There There

Switched to print edition

Great characters, though they're a lot of them which is hard to keep track of for me. The writing is wonderful. I feel like the connections to get me and discovered made this book, but could have been done without one storyline being included. That just felt extraneous.

oh my gosh, this is so good. It's a novel told through an interlinking set of stories/chapters about a large cast of characters, all of whom are American Indians, and I found each character so compelling that I was simultaneously mad and excited every time a POV changed, I'd read a full book about each of them individually. UGH so beautiful on a sentence level and so powerful on a story level.

This tale of Native Americans in Oakland CA converging at a Pow Wow in Oakland Coliseum is slow paced for the first three-quarters as we are introduced to all the ins a d outs of the characters, then switches gears in part IV and finishes at 120 mph. The description of the continued life struggle of these people displaced by the European migration is depressing, but effectively told. The characters are all interesting and Tommy Orange gives them all some level of sympathy, even the villains of the piece. The devestating ending is almost a fait accompli. I had a strong visceral reaction to the end, particularly one death, and subtracted a star for that reason.

I think if I had annotated this book and read a physical copy or ebook, I would have enjoyed it more. That said, I still really enjoyed it, I just don't think audiobook is the way to go for this one. My main issue was that the book started kind of slow, so I found myself tuning out quite frequently and then struggling to figure out what was going on when I tuned back in. What made it more difficult was the multiple points of view, so I couldn't keep track of the different story lines super easily. The things I loved about the book were the diverse writing styles for each perspective which made it a bit easier to keep track of the story, the diverse characters and their unique backgrounds, especially how they all intertwined at the end. I also LOVED the climax and the ending. It was written so well, and was full of emotional scenes. The ending was super captivating and definitely made it a book that I would consider going back and rereading in the future so I can annotate it and get more from the story.

Clear case of some books needing to be read at the right time. This is the third attempt at this one for me - first two times it didn't grasp my interest. This time I was hooked from the start. Fantastic character work, excellent writing. It does take a while for all the threads to come together, but I'm so glad I finally get the hype.

This book was really refreshing and felt so poetic to read from different perspectives and a change in writing styles to get inside of their thoughts.

For historical fiction, I really appreciated the integration of historical events. This world makes me so sad, I didn't know about Thanksgiving origins and beheadings of peoples body parts in jars. Colonel Chivington and his role in the Sand Creek Masscare was absolutely disgusting. I'm so angry how Indians have been treated it disgusts me how people continue to gloss over harm in our history simply for “tradition sake.”

The explanation behind the Indian-head test pattern left me in shock. We brush over all of these horrifying parts of history in public classrooms, but it's the truth. Why are people so afraid of talking about the bloody parts of history?

The topics of self identity and not being Indian enough or trying to reconnect with your blood and the culture was so relatable. I loved that these stories spanned vast experiences, and shared the beauty of various tribes and cultural customs and traditions, across various generations all the way from Alcatraz island to contemporary day in Oakland.

This book made me so sad but I really loved how connected to Tony I felt, especially the ending.

Oh my. Simply incredible on so many levels. I can't believe I waited so long to get to this one but I am so thankful I finally did. Spectacular.

I have no idea how to pull my thoughts together and review this coherently. My brain was still trying to puzzle it out while I fell asleep, in my dreams, and upon waking. Also, right now. 

The information I can give is this is sad, and maaaaaybe a little hopeful. There are a ton of POV characters and secondary characters to keep track of, and they're largely not interacting with one another, at least not until the end. However best you remember characters and keep them straight is that I'm advising here. 

There, There's ending leaves a lot of questions unanswered and so be prepared for it not to be wrapped up in a neat bow. 

The writing was so good! Sad and poetic, a little funny, a little foreboding. 

Read for a school assignment. It was a very rough piece, as it's based on the Native American experience. I wasn't sure how it would go at first, since there were multiple perspectives (too many imo because they start to blend together) but it had me crying by the end.

Also what was that ending?? I wanted to know the aftermath but was left with ambiguity.

There There is one of my favorite books written about the Native experience. It touches on different experiences and different realities of the modern native American without (at least to my knowledge) contributing to stereotypes. I loved learning about native culture and I loved the way the narratives weaved together with the culmination at the Pow Wow.

This one is a hard one to rate. Maybe more like a 3.75.

I appreciated the depth of this novel, the weaving of these storylines and how the characters were all drawn to the same event. It was a bit slow for me at the beginning, but as the event draws near, the weaving of the story is evident and the pace picks up. The last quarter of this book really flew by me.

Something was still missing for me by the end of novel- it just left me with a kind of emptiness and feeling like I didn't quite get enough about the aftermath of the story.

