual stories until one by one the characters become connected and their collective story is brutal, honest and sad and powerful. It w ...more
Tommy Orange’s There There is, hands down, my favourite novel of the year (2018) thus far.*
If you came here looking for a scale-tipping review, look no further. In fact, imagine me clearing off any weight on the opposing side and planting my considerable heft on the side favoring your reading of this novel. If you’ve ever picked up a book because of my reviews, then trust me: this is one you’re going to want in your hands posthaste. There There is a novel we’ll be seeing crop up on best-of and a ...more
If you came here looking for a scale-tipping review, look no further. In fact, imagine me clearing off any weight on the opposing side and planting my considerable heft on the side favoring your reading of this novel. If you’ve ever picked up a book because of my reviews, then trust me: this is one you’re going to want in your hands posthaste. There There is a novel we’ll be seeing crop up on best-of and a ...more
Any novel that highlights or educates it's readers about a time in history where there was mistreatment of people due to their race religion or beliefs is always worth reading and this book is one of those books. However I am not judging the book on its importance but on how it came across and affected me and unfortunately from page one I didn't connect or engage with either the story or the characters.
There There tells the story of twelve characters, Urban Indians living in Oakland, California ...more
There There tells the story of twelve characters, Urban Indians living in Oakland, California ...more
A collection of interrelated stories set in Oakland, California, There There charts the inner lives of twelve Native Americans as they prepare for the impending Big Oakland Powwow. Orange hops from perspective to perspective, weaving together past and present and exploring what life in Oakland means to each Native character. The best of the chapters are highly affecting, and infuse great storytelling with political purpose; they are fast moving and full of well-drawn characters. The book unfortu ...more
Dene Oxedene, putting his life back together after his uncle's death, wins a grant, allowing him to video stories from those attending the Oakland Pow Wow. In alternating voices we follow the lives and stories of twelve different characters, many who have fallen on hard times of one kind or another. So in a way, these are connected, though the same people appear more than once, short episodes in the lives of those who have lost touch with their culture. This is in most cases through no fault of ...more
Tommy Orange’s first novel had some promise in the beginning. It looked like he had some interesting things to say and some heavy topics to discuss. He had a lot of characters to introduce and several stories to tell.
He had ideas, but he wasn’t able to effectively put them down on paper. There There just isn’t written very well. It’s pretty sloppy. It takes concepts other authors have pulled off in the past, throws them all out there together and hopes for the best. Hoped for the best. Didn’t r ...more
He had ideas, but he wasn’t able to effectively put them down on paper. There There just isn’t written very well. It’s pretty sloppy. It takes concepts other authors have pulled off in the past, throws them all out there together and hopes for the best. Hoped for the best. Didn’t r ...more
Feb 10, 2019 ☘Misericordia☘ ~ The Serendipity Aegis ~ ⚡ϟ⚡ϟ⚡⛈ ✺❂❤❣ rated it really liked it
Shelves: 2018-gr-choice, menu-reading-is-served
A bunch of loosely woven essays on memory of a gross injustice ultimately forming a loose semblance of a plot.
Q: “There There,” by Radiohead… “Just ’cause you feel it doesn’t mean it’s there.” … This there there. He hadn’t read Gertrude Stein beyond the quote. (с)
Rating: We start at 5 stars.
+1 star: for the fearlessness: raising this controversial topic is strong.
-1 star: for the disjointedness. As an innovative and fresh view it worked. As a novel, it didn't. The book is more like a collection ...more
Q: “There There,” by Radiohead… “Just ’cause you feel it doesn’t mean it’s there.” … This there there. He hadn’t read Gertrude Stein beyond the quote. (с)
Rating: We start at 5 stars.
+1 star: for the fearlessness: raising this controversial topic is strong.
