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A review by bisexualwentworth
There There by Tommy Orange
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
There There is the story of twelve indigenous people who end up at a powwow in Oakland, California. It traces their lives and their struggles and their relationships with each other in a gorgeously non-linear way.
There are so many interesting and experimental things going on in this book. There’s definitely a whole capstone paper about indigenous temporarily here. There’s a lot of interesting ruminations on Native identity and urban Native identity in particular (and I’m sure I missed a lot more as a white reader).
This is the first piece of long-form fiction that I’ve ever seen successfully incorporate first, second, AND third person point of view chapters as well as both present and past tense sections interspersed throughout the book (see earlier point about non-linear storytelling).
I read There There this week because it’s the Great Read at the library where I work and therefore kind of the book of the moment in my town. Tommy Orange is doing an author event that I tragically won’t be able to attend. It’s all very cool and I’m glad it got me to read this book!
I didn’t totally love this one, though. Some of the characters felt a bit too similar. The women in particular were all defined by sexual violence in one way or another, and while I know that it’s really important to talk about the horrible amounts of sexual violence faced by Native women, I wish that there had been more variety of women’s stories in this book. Maybe that’s unreasonable to expect from a cis man author. I don’t know.
Also, why did I think that Tommy Orange was queer? I’m pretty sure he’s not and the book is incredibly cishet, so I’m not sure where that idea came from. Oh well.
Please look at the very extensive list of content warnings if you have any of the major triggers. This book contains most of them.
There are so many interesting and experimental things going on in this book. There’s definitely a whole capstone paper about indigenous temporarily here. There’s a lot of interesting ruminations on Native identity and urban Native identity in particular (and I’m sure I missed a lot more as a white reader).
This is the first piece of long-form fiction that I’ve ever seen successfully incorporate first, second, AND third person point of view chapters as well as both present and past tense sections interspersed throughout the book (see earlier point about non-linear storytelling).
I read There There this week because it’s the Great Read at the library where I work and therefore kind of the book of the moment in my town. Tommy Orange is doing an author event that I tragically won’t be able to attend. It’s all very cool and I’m glad it got me to read this book!
I didn’t totally love this one, though. Some of the characters felt a bit too similar. The women in particular were all defined by sexual violence in one way or another, and while I know that it’s really important to talk about the horrible amounts of sexual violence faced by Native women, I wish that there had been more variety of women’s stories in this book. Maybe that’s unreasonable to expect from a cis man author. I don’t know.
Also, why did I think that Tommy Orange was queer? I’m pretty sure he’s not and the book is incredibly cishet, so I’m not sure where that idea came from. Oh well.
Please look at the very extensive list of content warnings if you have any of the major triggers. This book contains most of them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Racism, Blood, Child death, Death, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, and Murder
Moderate: Rape, Body shaming, Cancer, Colonisation, Suicide, Fatphobia, and Genocide