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A review by libraryjen
There There by Tommy Orange
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
2.0
This is an incredibly hard book for me to rate. Some of the chapters were five stars, and some were horrible and I wanted to DNF the book. Normally when I feel that way about a book I'll give it three stars, but this one's ending brought it down to two for me.
We get the stories of 12 different people, all considered "Urban Indians," and all headed, for various reasons, to a big Powwow in Oakland, California. There's also a lot of side characters mentioned so that number is actually low for how many people the reader needs to keep track of to follow the story line. The jump from 1st to 2nd to 3rd person POV between chapters is also difficult to track sometimes.
Some of these stories depressed me (alcoholism, drug addiction, domestic violence, joblessness, hopelessness, etc.), some fascinated me (I had no idea that a group of Native Americans had taken up residence on Alcatraz Island in 1969!), and some moved me (the love sisters Opal and Jacquie had for each other and Thomas finding peace and purpose in drumming). One of the difficulties that I had with this book was that there were too many characters and I had a hard time keeping them straight. The stories were not told chronologically either, so the flashbacks could be confusing. I found myself turning pages back constantly to remind myself what was the last thing I read about that particular character and how they were related (or not) to other characters. It was hard to follow and that brought me out of the flow of the story and decreased my enjoyment. I definitely would NOT recommend listening to this one on audio for that reason.
This story pulls no punches in its description of life for Indigenous people once the white settlers arrived (the fictional story Edwin wants to write about halfway through the book is a great metaphor!) and is an important one to be told. I do not dispute that, and I acknowledge that this book does that powerfully. As a reader, though, I want a little payback for my investment in the book and this book gave me nothing. It was depressing and then the ending literally just stopped. There was no rhyme or reason to what happened and we get no resolution for any of the characters. It's like the author just decided to stop writing in the middle of the book. Another 50 pages would have easily given the reader some resolution and return on investment. I don't mind sad, I don't even mind tragedy, and I don't need everything tied up in a pretty bow and served to me on a silver platter. But, I do need an actual conclusion to the story when I've read almost 300 pages. The story just stops.
So, I can't in good conscience recommend it without these caveats: it's a powerful and important work dealing with harsh and hard issues, but it's difficult to track and has no ending. Read at your own risk. If I'm being 100% honest, I would have given up on it if I hadn't been reading it for the 2022 Popsugar Challenge (https://www.popsugar.com/entertainmen...) (prompt is to read an Anisfield-Wolf Award winner).
We get the stories of 12 different people, all considered "Urban Indians," and all headed, for various reasons, to a big Powwow in Oakland, California. There's also a lot of side characters mentioned so that number is actually low for how many people the reader needs to keep track of to follow the story line. The jump from 1st to 2nd to 3rd person POV between chapters is also difficult to track sometimes.
Some of these stories depressed me (alcoholism, drug addiction, domestic violence, joblessness, hopelessness, etc.), some fascinated me (I had no idea that a group of Native Americans had taken up residence on Alcatraz Island in 1969!), and some moved me (the love sisters Opal and Jacquie had for each other and Thomas finding peace and purpose in drumming). One of the difficulties that I had with this book was that there were too many characters and I had a hard time keeping them straight. The stories were not told chronologically either, so the flashbacks could be confusing. I found myself turning pages back constantly to remind myself what was the last thing I read about that particular character and how they were related (or not) to other characters. It was hard to follow and that brought me out of the flow of the story and decreased my enjoyment. I definitely would NOT recommend listening to this one on audio for that reason.
This story pulls no punches in its description of life for Indigenous people once the white settlers arrived (the fictional story Edwin wants to write about halfway through the book is a great metaphor!) and is an important one to be told. I do not dispute that, and I acknowledge that this book does that powerfully. As a reader, though, I want a little payback for my investment in the book and this book gave me nothing. It was depressing and then the ending literally just stopped. There was no rhyme or reason to what happened and we get no resolution for any of the characters. It's like the author just decided to stop writing in the middle of the book. Another 50 pages would have easily given the reader some resolution and return on investment. I don't mind sad, I don't even mind tragedy, and I don't need everything tied up in a pretty bow and served to me on a silver platter. But, I do need an actual conclusion to the story when I've read almost 300 pages. The story just stops.
So, I can't in good conscience recommend it without these caveats: it's a powerful and important work dealing with harsh and hard issues, but it's difficult to track and has no ending. Read at your own risk. If I'm being 100% honest, I would have given up on it if I hadn't been reading it for the 2022 Popsugar Challenge (https://www.popsugar.com/entertainmen...) (prompt is to read an Anisfield-Wolf Award winner).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Racism
Minor: Rape