-1 star: for the disjointedness. As an innovative and fresh view it worked. As a novel, it didn't. The book is more like a collection ...more
Massively exciting with what freshness and vitality this emerges from the blocks. The first hundred pages are a joy to read. Fabulous descriptive writing with lots of relatable insights into modern life. I liked its anger and humour a lot. There was a documentary on the BBC a while back that followed a few Indians who are on their way to protest at Standing Rock. I was sad I only got to spend an hour with them. They were all compelling individuals and I wanted more. The thing was though, the doc ...more
Indigenous Immigrants
North and South America are inhabited almost exclusively by displaced persons. The story of each person is unique but their commonality is an experience of lostness often expressed through a sort of transcendentalist attachment to ‘the land.’ Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land Is My Land’ captures either a hope or an ideology depending on how it is interpreted. But it is also a restatement of Walt Whitman’s ‘Self’ who is the displaced and replanted part that speaks for the the whole ...more
North and South America are inhabited almost exclusively by displaced persons. The story of each person is unique but their commonality is an experience of lostness often expressed through a sort of transcendentalist attachment to ‘the land.’ Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land Is My Land’ captures either a hope or an ideology depending on how it is interpreted. But it is also a restatement of Walt Whitman’s ‘Self’ who is the displaced and replanted part that speaks for the the whole ...more
The novel is exceptional although it is very depressing. I'm not surprised There There has provoked so much discussion with regard to the plight of urban Native Americans trying to rediscover and understand their identity. There There is a definite food for thought!
Toward the end of Tommy Orange’s devastating debut novel, a 4-year-old Native American boy keeps asking his grandma: “What are we? What are we?”
The boy has no way of knowing, but that’s a blood-soaked question that Western invaders have made Indians ask themselves for centuries. Exiled, dispersed, murdered, robbed, mocked, appropriated and erased, Native Americans have been forced to define themselves amid unrelenting assault. Their survival, their failure and their resilience in modern-day Amer ...more
The boy has no way of knowing, but that’s a blood-soaked question that Western invaders have made Indians ask themselves for centuries. Exiled, dispersed, murdered, robbed, mocked, appropriated and erased, Native Americans have been forced to define themselves amid unrelenting assault. Their survival, their failure and their resilience in modern-day Amer ...more
Aug 15, 2018 Hannah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: literary-fiction, loved-it
This debut is absolutely 100% incredible. Marlon James called it a thunderclap and I have to agree. This might be my favourite read of the year so far. And as is often the case when I adore a book this much, writing a review does not come particularly easy because I want to do it justice without just reverting to hyperboles.
This book is told from 12 widely different perspectives that converge on the Big Oakland Powwow, and also includes some non-fiction parts in between. It is impeccably structu ...more
This book is told from 12 widely different perspectives that converge on the Big Oakland Powwow, and also includes some non-fiction parts in between. It is impeccably structu ...more
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2019 Finalist
Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award 2019
Winner of the NBCC John Leonard Prize 2018
Aaahhh, what a time to be a reader! First things first: Tommy Orange wrote a fantastic book, it is so strong, powerful, moving and enjoyable, and there's a whole bunch of people you will want to hit over the head with its wisdom (or with a physical copy of the book, for a start). Orange introduces us to more than a dozen Native Americans - men and women, young and old -, all of ...more
Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award 2019
Winner of the NBCC John Leonard Prize 2018
Aaahhh, what a time to be a reader! First things first: Tommy Orange wrote a fantastic book, it is so strong, powerful, moving and enjoyable, and there's a whole bunch of people you will want to hit over the head with its wisdom (or with a physical copy of the book, for a start). Orange introduces us to more than a dozen Native Americans - men and women, young and old -, all of ...more
Fantastic!
If you haven’t heard of Tommy Orange yet, you soon will. This is one of those books that you're simultaneously dying to finish yet don't ever want to finish.
Orange paints a vivid picture in short chapters through different points of view as the story unfolds. The powwow becomes the centerpiece of the story with the dozen or so characters eventually heading toward it. The characters and their storylines drew me in and made me care, though not all are likable. I grew attached to a lot o ...more
If you haven’t heard of Tommy Orange yet, you soon will. This is one of those books that you're simultaneously dying to finish yet don't ever want to finish.
