There There by Tommy Orange

Author : Tommy Orange
Title : There There
Published : 2018
Publisher : Vintage
Pages : 304
Genre : Contemporary Fiction

     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 honor 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.

     If not for having been recommend this book I feel I may never have come to find it. It is a book that sits outside my usual field of reading. In some ways, I think it does this for everyone. The author has set himself a very ambitious task in the telling of this book. Whilst we get to see many different heroes throughout the book. What I feel he has tried to do with this book, is to encapsulate a whole group of people without trying to stereotype them. He shows us what it is like to live like a native American in the modern world. Who much of what it means to be this very thing has been stripped away but a government the simply doesn't care about them. It is a story of darkness and struggle that never shies away from the cold hard truths of there world. 

     It is hard to pin down any central character that would make this story work. They all had to be present for the story to fully realize it's ambition. Each one giving a strand that when pulled together gave me a grand picture that is, to say the least heartbreaking. There was no subject that felt to taboo in his search for giving me the read a look into the world of modern native Americans. It is hard to be able to speak too much of any of the characters without simply giving away huge parts of the story. Needless to say that they each gave me something to take away and left me with such deep emotions. It is a book about these people trying there best to find a place in the world. A topic I feel resonates with all of us. Who can't say that they are trying or hoping to find a little corner to call there own. 

     There is an overwhelming sense of operation that runs its course throughout this book. It weighed on me greatly as I tried to come to terms with what these people went through. But it also has a lot to say about not loosing where we come from as a people no matter where you are from. How our very traditions and cultures are all slowly slipping away as we all seem to be becoming one people. I suppose in the context of this book it is ever more apparent. In my own case, I seem to be finding less and less differences between my home and places such as America. But for those indigenous people no matter where they are in the world it seems to be a fight to the bitter end. It is a fight I feel is worth the fight. It is in these differences that make the world a better and more interesting place.  As a debut novel, I was completely taken aback but the sheer level of writing this author brings to the table.  He has shown his competence as an author in what is a very complex story. 

     This is a book that will stay with me for a great long while. Its themes are at times bleak and hard to digest but at the end of the day, ones worth looking deeper into. When it comes to those who of native American ancestry I feel they are left to be forgotten. A People sidelined for the sake of a part of history many would prefer to forget.  This is a book that took me to some uncountable place but in the end a story that simply could not have been told any other way. Just sometimes we have to look at the ugliness in the world with eyes wide open and face a very disturbing truth. Only to be left changed forever.