There There

by Tommy Orange

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A NYTBR TOP 10 BEST BOOK 2018
AN OPRAH MAGAZINE TOP 15 BEST BOOK 2018
WINNER OF THE WRITER'S CENTER FIRST NOVEL 2018 AWARD


'THERE THERE drops on us like a thunderclap; the big, booming, explosive sound of 21st century literature finally announcing itself. Essential.'
—Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

'A gripping deep dive into urban indigenous community in California: an astonishing literary debut!'
—Margaret Atwood, on Twitter

'How do you rewrite the story of a people? This question shapes Tommy Orange’s sorrowful, beautiful debut novel . . . There There itself is a kind of dance. Even in its tragic details, it is lyrical and playful, shaking and shimmering with energy. The novel dips into the tiniest personal details and sweeps across history. Orange creates beauty out of tragedy.'
Guardian

'It is optimism that lingers after finishing the book. Fragile and flawed though this hope may be, it remains moving and powerful, just like the rest of Orange’s impressive achievement.'
Observer

'Compelling and affecting . . . A searing, haunting read, all the way to its violent, intense climax.'
Mail on Sunday

'A magnificent achievement . . . A novel is not a diatribe against rightly recognized wrongs. It is also a point of human communication that makes you understand about the one you thought the other. To that extent, Orange has created a remarkable work, and I have little doubt that he will be ranked in the pantheon of 21st century American novelists.
Scotland on Sunday

'Welcome to a brilliant and generous artist who has already enlarged the landscape of American fiction. There There is a comic vision haunted by profound sadness. Tommy Orange is a new writer with an old heart.'
—Louise Erdrich

‘Groundbreaking. Extraordinary. Tommy Orange has written a tense, prismatic book with inexorable momentum.’
New York Times

‘Masterful. White-hot. A devastating debut novel.’
Washington Post


Jacquie Red Feather and her sister Opal grew up together, relying on each other during their unsettled childhood. As adults they were driven apart, but Jacquie is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. That’s why she is there.
Dene is there because he has been collecting stories to honour his uncle's death. Edwin is looking for his true father. Opal came to watch her boy Orvil dance. All of them are connected by bonds they may not yet understand.

All of them are there for the cultural celebration that is the Big Oakland Powwow.

But Tony Loneman is also there. And Tony has come to the Powwow with darker intentions.

'There There is a propulsive, groundbreaking novel, polyphonic and multigenerational, weaving together an array of contemporary Native American voices into a singularly dynamic and original meta-narrative about violence and recovery, about family and loss, about identity and power.' Derek Palacio

• ISBN10: 1787300358
• ISBN13: 9781787300354
• Publish Date: 5 July 2018 (first published 5 June 2018)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 15 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Vintage Publishing
• Imprint: Harvill Secker
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[nannah]

(2.5)
I think Tommy Orange tried to fit too much into this novel. There’s so many characters, so many literary devices, so many PoVs, and I wasn’t a fan of the writing style. It’s obviously a case of “just not for me”, because it’s got nearly four stars here.

Content warnings:
- racism
- genocide
- graphic descriptions of the above
- drug & alcohol addiction
- non-black characters using AAVE
- fatphobia
- rape
- mass shooting
- domestic abuse

Representation:
- every PoV character is indigenous

There There shows glimpses into the lives of twelve indigenous Americans before they all attend the Oakland Powwow, and then shows how their stories converge at the powwow itself. One of these characters is Dene Oxendene, hoping to honor his late uncle by creating a video project that gathers indigenous people's stories from their own mouths.

I see this book a lot like Dene’s video project (but with a clearer goal in mind, as he states in the prologue): to talk about the “urban indigenous American”, whose story hasn’t been shared as widely before.

The book's prologue and interlude is heartbreakingly devastating and well-written. It goes into the history of American indigenous people from their points of view. It’s probably the most impactful thing I’ve read this year so far.

I wish the rest of the book is as well written, though. It feels awkward and jolting, with entire paragraphs of sentences consisting of two to four words each. That’s obviously a style choice, but it just isn't my thing.

Tommy Orange also attempts a lot with this debut, trying to fit 12 individual PoVs in one novel under 300 pages. Though I commend him on that, I'm not sure how well that works. Of course, I’m in the minority here, since the book has been hailed as an instant classic. But on page 210 or so, the last character is just being introduced. It doesn’t leave much room for these characters to have any sort of arc -- or do anything besides be introduced before they get to the powwow. It could be argued that these characters having arcs don’t matter as much as us simply getting that important glimpse of their lives, like what’s represented by Dene’s project. I can appreciate that, even if that’s also not exactly my thing. I could probably learn to appreciate that more.

I think every kind of PoV is written, too: first person, third person, second person, and in every kind of tense. I’m not exactly sure what that does for the novel, to be honest … maybe to help distinguish between characters? Because they all have the same voice, which makes differentiating them very, very difficult.

These issues aside, my low rating is honestly a matter of taste alone. If he ever writes a nonfiction book, I will probably be one of the first in line to read it.

[Kevin Costain]

For 300 pages, There There is one of the fastest moving books you'll encounter. The characters are drawn well, and the "Native" perspective is represented well. There There was a joy to read and didn't offer all the answers about things that were happening (much like life, I guess).

[clementine]

Good concept, uneven execution. I really enjoy novels made up of multiple intersecting narratives, but the pitfall is that some are just more compelling than others. With this many perspectives packed into a relatively short novel, I was left feeling like we never truly dove all the way in, and some of the more interesting characters were sacrificed to make room for some who were fairly boring. I think this particularly weakened the ending, which was so climactic but which just didn't quite fit together. There was an attempt at explaining the underlying reasons for robbing the powwow (namely a cycle of abuse of poverty), but it just wasn't as convincing as it could have been. The writing was uneven as well - there were times when it was gorgeous, particularly when it was more lyrical, but the sparser prose style just felt a bit underdeveloped to me. I was okay with the switch between first and third person, but the one second person chapter really threw me off. Some of the characters were so interesting and well-drawn, particularly Jacquie. I did feel like her many family connections were at the heart of the novel and that it lost its focus elsewhere. Definitely a promising debut, but far from perfect.