Orange paints a vivid picture in short chapters through different points of view as the story unfolds. The powwow becomes the centerpiece of the story with the dozen or so characters eventually heading toward it. The characters and their storylines drew me in and made me care, though not all are likable. I grew attached to a lot o ...more
Such an important, powerful novel written from the perspectives of 12 Native Americans living in Oakland, California. Through these 12 distinct narrators, Orange shows the heterogeneity within the Native American experience, as these characters face unique challenges ranging from substance dependence, feeling disconnected from one’s culture, a lack of self-worth and job prospects, and more. I loved how Orange addressed the past and ongoing genocide and displacement of Native Americans so head on ...more
Tommy Orange’s There There is simply amazing! Yes, it’s heartbreaking, but Orange’s multigenerational story of the urban Native American experience is unforgettable. There are 12 distinct voices shaping the story, but they all resonate and feel bound together and drive the narrative forward. Far from confusing the story, each voice adds depth, grief, history and hope. There is also a certain rhythm to these interweaving stories that made this a difficult book to put down; you want to get to the ...more
“Some of us got this feeling stuck inside, all the time, like we’ve done something wrong. Like we ourselves are something wrong . . . We drink alcohol because it helps us feel like we can be ourselves and not be afraid. But we punish ourselves with it.”
I think my expectations going into this novel were too high. I’d read rave reviews and it was nominated for a National Book Award. Orange takes an unflinching look at the ways white folks have abused Native Americans for hundreds of years—and sho ...more
I think my expectations going into this novel were too high. I’d read rave reviews and it was nominated for a National Book Award. Orange takes an unflinching look at the ways white folks have abused Native Americans for hundreds of years—and sho ...more
Powerful, heartbreaking, and absolutely necessary. In the age of #blacklivesmatter and #metoo, we cannot forget about the Native American population who have been criminally ignored. There There is specifically about the people considered 'Urban Indians': the generation born in the city as a result of both voluntary and involuntary relocation of their ancestors (Indian Relocation Act/Indian Termination Policy).
“Plenty of us are urban now. If not because we live in cities, then because we live...more
FIVE NATIVE STARS
Once again, I am at a loss for words--BECAUSE I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH!! I was 100% invested in the characters and the story. I'm a closet Choctaw (meaning only that I am an enrolled member of the tribe, but not something I broadcast in my everyday life) and I was beyond excited to read a modern Indian story. Yes, as Orange points out, we refer to ourselves as Indian. It's okay. Don't hate on me.
Watch out for Tommy Orange. He is a young Native American writer and he has someth ...more
Once again, I am at a loss for words--BECAUSE I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH!! I was 100% invested in the characters and the story. I'm a closet Choctaw (meaning only that I am an enrolled member of the tribe, but not something I broadcast in my everyday life) and I was beyond excited to read a modern Indian story. Yes, as Orange points out, we refer to ourselves as Indian. It's okay. Don't hate on me.
Watch out for Tommy Orange. He is a young Native American writer and he has someth ...more
” Sing it
Hey boy, give your dreams a rest
If you're tired of searching this is where it ends
There's nothing left to lose
Nothing to protest
Learn to love your anger now
Anger here is all you possess.
Welcome to the edge.
“Below the towers of the citadel
Seems someone overlooked the cost.
Forgotten soldier of Paradise
Now Paradise is lost.
Recognition never realized
Salvation lost among the crowd
So tell me here beside the sterile sea
Where is your nation now?”
--The Edge of America, Duran Duran, Songwriters: ...more
Hey boy, give your dreams a rest
If you're tired of searching this is where it ends
There's nothing left to lose
Nothing to protest
Learn to love your anger now
Anger here is all you possess.
Welcome to the edge.
“Below the towers of the citadel
Seems someone overlooked the cost.
Forgotten soldier of Paradise
Now Paradise is lost.
Recognition never realized
Salvation lost among the crowd
So tell me here beside the sterile sea
Where is your nation now?”
