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A review by chaosandwildflowers
There There by Tommy Orange
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The idea of this book is so phenomenal; it's a character study focused on the diverse range of life experiences within the Native American community, while simultaneously drawing attention to the fact that a growing number of Native Americans now live in cities - not on reservations. It explores various themes, including self-discovery, identity, self-loathing, heritage, parental expectations, toxic/abusive relationships, forgiveness, etc etc etc. The book also tells different character perspectives in different styles, including every thing from first to second to third person POVs, past and present verb tenses, and various other tone shifts used to distinguish characters from one another.
One of Tommy Orange's greatest strengths is in his writing and his understanding of the human psyche. The writing truly is beautiful, even feeling poetic in some places, and though the cast of characters is vast, he takes time to explore each of them in at least a little bit of depth.
However, I do think the book tried to do too much in too little space. Some characters feel extremely similar, making their chapters feel repetitive, and the sheer number of characters made it difficult to really delve into more than a few of them. I believe this book should have either streamlined its plot to fit the space or allowed itself more pages to really explore the themes. I also felt like the story ended very abruptly, with a few loose ends and unexplained plot points.
Overall, I would absolutely recommend this book. Hard stop. I think it's important to read, especially in our current society. But I'd also suggest that readers go into it expecting to focus more on the characters than on an extremely coherent plot. Solid 3/5 stars!
One of Tommy Orange's greatest strengths is in his writing and his understanding of the human psyche. The writing truly is beautiful, even feeling poetic in some places, and though the cast of characters is vast, he takes time to explore each of them in at least a little bit of depth.
However, I do think the book tried to do too much in too little space. Some characters feel extremely similar, making their chapters feel repetitive, and the sheer number of characters made it difficult to really delve into more than a few of them. I believe this book should have either streamlined its plot to fit the space or allowed itself more pages to really explore the themes. I also felt like the story ended very abruptly, with a few loose ends and unexplained plot points.
Overall, I would absolutely recommend this book. Hard stop. I think it's important to read, especially in our current society. But I'd also suggest that readers go into it expecting to focus more on the characters than on an extremely coherent plot. Solid 3/5 stars!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Child death, Cursing, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, and Murder
Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, and Rape