There there

a novel

by Tommy Orange

No cover — Tommy Orange: There there (AudiobookFormat, 2018)

[sound recording] :

English language

Published Oct. 30, 2018

ISBN:: 978-0-525-63556-7
OCLC Number:: 1030266593

View on OpenLibrary

(62 reviews)

Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame in Oakland. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life together after his uncle's death and has come to work the powwow and to honor his uncle's memory. Edwin Black has come to find his true father. Thomas Frank has come to drum the Grand Entry. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil Red Feather; Orvil has taught himself Indian dance through YouTube videos, and he has come to the Big Oakland Powwow to dance in public for the very first time. Tony Loneman is a young Native American boy whose future seems destined to be as bleak as his past, and he has come to the Powwow with darker intentions.

13 editions

Lynn reviewed There There by Tommy Orange

Review of 'There There' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Okay, so I think that what happened, after 80% of the book is spent bringing all these unknowingly connected people together, is that the bad guys die and the characters who have just rediscovered each other all survive. But it’s not clear. And we don’t see them working out that, in fact, they’re nearly all close relatives. Still, the many stories are intricately woven together and the build up is quite well done even if the ending comes too quickly and without obvious resolution. Although I suppose in a shooting that’s exactly what the chaos and confusion would be like. In any case, if the point of the book is to introduce the concept of modern urban Indians as real people whose daily lives are inextricably connected to their larger history, on that level it was entirely successful.