--The Edge of America, Duran Duran, Songwriters: ...more
May 17, 2019 Paula rated it liked it · review of another edition
Recommended to Paula by: National Book Awards
The history, both past and current, of Native Americans is important, however, I just couldn’t connect with the characters.
3 out of 5 stars
3 out of 5 stars
This novel references Gertrude Stein’s comment about her memories of Oakland, CA, “there is no there there,” upon discovering her family home was taken down to accommodate an office park. I think the characters in this book would say it differently, that there is indeed something in Oakland, home of the fictional Big Oakland Powwow with which it concludes.
Distinct Indian voices tell a story about their lives, whatever they want to tell and not necessarily to an immediate point. Somehow it all co ...more
Distinct Indian voices tell a story about their lives, whatever they want to tell and not necessarily to an immediate point. Somehow it all co ...more
In THERE THERE, Orange sets out his task from the beginning: he is going to write the stories of the urban Indian. These are not the stories of reservation life, they are not the stories of the old ways. These are the stories of conflict, of the search for identity, of struggle with poverty and addiction and loss, of family and community growing despite the concrete.
In these connected stories of Native Americans (Orange, like many Natives uses the term "Indian" throughout the book) living in Oa ...more
In these connected stories of Native Americans (Orange, like many Natives uses the term "Indian" throughout the book) living in Oa ...more
"There There" is not simply a powerful and moving and deeply accomplished first novel: it is the sort of book that even the most veteran novelist hopes to achieve and rarely does. I loved each and every voice in this kaleidoscopic vision of Native life in Oakland today as a pow-wow nears. This is an intense and haunting and absolutely terrific book.
I loved it. It's structured so there are very short chapters, each one about a specific character, bearing his or her name. Orange has described the structure of the book as a "braid" and that's beautiful. There are so many characters at times it can be hard to keep their stories straight but I didn't mind looking back a few times. Orange sets up a dramatic event at the Oakland Pow Wow early on and the book builds story by story to a climax that is both inevitable and surprising.
I only wish the ...more
I only wish the ...more
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Tommy Orange is a recent graduate from the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is a 2014 MacDowell Fellow, and a 2016 Writing by Writers Fellow. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Oakland, California, and currently lives in Angels Camp, California.
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10 trivia questions
More quizzes & trivia... “If you were fortunate enough to be born into a family whose ancestors directly benefited from genocide and/or slavery, maybe you think the more you don’t know, the more innocent you can stay, which is a good incentive to not find out, to not look too deep, to walk carefully around the sleeping tiger. Look no further than your last name. Follow it back and you might find your line paved with gold, or beset with traps.” — 104 likes
“This is the thing: If you have the option to not think about or even consider history, whether you learned it right or not, or whether it even deserves consideration, that’s how you know you’re on board the ship that serves hors d’oeuvres and fluffs your pillows, while others are out at sea, swimming or drowning, or clinging to little inflatable rafts that they have to take turns keeping inflated, people short of breath, who’ve never even heard of the words hors d’oeuvres or fluff. Then someone from up on the yacht says, "It's too bad those people down there are lazy, and not as smart and able as we are up here, we who have built these strong, large, stylish boats ourselves, we who float the seven seas like kings." And then someone else on board says something like, "But your father gave you this yacht, and these are his servants who brought the hors d'oeuvres." At which point that person gets tossed overboard by a group of hired thugs who'd been hired by the father who owned the yacht, hired for the express purpose of removing any and all agitators on the yacht to keep them from making unnecessary waves, or even referencing the father or the yacht itself. Meanwhile, the man thrown overboard begs for his life, and the people on the small inflatable rafts can't get to him soon enough, or they don't even try, and the yacht's speed and weight cause an undertow. Then in whispers, while the agitator gets sucked under the yacht, private agreements are made, precautions are measured out, and everyone quietly agrees to keep on quietly agreeing to the implied rule of law and to not think about what just happened. Soon, the father, who put these things in place, is only spoken of in the form of lore, stories told to children at night, under the stars, at which point there are suddenly several fathers, noble, wise forefathers. And the boat sails on unfettered.” — 68 likes
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