I was discussing this with a colleague/friend, and we stumbled into “gobsmacking” being the most-right word for Orange's astounding prologue, and that's how I felt about the especially stunning, agonizing, beautiful last chapter, too. Lots and lots of other beautiful/powerful moments throughout, and this strikes me above all as a love letter to Orange's community (both people and place). A favorite quote: “Being Indian has never been about returning to the land. The land is everywhere or nowhere.”

Multi-POV book following the stories of Native Americans, some struggling with their identity of what it means to be a Native American, as they come together for a powwow in Oakland. I found it a bit hard at times to keep up with the different characters and how they are all connected to each other. Perhaps it would have been better as a longer book, or with less characters, but nonetheless pretty solid.

An amazing and heartbreaking read (audiobook version), that I couldn't stop in the middle of and finished in less than a few days. The stark truths and realities felt very reminiscent of told by friends who were American Indian/Indigenous Americans in New Mexico where I grew up. All in all a poignant and great story with some very necessary truths we all need to hear.

It took me a little bit to get into the rhythm of this book with so many characters. By the end I was really enjoying it and learn quite a few things. It is a little grim for sure...

One sentence synopsis... Set in modern-day Oakland and alternating perspectives amongst a dozen Native and mixed race characters this novel builds tension through deeply personal stories until the climactic big Oakland powwow. .

Read it if you like... modern history and stories of identity like (the previously favorably reviewed) ‘The Great Believers'. .

Dream casting... Gil Birmingham as the devoted Bill Davis and Chaske Spencer as the loner Edwin Black.

In structure (large cast of characters, chapters as vignettes that gradually converge, the inseparability of story from place), it reminded me a lot of Julia Phillips's “Disappearing Earth.” In style, it was more willful and violent and restless — the opening essay alone will bowl you over. If I have any complaint, it's that I wish this book had been longer.

The stories in this book where quite interesting, and the characters were good (though I struggled to tell them apart at times). Unfortunately I think there were a few too many characters. It spread the story too thin over many themes, all of which are deep, sensitive, important topics that need focused attention. I would have liked a deeper exploration of these things, and I think the frequent perspective change somewhat hindered that. I didn't love the change in narrative style, which causes the reader to readjust too often to a new writing style. I know there's likely a reason for this that I have completely missed, so I recommend checking out other more eloquent (and academic) reviews than mine. I also recommend looking for Own Voices reviews of this book because I have likely missed very important things in my review. What I did like was the ease of reading this book. It painted a very good picture and was very accessible.

[Read 04/06/20] Finished in one sitting - fantastic!

I think this book was a little too literary for me. The writing was good, the characters were interesting, and I think I learned a lot. I think it is important to read and write about Native American people and their experiences. However, the closing chapter was a bit of a flop for me and I don't think any of the characters will stay with me.

Meh. Read halfway through and then started over. I never got the point of the story.

Liked: I am a sucker for the mutiple stories come together type of storytelling. I thought this was handled very well. All the different POV's felt like different people. Combine this with having a real message about the treatment of indigenous people.. I was sold.

Disliked: /

I had a hard time getting into it at first but appreciated the stories. I wished there were a bit more to the ending, but that seems to be a theme in most of the fiction reading I'm doing these days.

This review can also be found on my blog.

Tommy Orange springs forth with a marvelous debut novel that falls just a bit short of its potential. There's a lot here that works, but also some that doesn't. It's weakness to me was the breadth of characters. Perhaps this is a personal shortcoming of mine: I struggle with books that host a large cast of characters. I feel it's difficult to balance so many personalities while also keeping them all memorable and fully-formed. While Orange succeeds at the latter, I found the constant switches in perspective complicated and was always a step behind in remembering each character's earlier chapter.

There were some bits I really loved: the nonfiction interludes were fascinating and eye-opening to me as someone who really knows minimal information about the history of Native Americans. It made me want to go out and grab some full-length nonfiction books in order to supplement my knowledge – which I plan to do now. It also brought me awareness of urban American Indians, which I had known little to nothing about previously. The way the characters' lives overlapped, whether a little or a lot, was interesting to see as well. Sometimes it was played more subtly than others, and I think with fewer characters to follow it would have had a much larger impact on me.

And don't make the mistake of calling us resilient. To not have been destroyed, to not have given up, to have survived, is no badge of honor. Would you call an attempted murder victim resilient?

The way Orange directed the tone of the story was also interesting. I started off having truly no idea where things would be going. The tension picks up so slowly that once you realize it's there, you have to wonder when it started. By the end of the book I was bracing myself for an impact that I knew would come – I just didn't know when, or how it would resolve. I do have mixed feelings on the ending, which I felt was somewhat abrupt, but I'm not sure I have an alternate to propose.

TL;DR: While this book was highly commendable in many ways, the number of POVs just didn't work for me.