Play Book Tag discussion
September 2019: Cultural
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There There by Tommy Orange - 5 Stars
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The author was here in town last week to receive a literary award. I listened to part of a radio interview with him while driving to work. He said that he wrote the book while in graduate school. He believed that the only people who would read it would be Native Americans. Mr. Orange was astounded by the book's wide appeal (and success).
Charlie, I loved this book as well. You wrote such a great review.
Booknblues wrote: "Charlie, I loved this book as well. You wrote such a great review."Thank you!
Book Concierge wrote: "Great review, Charlie!"Thank you!
This is the interwoven, intertribal story of twelve modern day Native Americans and their distinctly individual yet common “blessed and cursed” life journeys that unfurl, intersect and “braid” together at a powwow in Oakland.
This is also the story about how a long unhealed wound can fester, infect, spread and eventually kill a host. It is a little book (under 300 pgs.) with big themes that include Family, Culture, History, Tradition, Identity and Survival.
For me, the most powerful aspect of the book is how all the characters and the themes are spun across a fatalistic web of historical, cyclical existence and yet, unbelievably, there remains an eternal ember of unwavering hope/dream to break free and rise again. (view spoiler)[: This is strongly present in one scene that deftly and brutally challenges the futileness of youth suicide prevention counseling vs. creating and instilling the will and purpose to live. It is also present at the powwow where the ultimate symbol of community is shattered but still with the aftereffect of bringing a ‘new’ family together.
I have to admit, I laughed out loud at the Two Shoes dialogue and at Bill Davis, Vietnam Vet and former prison inmate, describing “this world as a mean curveball…” and that “(y)es, things look bad these days”, which for my money, was the most potent sentence in the whole book, akin to, “Jesus wept.” I also smiled when the Red Feather boys cashed out their wishing well take at $14.91. I loved that the setting of the powwow was at the baseball park (juxtaposing two national pastimes) and cringed at the searing descriptions of both Calvin Johnson’s take on being bipolar and the raw violence of the powwow. (hide spoiler)]
My knowledge of the author is limited to what’s noted in the book: Native, mixed tribe, born and raised in Oakland. I don’t assume this is autographical fiction but there are enough common elements that lead me to believe Tommy Orange speaks from experience. Let’s be honest though, how the hell does someone write a debut novel like this (well beyond ones years) and do it without shedding some of their own blood on the page?
So, my one-word description of There There is “Triumphant” for adding to and leaving such an indelible mark after 526 years on the institution of American literature! Tommy Orange is the ember that just burned down the house of the Dead White Male author and Harper Lee better start watering her roof to be safe. Trust me, there is definitely something there!