There There

294 pages

English language

Published Oct. 30, 2018 by Alfred A. Knopf.

ISBN:
9780525520375
OCLC Number:
1003830622

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (24 reviews)

Not since Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine has such a powerful and urgent Native American voice exploded onto the landscape of contemporary fiction.

Tommy Orange's There There introduces a brilliant new author at the start of a major career. "We all came to the powwow for different reasons. The messy, dangling threads of our lives got pulled into a braid--tied to the back of everything we'd been doing all along to get us here. There will be death and playing dead, there will be screams and unbearable silences, forever-silences, and a kind of time-travel, at the moment the gunshots start, when we look around and see ourselves as we are, in our regalia, and something in our blood will recoil then boil hot enough to burn through time and place and memory. We'll go back to where we came from, …

5 editions

A beautiful novel from the heart of Oakland

5 stars

"There There" is a great modern novel set in present-day Oakland. I love it because it goes from the philosophical to the practical, to the every day lives of indigenous/native folks. The characters' lives are intertwined in ways that are at times complex but after all, simple. It's a nice easy read that is still able to deal with complex topics of post-colonialism, trauma, healing, and community.

Send it to a friend in Europe who hasn't spent much time in the US/bay area, and read it yourself. It gives significant perspective on what people face here.

There There, Tommy Orange

4 stars

Overall an excellent read, though I enjoyed the first 2/3 more than the ending. The first person chapters felt stronger and much more character-development-rich than the later third person ones did. I found Opal and Jacquie to be the most interesting; Opal's perspective of the time she spends at Alcatraz was my favorite chapter in the book. Excited to check out the playlist Tommy Orange made for the book: open.spotify.com/playlist/7mCLMPEZhEohsZXS2SDuq1?si=pTVshsizRCWNGRIzUIhfuw

Review of 'There There' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This book is so good that I had to go back and change the ratings on some of the books I read because I was apparently throwing out 5 star reviews all willy nilly. Every character’s story was compelling, from the kid who sits in front of the computer all day to the postal carrier with spiders in her legs, and the writing is just a gut punch. When writing can create a visceral reaction you know it’s good. 10 stars!

Review of 'There There' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Sometimes I think content of essays could have been better delivered through the experiences of the characters, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Enjoyed might even be the wrong word. I enjoy it in hindsight but the book lets you know early on that this is no happy ending kind of story and you feel the dread of events being pulled toward than unhappy ending like a black hole. You feel the dread as you wish anything would turn events away from what must happen. This book is excellently written and I cannot wait for Tommy Orange's next book.

Review of 'There There' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

2.5 stars. This book is about Native American identity, and, to a lesser extent, Oakland. If those topics interest you, this book is probably worth reading, but otherwise, it doesn't really stand on its own as a novel. It's less a novel than it is a collection of character sketches that happen to coincide at the end. Until then, there are too many barely-related characters to keep straight and not enough plot to hold them together.

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